Hydrogen and FCEVs discussion thread

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WetEV said:
https://www.scania.com/group/en/home/newsroom/news/2021/Scanias-commitment-to-battery-electric-vehicles.html#

Scania has invested in hydrogen technologies and is currently the only heavy-duty vehicle manufacturer with vehicles in operations with customers. The engineers have gained valuable insights from these early tests and efforts will continue. However, going forward the use of hydrogen for such applications will be limited since three times as much renewable electricity is needed to power a hydrogen truck compared to a battery electric truck. A great deal of energy is namely lost in the production, distribution, and conversion back to electricity.

Repair and maintenance also need to be considered. The cost for a hydrogen vehicle will be higher than for a battery electric vehicle as its systems are more complex, such as an extensive air- and cooling system. Furthermore, hydrogen is a volatile gas which requires more maintenance to ensure safety.

Higher energy cost, higher repair cost and higher maintenance cost.

Only if you ignore a BEVs' largest O&M cost, replacing the pack one or more times during the vehicle's life. Of course, Scania is welcome to spend their money however they choose.

Meanwhile, via Asia Times:
Hydrogen fuels a revolution in Chinese trucking

Analysts say fuel cell electric vehicles are the leading alternatives to internal combustion engine

https://asiatimes.com/2021/03/hydrogen-fuels-a-revolution-in-chinese-trucking/


. . . But while hydrogen fuel cells are just beginning to provide serious competition to battery powered vehicles in personal transportation, they are making a large impact in the heavier vehicle commercial transportation space where large loads have to be carried over long distances.

That’s where hydrogen has the advantage.

And that’s where China, just getting to be competitive with the likes of Tesla in snazzy passenger cars, is poised to seize the lead with hydrogen-powered trucks.

The hydrogen fuel cell is a rare example of a long-established technology turning into a game-changing disrupter. It has powered spacecraft and submarines for decades but made little headway in ground transportation because governments balked at the cost of building fueling infrastructure, and because the cost of producing the raw materials was prohibitive.

That’s changing in a big way, mainly because China has made hydrogen-powered ground transport one of the top priorities of its $560 billion a year technology investment budget.

Europe and Japan – Germany has declared 2021 the year of hydrogen technology – are running only slightly behind China. For the next decade or so, battery-powered passenger vehicles will dominate the market for low-carbon substitutes for the internal combustion engine. But batteries can’t power long-range freight transportation by truck and rail, and China is making a decisive commitment to hydrogen. . . .

In a March 2021 report entitled “China’s gateway to a hydrogen future,” J.P. Morgan research analysts Han Fu and Stephen Tsui write, “Green hydrogen, a clean form of energy, clearly holds potential to play a critical role in China’s 2060 carbon neutrality ambitions.

“Fuel Cell EVs appear to be emerging as an early use case. This is an opportunity for the China hydrogen ecosystem to develop approaches to overcome technical and economic challenges, necessary for more widespread future applications. Hydrogen plays have been in market focus, and valuations are lofty.”

“The global automotive fuel cell market size was USD1.07 billion in 2020…this market exhibited a stellar growth of 44% in 2020,” according to a Fortune Business Insights study, and “is projected to grow from USD $1.73 billion in 2021 to UD $34.63 billion in 2028 at a stellar compound adjusted growth rate of 53.5% in the 2021-2028 period.”

The Fortune report adds that fuel cell electric vehicles are “the leading alternatives to the widely used internal combustion engine automobiles.” The lion’s share of the growth, Fortune adds, will be in the Asia-Pacific region.

Already the largest market for Plug-in Energy Vehicles (PEV’s) with 3 million on the road, China projects a fleet of 50,000 fuel-cell vehicles (FCV’s) by 2025 and 1 million by 2030, from only 6,000 on the road in 2019.

Beijing listed hydrogen as an energy source in a public law for the first time in its 2020 Energy Law of the People’s Republic of China, and established subsidies for FCV’s through four government departments, with an emphasis on freight and urban mass transit.

China is ready to finance the refueling infrastructure required to make hydrogen-based transport economically viable. And it has a large supply of hydrogen, now produced as a waste byproduct by its chemical industry.

According to government directives issued in September 2020, central government subsidies for FCV’s could reach RMB 17 billion, depending on how quickly Chinese cities meet their targets for FCV deployment. Local governments are likely to match the central government support, bringing the total government spend to RMB 34 billion, supporting between 40,000 and 60,000 new vehicles between 2020 and 2023.

