Applications & Pathways

This latest Hydrogen Council report shows that the cost of hydrogen solutions will fall sharply within the next decade – and sooner than previously expected. As scale up of hydrogen production distribution equipment and component manufacturing continues cost is projected to decrease by up to 50% by 2030 for a wide range of applications making hydrogen competitive with other low-carbon alternatives and in some cases even conventional options.

Significant cost reductions are expected across different hydrogen applications. For more than 20 of them such as long-distance and heavy-duty transportation industrial heating and heavy industry feedstock which together comprise roughly 15% of global energy consumption the hydrogen route appears the decarbonisation option of choice – a material opportunity.

The report attributes this trajectory to scale-up that positively impacts the three main cost drivers:

• Strong fall in the cost of producing low carbon and renewable hydrogen;
• Lower distribution and refuelling costs thanks to higher load utilisation and scale effect on infrastructure utilisation; and
• Dramatic drop in the cost of components for end-use equipment under scaling up of manufacturing.

To deliver on this opportunity supporting policies will be required in key geographies together with investment support of around $70 billion in the lead up to 2030 in order to scale up and achieve hydrogen competitiveness. While this figure is sizable it accounts for less than 5% of annual global spending on energy. For comparison support provided to renewables in Germany totalled roughly $30 billion in 2019.

The study is based on real industry data with 25000 data points gathered and analysed from 30 companies using a rigorous methodology. The data was collected and analytical support provided by McKinsey & Company and it represents the entire hydrogen value chain across four key geographies (US Europe Japan/Korea and China). Data was also reviewed by an independent advisory group comprised of recognised hydrogen and energy transition experts.

You can download the full report from the Hydrogen Council website here

The executive summary can be found here

This UKERC Research Atlas Landscape provides an overview of the competencies and publicly funded activities in fuel cell research development and demonstration (RD&D) in the UK. It covers the main funding streams research providers infrastructure networks and UK participation in international activities.

The report calls for a focus on new advanced alternative fuels in particular synthetic kerosene (efuels) which have the capacity to substantially reduce emissions and be scaled up to meet the fuel demands of the sector.

For aviation to reach zero emissions sustainable advanced fuels are needed to replace fossil kerosene currently used by the sector. The European Green Deal (EGD) includes a legislative proposal which would bring about a long overdue development and uptake of such fuels for the sector that legislative proposal is now being developed under the EU’s ReFuelEU initiative. However this initiative will only succeed if its support is limited to those fuels which can truly deliver emission reductions and which can be scaled up sustainably to meet the demand from the aviation sector. The paper recommends how such objectives can be achieved.

The ReFuelEU proposal should focus on these fuels with an ambitious programme combining mandates with financial support so that Europe's aviation sector is put on a pathway to net zero emissions.

Link to document download on Transport & Environment Website

As the world looks to recover from the impact of coronavirus on our lives livelihoods and economies we have the chance to build back better: to invest in making the UK a global leader in green technologies.

The plan focuses on increasing ambition in the following areas:

• advancing offshore wind
• driving the growth of low carbon hydrogen
• delivering new and advanced nuclear power
• accelerating the shift to zero emission vehicles
• green public transport cycling and walking
• ‘jet zero’ and green ships
• greener buildings
• investing in carbon capture usage and storage
• protecting our natural environment
• green finance and innovation

The ten point plan will mobilise £12 billion of government investment and potentially 3 times as much from the private sector to create and support up to 250000 green jobs.

Improving energy system modelling capabilities can directly affect the quality of applied studies. However some modelling trade-offs are necessary as the computational capacity and data availability are constrained. In this paper we demonstrate modelling trade-offs resulting from the modification in the resolution of four modelling capabilities namely transitional scope European electricity interconnection hourly demand-side flexibility description and infrastructure representation. We measure the cost of increasing resolution in each capability in terms of computational time and several energy system modelling indicators notably system costs emission prices and electricity import and export levels. The analyses are performed in a national-level integrated energy system model with a linear programming approach that includes the hourly electricity dispatch with European nodes. We determined that reducing the transitional scope from seven to two periods can reduce the computational time by 75% while underestimating the objective function by only 4.6%. Modelers can assume a single European Union node that dispatches electricity at an aggregated level which underestimates the objective function by 1% while halving the computational time. Furthermore the absence of shedding and storage flexibility options can increase the curtailed electricity by 25% and 8% respectively. Although neglecting flexibility options can drastically decrease the computational time it can increase the sub-optimality by 31%. We conclude that an increased resolution in modelling flexibility options can significantly improve the results. While reducing the computational time by half the lack of electricity and gas infrastructure representation can underestimate the objective function by 4% and 6% respectively.