China’s commitment to fuel-cell vehicles prompted a scramble by Europe and Japan to put forward their own programs.

Established Chinese automakers as entrepreneurs are launching new ventures to meet the enormous demand for FCV’s projected by the government. SAIC, a state-owned automaker, plans to produce 10,000 FCV’s a year by 2025. More ambitious is the alliance between startup Ares Motors and two established Chinese vehicle manufacturers, Fujian-based Wisdom Motors and Chery Holdings of Anhui Province.

Large international automakers are gearing up for the Chinese market, both as OEM’s and as components manufacturers. Toyota set up a joint venture with FAW group in 2019 which will begin to deliver fuel-cell systems for trucks and buses in China in 2022.

China had only 80 hydrogen refueling stations in 2020, a fraction of what it will need to reach its near- and medium-term goals.

The supply chain for FCV components, moreover, is in an early stage of development. The September government directives focused on building infrastructure (mainly refueling stations) as well as developing a robust supply chain. . . .

J.P. Morgan analysts explained in their March 2021 report, “With the carbon-neutrality target now in place, we are optimistic that hydrogen can replicate the success of wind/solar power. The H2 addressable market could grow >30x by 2050, to Rmb12tn, and we estimate green hydrogen’s being commercially competitive by 2030. . . .

In Europe, Volkswagen-owned Scania, one of Europe’s largest truck producers, declared last year that fuel-cell trucks will be too inefficient and costly to compete with the battery-powered alternative. Scania is betting that improvements in battery technology will allow battery-powered trucks to carry a standard 40-ton load for 4.5 hours — far more than today’s batteries can manage.

To travel several hundred miles today, an eighteen-wheeler would have to carry nothing but batteries to power the engine.

In contrast to Scania’s skepticism, Volvo and Daimler have joined forces with Shell to make hydrogen the future commercial standard for trucking in Europe.

Dubbed “H2Accelerate,” the Shell-led program envisions a public-private partnership to create economies of scale for freight FCV’s, with a network of hydrogen fueling stations built out across Europe by the second half of the 2020s. A trade association, Hydrogen Europe, predicted that Europe would have 10,000 hydrogen trucks in operation by 2025 and 100,000 by 2030. . . .

A former top General Motors engineer, Ian Hanna, believes in pursuing hydrogen and battery technology in tandem. A former head of GM’s systems safety operations in China, Hanna now heads Ares Motors, an ambitious OEM startup. . . .

“And it’s with our dual approach. We’re not only a hydrogen fuel cell company. We’re also a battery electric vehicle [BEV} company. That dual propulsion strategy allows us to meet customer needs this year.

“The 2021 volumes will primarily be through the BEV’s. The infrastructure is well established and the technologies of course are mature, so the customer’s comfortable with it. And then long-term we’ll be able to offer our customers both the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and our BEV vehicles, depending upon whatever is the best fit for their use.”

Ares’ flagship product is a heavy truck with a choice of electric battery power or hydrogen fuel cells. The hydrogen model offers a 1,000-kilometer cruising range with a standard 43-ton load, compared with 400 kilometers for the battery-electric vehicle version.

“For a lot of the longer-range customers,” Hanna added, “the BEV truck may not make sense, so we’ll be able to offer them both of those solutions. I think our timing will be right; we will have the customer relationships, as well as the technology to differentiate our company. . . .

Perhaps Ares’ most important advantage is to be located in China. Cost efficiency is the key to the future of hydrogen-powered transport, and the cost of hydrogen itself is the most important variable.

China now produces a third of the world’s hydrogen, or 20 million metric tons a year, or enough to cover a tenth of the country’s total energy needs. At an estimated fuel consumption of 7.5 kilograms of hydrogen for every 100 miles of road haulage, according to Fuelcelslworks.com, China’s present output potentially could power a truck fleet over 267 billion miles a year of transport – more than enough to meet the country’s present annual 6 billion ton-miles of road transportation.

The cost of hydrogen production is falling, from $6 per kilogram in 2015 to $2 per kilogram in 2025, according to a US Department of Energy study.

China led the world in deployment of cost-efficient solar energy, and many analysts expect China to do the same with hydrogen. A study by Chinese scientists argues that a $2/kg hydrogen price can be achieved quickly through electrolysis of water, which produces the purest hydrogen with the lowest overall environmental impact.

According to the Hydrogen Council, freight and bus transportation with FCVs becomes economically viable at a hydrogen price of $3/kg, and passenger car FCVs become viable at $2/kg.. . .
 
Both GCC:
California Energy Commission awards Sierra Northern Railway team nearly $4M to demonstrate hydrogen switching locomotive; H2RAM

https://www.greencarcongress.com/page/2/


The California Energy Commission has awarded GTI and Sierra Northern Railway nearly $4,000,000 to fund the design, integration, and demonstration of a hydrogen fuel cell switching locomotive to support the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Demonstrations in Rail and Marine Applications at Ports (H2RAM) initiative. . . .

technology will establish a platform for widespread commercialization in the immediate future. Because locomotives are federally regulated, incentivizing railroads to implement new environmental technologies is challenging. The potential California market for new hydrogen locomotives includes more than 260 switcher locomotives and up to 500 intrastate locomotives.

Short-line and switching locomotives account for a significant share of the total locomotive energy use within the state as they carry a significant portion of freight in California and operate on the first and last miles of the national freight network. This makes short-line operations an excellent testbed for the demonstration of zero-emission technologies.

Most switcher locomotives in California use an average of 50,000 gallons per year per switcher potentially leading to a reduction of more than 12 million gallons of diesel per year. This is approximately equivalent to the same amount of fuel used each year by 20,000 light-duty vehicles.

Sierra Northern Railway is the freight
division of privately-owned, Sierra Railroad Company. Sierra Railroad Company is also the principal owner of Sierra Energy Corporation, which has developed a proprietary waste-to-clean-hydrogen technology: FastOx gasification.

Sierra Northern Railway currently operates approximately 75 miles of track in Northern California, through the heart of a number of California’s prime industrial areas, serving a wide variety of customers, and interchanging with both the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad.



Haldor Topsoe and Nel ASA to offer end-to-end green ammonia and eMethanol solutions

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/03/20210326-topsoenel.html


. . . Green ammonia (produced from renewable energy, water and air) and eMethanol (produced from feedstocks obtained by utilization of waste streams, electrolysis hydrogen, and CO2 capture) are both considered promising low-carbon transportation fuels and energy carriers. . . .
 
Running on Empty: There's a Lot to Like About Hydrogen, If You Can Find It
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, but in California it can be maddeningly hard to find when you need it to fuel vehicles like the Toyota Mirai.
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a36003212/hydrogen-mirai-california-shortage/
 
Catching up with a busy week plus of missed articles, so I'll only show the title and URL. All GCC:

Ørsted proposes to develop one of the world’s largest renewable hydrogen plants: SeaH2Land

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210402-orsted.html


Chart Industries invests $25M for 5% stake in Transform Materials; strategic commercial hydrogen MOU

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210402-chart.html


New Fraunhofer membrane technology enables co-transport of hydrogen and natural gas

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210403-fraunhofer1.html


New waste-to-hydrogen plant in Tokyo to convert wastewater sludge into H2 for vehicles and power generation

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210405-jbec.html


Great Wall Motors sets out hydrogen energy strategy

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210406-gwm.html


Plug Power, Chart Industries and Baker Hughes to become cornerstone investors in FiveT Hydrogen Fund; clean hydrogen at scale

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210406-fivet.html


Toyota launches hydrogen production and refueling facility in Australia

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210406-toyota.html


Loop Energy and BayoTech in joint market development agreement to accelerate deployment of hydrogen vehicles and fueling infrastructure

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210407-loop.html


Toyota Motor Europe invests in EODev to expand hydrogen solutions

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210407-eodev.html


BloombergNEF forecasts green hydrogen should be cheaper than natural gas by 2050 in some markets; falling costs of solar PV key

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210407-bnef.html
 
It's been a very busy month for H2/FCEV projects, so here's some more, all GCC:

Doosan Fuel Cell providing fuel cells for Korea-China Smart Farm Village in Pocheon

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210408-doosan.html


Hydro exploring hydrogen opportunities for internal demand and external market

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210408-hydroh2.html



Toyota Motor Europe to supply fuel cell modules for train project as member of FCH2RAIL consortium

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210408-tme.html


MAN Energy launches industry consortium to develop medium-speed, ammonia-fueled engine

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210409-man.html


Everfuel signs MOU for hydrogen supply to new zero-emission ship concept

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210409-everfuel.html


MHO-Co to head consortium to develop green solutions for shipping; fuel cells and batteries

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210410-mhpo.html


Canada launches hydrogen strategy steering committee

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210410-canada.html


Starfire Energy closes major funding round; green ammonia and hydrogen solutions

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210410-starfire.html


Iron ore leader Fortescue pushing green hydrogen, ammonia and electricity projects

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210410-fmg.html


Syzygy Plasmonics raises $23M Series B to electrify chemical manufacturing; photocatalytic reactor for hydrogen production

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210410-syzygy.html


Whew!
 