In order to achieve gradual but timely decarbonisation of the transport sector it is essential to evaluate which types of vehicles provide a suitable environmental performance while allowing the use of hydrogen as a fuel. This work compares the environmental life-cycle performance of three different passenger cars fuelled by hydrogen: a fuel cell electric vehicle an internal combustion engine car and a hybrid electric vehicle. Besides two vehicles that use hydrogen in a mixture with natural gas or gasoline were considered. In all cases hydrogen produced by wind power electrolysis was assumed. The resultant life-cycle profiles were benchmarked against those of a compressed natural gas car and a hybrid electric vehicle fed with natural gas. Vehicle infrastructure was identified as the main source of environmental burdens. Nevertheless the three pure hydrogen vehicles were all found to be excellent decarbonisation solutions whereas vehicles that use hydrogen mixed with natural gas or gasoline represent good opportunities to encourage the use of hydrogen in the short term while reducing emissions compared to ordinary vehicles.

As fossil fuels continue to be extracted and used issues such as environmental pollution and energy scarcity are surfacing. For the transportation industry the best way to achieve the goal of “carbon neutrality” is to research efficient power systems and develop new alternative fuels. As the world’s largest product of chemicals ammonia is a new renewable fuel with good combustion energy. It can be used as an alternative fuel to reduce carbon emissions because of its proven production process low production and transportation costs safe storage the absence of carbon-containing compounds in its emissions and its future recyclability. This paper firstly introduces the characteristics of ammonia fuel engine and its problems; then it summarizes the effects of various ammonia-blended fuels on the combustion and emission characteristics of the engine from the combustion problem of ammonia-blended engine; then the fuel storage of ammonia-blended hydrogen is discussed the feasibility of hydrogen production instead of hydrogen storage is introduced.

Decarbonizing the current steel and power sectors through the development of the hydrogen direct-reduction iron ore–electric arc furnace route and the 100% hydrogen-fired gas turbine cycle is crucial. The current study focuses on three clusters of research works. The first cluster covers the investigation of the mass and energy balance of the route and the subsequent application of these values in experiments to optimize the reduction yield of iron ore. In the second cluster the existing gas turbine unit was selected for the complete replacement of natural gas with hydrogen and for finding the most optimal mass and energy balance in the cycle through an Aspen HYSYS model. In addition the chemical kinetics in the hydrogen combustion process were simulated using Ansys Chemkin Pro to research the emissions. In the last cluster a comparative economic analysis was conducted to identify the levelized cost of production of the route and the levelized cost of electricity of the cycle. The findings in the economic analysis provided good insight into the details of the capital and operational expenditures of each industrial sector in understanding the impact of each kg of hydrogen consumed in the plants. These findings provide a good basis for future research on reducing the cost of hydrogen-based steel and power sectors. Moreover the outcomes of this study can also assist ongoing large-scale hydrogen and ammonia projects in Uzbekistan in terms of designing novel hydrogen-based industries with cost-effective solutions.

Only emissions-free vehicles which include battery electric (BEVs) and hydrogen fuel cell trucks (FCEVs) can provide for a credible long-term pathway towards the full decarbonisation of the road freight sector. This document lays out the methodology and assumptions which were used to calculate the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the two vehicle technologies for regional delivery and long-haul truck applications. It also discusses other criteria such as refuelling and recharging times as well as potential payload losses.

Link to Document Download on Transport & Environment website

A major transformation and redesign of the global energy system is required towards decarbonisation and to achieve the Paris Agreement targets. This Grand Transition is a complex pressing issue where global joint efforts and system solutions are essential; with hydrogen being one of them.<br/>Hydrogen has the potential to be a powerful effective accelerator towards a low-carbon energy system capable of addressing multiple energy challenges: from facilitating the massive integration of renewables and decarbonisation of energy production to energy transportation in a zero-carbon energy economy to electrification of end uses.