All GCC:
Bosch and Qingling Motors cooperate on fuel cells; new JV in China

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210415-bosch.html


. . . According to the Energy Saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap 2.0 by the China Society of Automotive Engineers (China-SAE), more than one million vehicles with fuel cell drive systems could be registered in China by 2030. The joint venture aims to provide all Chinese vehicle manufacturers with fuel cell systems.

The components required for this, such as the fuel cell stack, air compressor with power electronics, and control unit with sensors, come from Bosch, mainly from the plant in Wuxi. Small-scale production will start there this year. Also in 2021, a test fleet of 70 Qingling trucks equipped with Bosch’s Fuel Cell Power Module will hit the road. The market launch of the fuel cell system is planned for 2022/2023. . . .



Nikola, IVECO, OGE to collaborate on hydrogen pipeline network in Europe; support for FCEV fueling locations

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210416-nikola.html



Plug Power invited to submit Part II Application for proposed $520M DOE loan guarantee for green hydrogen production network

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210412-plugpower.html


. . . Upon receiving approval from the DOE Title XVII Loan Guarantee Program, Plug Power will utilize its electrolyzer, liquefaction and distribution technologies to deploy the first resilient network of zero-carbon hydrogen production facilities across the United States. The facilities will have a combined liquid hydrogen generation capacity of approximately 180 tons per day.

Each plant will be co-located with solar photovoltaic, wind, and/or hydro-electric plants that will utilize zero-carbon renewable electricity. Plug Power is in the process of negotiating power purchase agreements with renewable energy suppliers. . . .
 
A recent article explaining better the current China/Hydrogen situation - coal gasification (rated dirty) is a major source of hydrogen. All H2 sources will require substantial energy/capital to clean/compress to dense phase for "liquid" transport. Thermodynamically questionable with realistic lifecycle of solar/wind?? Would sure like to see a realistic lifecycle analysis, especially with offshore wind.
https://green-bri.org/hydrogen-chin...unities-for-a-green-belt-and-road-initiative/
 
^^^ Yup, China needs to clean up its grid. This is just as much of an issue for PEVs there, as the majority of their electricity (64% in 2018, down from 80% in 2007) still comes from coal. That's why they're building PV/wind/nukes at a frantic pace.

You might want to read the IRENA report I posted a link to in December, about methods of cost reduction in electrolysis, which is the 2nd biggest cost in Green H2 after electricity. It has some cost breakdowns. You can download it here: https://www.irena.org/publications/2020/Dec/Green-hydrogen-cost-reduction
 
GRA said:
You might want to read the IRENA report I posted a link to in December, about methods of cost reduction in electrolysis, which is the 2nd biggest cost in Green H2 after electricity. It has some cost breakdowns.

Thanks GRA - My concerns are not related to the strides that are being made in electrolysis - as I believe we will see major improvements in all areas of "renewables" in coming decades. My concern is that the lifecycle costs of the cleaning, compressing, delivering the dense phase hydrogen to compete as a "liquid" fuel will be simply too costly to ever compete with any other technology for any significant use - why?
- todays vision of "renewable" sources of the energy are mainly solar/wind - that are highly intermittant and potentially more costly than expected (Texas grid failure in my home town!)
- A choice in design/construction of the cleaning, compressing and storage of H2 will have to made - either battery storage to allow 24/7 operation, or 100-110% capacity to match the "intermittant" power levels of renewables - at a significantly higher lifecycle cost. Can the entire grid be redesigned to "share" the intermittant power across much of US? Maybe, and could solve some of such issues and significantly reduce battery storage requirements to level out power levels with more renewables.
- IMHO, whatever turns out to be the source of energy storage for the majority of our vehicular requirements (of all types) will also be the grid stabilizer to allow more renewables to be our energy source - and if designed properly will provide the resilience needed. If this is battery storage (certainly appears to be), again IMHO, we need to reserve battery production capacity for vehicles and figure out aggregation and smart charging to maximize the effectiveness.
- It seems a good compromize with use of H2 is reducing carbon content of nat gas - to the max that works with our exising infrastructure. Seems logical that more effecient electrolysis and the relatively low compression requirements to get into the pipelines would be an realistic approach in the near term.
 
Marktm said:
GRA said:
You might want to read the IRENA report I posted a link to in December, about methods of cost reduction in electrolysis, which is the 2nd biggest cost in Green H2 after electricity. It has some cost breakdowns.

Thanks GRA - My concerns are not related to the strides that are being made in electrolysis - as I believe we will see major improvements in all areas of "renewables" in coming decades. My concern is that the lifecycle costs of the cleaning, compressing, delivering the dense phase hydrogen to compete as a "liquid" fuel will be simply too costly to ever compete with any other technology for any significant use - why?
- todays vision of "renewable" sources of the energy are mainly solar/wind - that are highly intermittant and potentially more costly than expected (Texas grid failure in my home town!)
- A choice in design/construction of the cleaning, compressing and storage of H2 will have to made - either battery storage to allow 24/7 operation, or 100-110% capacity to match the "intermittant" power levels of renewables - at a significantly higher lifecycle cost. Can the entire grid be redesigned to "share" the intermittant power across much of US? Maybe, and could solve some of such issues and significantly reduce battery storage requirements to level out power levels with more renewables.
- IMHO, whatever turns out to be the source of energy storage for the majority of our vehicular requirements (of all types) will also be the grid stabilizer to allow more renewables to be our energy source - and if designed properly will provide the resilience needed. If this is battery storage (certainly appears to be), again IMHO, we need to reserve battery production capacity for vehicles and figure out aggregation and smart charging to maximize the effectiveness.
- It seems a good compromize with use of H2 is reducing carbon content of nat gas - to the max that works with our exising infrastructure. Seems logical that more effecient electrolysis and the relatively low compression requirements to get into the pipelines would be an realistic approach in the near term.


Life cycle costs don't seem to be major concerns in the studies I've seen. With production costs at $2/kg by 2030 as forecast, the remaining costs still allow H2 to be competitive with fossil fuels for transport. As for storage, while batteries are fine for peak shifting electric demand, H2 is going to be used for seasonal storage.
 
GCC:
Uniper to make Wilhelmshaven German hub for green hydrogen; green ammonia import terminal

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210417-uniper.html


. . . Plans include an import terminal for green ammonia. The terminal will be equipped with an ammonia cracker for producing green hydrogen and will also be connected to the planned hydrogen network. A 410-megawatt electrolysis plant is also planned, which—in combination with the import terminal—would be capable of supplying around 295,000 metric tons or 10% of the demand expected for the whole of Germany in 2030.

The generated climate-friendly hydrogen will primarily be used to supply local industry, but it will also be possible to feed it into the national hydrogen network. . . .

It is essential that Germany and Europe remain industrial powerhouses: If we want to achieve this and still hit our ambitious climate protection targets, we need hydrogen to power sectors such as steel production, the chemicals industry or in freight, shipping and air transport. In other words: We need ‘green molecules’ as well as ‘green electrons’.

We need to get hydrogen out of the laboratory and start using it in large-scale applications and marketable industrial solutions—we should make it into a commodity and exploit its wide variety of uses. One way of achieving this is to import green ammonia and convert it into hydrogen, which is something we are looking at for Wilhelmshaven.

Currently, Germany plans to generate 14 TWh of green hydrogen in 2030, but the demand for that year is forecast to be 90–100 TWh — the discrepancy between these two figures is abundantly clear. We will be heavily dependent on imports if we want to use hydrogen to help us achieve our climate goals.


—David Bryson, COO Uniper

Commissioning of the new terminal is planned for the second half of this decade, depending on national import demand and export opportunities. . . .

The aim is to produce around 2 million metric tons of “green” crude iron using hydrogen-generated via wind power. Uniper is working with Salzgitter and Rhenus Logistics, the city of Wilhelmshaven and the state of Lower Saxony on this project.

One sector in which hydrogen can play a crucial role in reducing CO2 emissions is steel production. Currently, each metric ton of crude steel produced releases approximately one metric ton of CO2 emissions. Hydrogen is the only realistic option for decarbonizing this industry.

—Dr. Axel Wietfeld, CEO Uniper Hydrogen. . . .
 
GRA said:
Life cycle costs don't seem to be major concerns in the studies I've seen. With production costs at $2/kg by 2030 as forecast, the remaining costs still allow H2 to be competitive with fossil fuels for transport. As for storage, while batteries are fine for peak shifting electric demand, H2 is going to be used for seasonal storage.

Can you point to a true life cycle analysis that includes the costs of all capex, operations, maintenance and expected depreciated life of:
- electrolysis plant life cycle that includes all capex, operations, maintenance and expected depreciated life?
- Drying, cleaning up, compressing, and storage of the H2 dense phase?
- Build of "H2 stations" around the proposed distribution area?
- Transportation systems from dense phase storage to these "H2 stations" - must be electric vehicles of course!
- Utility system for all above including a solar array and transmission systems to power all the above.
I'd like to review such an analysis if you have access to one.

As a designer/operator of large refining and chem plants, I seldom have had clients that have made accurate life cycle cost estimates of plants, even those that have been constructed many times in the past, let alone new technology ventures.

Realistically, I doubt such a comprehensive analysis has been done on battery production/usage in EVs either - as they do have major issues/drawbacks! :mrgreen:
 
^^^ I believe I've seen at least one such and posted a link a while back, but I'll be damned if I remember the source. Mostly it's been for individual components/areas. And of course, at the moment so much of the major cost reductions are projections rather than current costs and proprietary info isn't widely available, so high accuracy of overall costs at this point is not to be expected. I'll see if I can dig up something along the lines you want, but make no promises. In the meantime, you might check out this 2011 NREL cost analysis tool: https://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/production-cost-analysis.html

and the system analysis link: https://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/systems-analysis.html

The latter includes links to a variety of reports, although the most recent is from 2018.
 
All GCC:
IMMORTAL consortium developing long-lifetime fuel cell technology for heavy-duty trucks

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210418-immortal.html


A major new European consortium, IMMORTAL, is developing higher performance fuel cell components for heavy duty trucks with a predicted lifetime of at least 30,000 hours.

IMMORTAL (IMproved lifetiMe stacks fOR heavy duty Trucks through ultrA-durabLe components) is a €3.8-million (US$4.6-million), three-year project supported by the European Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH 2 JU), which brings together a major consortium of industry leaders and academic/research organisations coordinated by France’s CNRS, and includes Johnson Matthey, Bosch, FPT Industrial and AVL.

IMMORTAL will develop exceptionally durable and high-power-density MEAs well beyond the current state of the art up to TRL4 by building on understanding of fuel cell degradation pathways specific to heavy-duty truck operation and developing lifetime prediction models from extensive real-life stack operation, accelerated stress test and load profile cycles on short stacks. . . .

The four large industrial partners of IMMORTAL are major stakeholders in Europe's fuel cell supply, OEM and end user chain, from MEA (Johnson Matthey) to stack (Bosch, AVL), and from stack and system (Bosch, FPT Industrial) to the pioneering use of the fuel cell powertrains in heavy-duty long haulage trucks (FPT Industrial). . . .



RWE and H2U partner to develop global hydrogen trading between Australia and Germany

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210418-rweh2u.html


RWE Supply & Trading and Australian hydrogen project developer The Hydrogen Utility Pty Ltd (H2U) have joined forces to develop hydrogen trading between Australia and Germany. Together, they aim to bring green hydrogen produced in Australia to Europe.

This is in line with the objective of HySupply, a 24-month German-Australian feasibility study which started December 2020 by the German Academy of Science and Engineering and the Federation of German Industries. RWE Supply & Trading and H2U are contributing to this with their expertise. Furthermore, the planned LNG Terminal in Brunsbüttel, where RWE intends to book capacity, can be a location for the future import of hydrogen into Germany.

H2U develops several hydrogen projects in Australia and New Zealand such as the Eyre Peninsula Gateway Project. At the planned location in South Australia, they want to build a 75-megawatt electrolysis plant, which can supply hydrogen for about 40,000 tonnes of ammonia annually. In a second phase of expansion throughout the 2020s, H2U wants to extend the capacity to 1.5 gigawatts of electrolysis.

RWE is also constructing renewable energy plants in Australia. In Limondale, the company is currently building one of the largest solar farms in the country. Furthermore, RWE is driving forward some 30 hydrogen projects, mostly located in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK.



Origin Energy signs MOU with Port of Townsville on hydrogen export project with Kawasaki

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210418-origin.html


Origin Energy’s export-scale liquid hydrogen project has reached an important milestone, with the signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Port of Townsville to collaborate on the potential expansion of the port, as well as the development of a liquefaction facility, new berth and associated infrastructure.

Origin is collaborating with Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd (KHI) on a 300MW early export project that would produce 36,500 tonnes per year of green liquid hydrogen using renewable energy and sustainable water.

The three parties will now focus on work required to accommodate KHI’s semi-commercial scale liquid hydrogen carriers, currently under development, future project expansion opportunities, and potential for sharing of common infrastructure with other Port of Townsville users.

First export from the project is targeted from the mid-2020s. . . .
 
GRA said:
^^^ I believe I've seen at least one such and posted a link a while back, but I'll be damned if I remember the source. Mostly it's been for individual components/areas. And of course, at the moment so much of the major cost reductions are projections rather than current costs and proprietary info isn't widely available, so high accuracy of overall costs at this point is not to be expected. I'll see if I can dig up something along the lines you want, but make no promises. In the meantime, you might check out this 2011 NREL cost analysis tool: https://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/production-cost-analysis.html

and the system analysis link: https://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/systems-analysis.html

The latter includes links to a variety of reports, although the most recent is from 2018.

Thanks GRA - I'll look into the links provided. Being an advocate of battery based EVs - to be aggregated at home and work as the energy storage is phenominal when the numbers get into the 10s and 100s of millions. Most of it not used that much for transportation. Can "smart" charging/V2X satisfy the OEMs?
 
GCC:
Blue World Technologies partners with Alfa Laval on methanol fuel-cell system for shipping

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210420-blueworld.html


. . . The aim of the project is to establish a highly efficient and cost-effective HTPEM fuel cell solution, giving marine vessels a realistic alternative to combustion-based auxiliary power within the near future. The fuel cell test setup will have a power of 200 kW, but the fully developed and modular design should be possible to scale up incrementally to a level of 5 MW. . . .

During a year of planned testing at the Alfa Laval Test & Training Center, the fuel cell system’s durability and lifetime will be in focus. HTPEM fuel cells have a higher tolerance for thermal cycling than other fuel cell types, which makes them well suited to the variable power production needed from a genset. Nonetheless, the technology will need a lifespan comparable to that of combustion technologies in order to be feasible on board, which will mean addressing various sources of performance degradation.

The fuel cell system, which will provide clean operation with no particulate emissions, will use carbon-neutral renewable methanol as fuel. . . .
 
All GCC:
SoCalGas, H2U testing new Gramme 50 electroylzer for green hydrogen production

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210422-h2u.html


. . . According to early analysis, the cost target of the new technology is half that of current electrolyzers and the total cost of ownership over its life is expected to be 75% less. . . .

Design specs for the Gramme 50 include a production rate of 30~50 Nm3/hr with a power consumption range of 5~7 kWh/Nm or 150~350 kW. . . .

In addition, SoCalGas’ work with H2U Technologies includes validation studies on the performance of new non-precious metal catalysts used to initiate and accelerate the chemical process of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. These efforts could help drive down hydrogen production costs.



SoCalGas to partner with SunLine Transit Agency to test combination of technologies to produce hydrogen from RNG

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210422-socalgas2.html


Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) will demonstrate a combination of technologies that will produce hydrogen from renewable natural gas (RNG) at SunLine Transit Agency’s hydrogen fueling station in Thousand Palms, California. The research project, called “H2 SilverSTARS,” will produce renewable hydrogen to fuel SunLine’s fleet of 17 hydrogen fuel cell electric buses and support further expansion.

The combination of new technologies will make it possible to provide renewable hydrogen made from RNG at natural gas fueling stations—or any location near a natural gas pipeline. The goal is to produce emissions-free renewable hydrogen for fuel cell electric cars and other vehicles at a price competitive with gasoline.

The demonstration project will integrate two core technologies. The first, Linde’s HydroPrime HC300 MIN system, will make hydrogen from renewable natural gas the same way large centralized hydrogen production plants do—but with compact equipment small enough to fit in a tractor trailer container. While Linde’s system is already commercially available and being used abroad, its use at SunLine's fueling station will be the first time it is deployed in North America. The SunLine location will be able to produce up to 650 kilograms of hydrogen a day.

The second technology, STARS-165 SMR, built by the start-up STARS Technology Corporation, takes the Linde system a step further. It achieves significantly greater efficiencies in producing hydrogen by using a compact microchannel design and is driven by an electricity-powered induction heating process—meaning there is no combustion—which significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional hydrogen production. . . .

In addition, the system is produced using 3-D printing, making it well suited for mass-production and thus drastically less expensive to make and operate compared to alternatives. Two STARS systems, with a combined production capacity of up to 330 kilograms of hydrogen a day, will be installed for this research project.

The 36-month project will initially demonstrate both core technologies individually and collect performance data to assess the STARS system’s potential to improve its efficiency and cost. The STARS SMR technology will then be integrated with the Linde HydroPrime system with the goal of fast-tracking its commercialization. . . .



Chevron, Toyota to explore strategic alliance on hydrogen

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210422-chevron.html


. . . Chevron and Toyota are seeking to work on three main strategic priorities:

Collaborating on hydrogen-related public policy measures that support the development of hydrogen infrastructure;

Understanding current and future market demand for light-duty and heavy-duty fuel cell electric vehicles and supply opportunities for that demand; and

Exploring opportunities to pursue joint research and development in hydrogen-powered transportation and storage. . . .
 
All GCC:
Universal Hydrogen announces $20.5M in Series A funding to build and test full-scale hardware for hydrogen commercial aircraft

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210423-uh2.html


. . . Universal Hydrogen is building a fuel distribution network that connects hydrogen production directly to the airplane using modular capsules that are transported using the existing freight network, avoiding the need for costly new pipelines, storage facilities, and fuel trucks.

The company is also developing conversion kits to retrofit existing 40-60 passenger regional airplanes with a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain.

First commercial flights are planned no later than 2025, with operating costs equivalent to those of conventional hydrocarbon-burning airplanes and decreasing rapidly thereafter. . . .



Toyota developing hydrogen combustion engine technologies through motorsports

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210423-toyota.html


Toyota Motor Corporation is developing a hydrogen combustion engine in an effort to move toward a carbon-neutral mobility society. It has installed the engine—a 1.6L in-line three-cylinder turbo with intercooler—on a racing vehicle based on Toyota’s Corolla Hatchback, which it will enter in competition under the ORC ROOKIE Racing banner.

The first race will be the Super Taikyu Series 2021 Powered by Hankook Round 3 NAPAC Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours Race on 21-23 May. . . .



thyssenkrupp to supply 20MW electrolysis plant to CF Industries for green hydrogen for green ammonia

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210423-thussenkrupp.html


thyssenkrupp has signed a contract with Illinois-based CF Industries to supply a 20 megawatt alkaline water electrolysis plant to produce green hydrogen at their Donaldsonville, Louisiana, manufacturing complex. The work is expected to begin in the second half of 2021 and finish in 2023.

CF Industries will integrate the carbon-free hydrogen generated by the electrolysis plant into existing ammonia synthesis loops to enable the production of 20,000 tons per year of green ammonia. When complete in 2023, the Donaldsonville green ammonia project will be the largest of its kind in North America. . . .



Bosch believes AIoT, electrification, and green hydrogen are the way forward; investing €1B in fuel cells to 2024

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/04/20210423-bosch.html


. . . Hydrogen megatrend: fuel-cell market worth billions. Bosch is also focusing on a growth market for the hydrogen megatrend: the company believes the market for green hydrogen in the EU will be worth almost €40 billion by 2030, with annual growth rates of 65%.

Bosch is developing both stationary and mobile fuel-cell solutions. From 2021 to 2024, Bosch plans to invest one billion euros in fuel-cell technology.

The plan is to put 100 stationary fuel-cell plants into operation this year. They will supply electricity to users such as data centers, industrial manufacturers, and residential areas. One stationary solid-oxide fuel cell, located in the center of Bamberg, Germany, was brought into operation at the end of March 2021 together with Stadtwerke Bamberg, the city’s public utilities.

Bosch estimates that the market for mobile fuel-cell components will be worth around €18 billion by the end of the decade. Bosch recently entered into a joint venture with China’s Qingling Motor Group to produce fuel-cell powertrains. A test fleet of 70 trucks is set to be on the roads before the end of this year. . . .
 
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