Dana - Thank you for the post- and forward looking perspective of energy portability and the role of chemical storage in electricity markets.
A few thoughts-- First I think there is tremendous value in using natural gas as a transportation fuel - especially when we're talking about electrochemical conversion in a fuel cell and not blowing it up via a combustion engine. There are challenges to home based natural gas reformation but it is not impossible. Electrolysis based home production is potentially more cost effective given the emerging field of nanostructured catalysts that support energy appliances capable of splitting water at low cost and high efficiency.
(And yes, going purely renewables to H2 is ideal! I just expect natural gas to be around and would rather use it in electrochemical conversion than combustion!)
Re: storage. We are still short on current solutions but solid state storage via physical adsorption (e.g. MOFs / COFs) should help us move beyond today's chemical absorption via heavier hydrides. Then there is also the option of using hydrogen rich liquids. Solid state storage gives us the option of manual 'swap out' of fuel cartridges and retail shelf distribution. So imagine going to the store and buying your entire fuel in packets for a month- or a truck delivering six months of fuel in one visit. You refuel by exchanging old / new. Bic has shown an interest in this retail based energy packet model and I often say that "hydrogen is the next bottled water". (Just as soon as we figure out storage!)
I'm not sure I share your faith in utilities adopting hydrogen. They lack the incentive to innovate under the current regulatory framework. In fact, I would argue that fuel cells (esp micro fuel cells) are a threat to the biz model of central grid utility model. Embed your gadgets, air conditioners, cars, coffee makers, thin screen displays with micro fuel cells-- and you have power plants in every product. That future then requires a 'fuel' provider not a power plant operator. (Yes, of course it needs large plants, but the consumer touches the fuel packet rather than draw from the electricity stream.)
Anyway-- no need to digress further! These are more forward looking concepts- but disruptive nonetheless. I also always like to remind people that a 'hydorgen economy' is an economy run on electricity. Geoffrey Ballard was fond of framing it as Hydricity. (Helps to show relationship between electrons and molecules - something battery advocates miss)
I appreciate the post-- and thank you for keeping energy storage via chemical bonds alive!
Best
Garry Golden
Editor
The Energy Roadmap.com
There was great media excitement recently over Hugo Spowers’ unveiling of the Urban, a hydrogen-powered car.
There is even more excitement over the idea that plans from his company, called Riversimple, will make the plans be offered open source.
But the product is premature, and puts the cart before the horse.
What’s needed most for any hydrogen car is a hydrogen infrastructure. That is, we need a system for producing hydrogen with a minimum of hydrocarbons, and moving it efficiently to the equivalent of gas stations.
Right now nearly all industrial hydrogen is made with natural gas as a feedstock. We have natural gas cars and buses. There’s no environmental benefit, then, in using today’s hydrogen as an auto fuel.
Second, the way we move hydrogen from production to market today is in cylinders on trucks. A hydrogen pipeline system, perhaps using natural gas lines that would otherwise be redundant, is necessary for hydrogen to make sense as an auto fuel.
As I discussed yesterday in my piece on the Enernet, hydrogen may be a good way to even out electricity production and consumption, in the process building the infrastructure a car would need.
But it’s these same utilities who need to be the first customers of a hydrogen economy. Having fuel cells as standby power sources makes any grid more robust and less vulnerable. As fuel cells become cheaper to produce, they can be brought in closer to consumers.
So we’re talking about a three-step process for hydrogen, with cars coming in at the end:
- Hydrogen production guarantees a market for alternative power sources, making that energy portable.
- Utilities can be the first customers for that hydrogen, for use in fuel cells as back-up for peak loads and blackouts.
- All this funds the creation of a real hydrogen infrastructure, one not tied to hydrocarbons, which then makes a hydrogen car make sense.
One more point. You know what you get from building these market incentives and hydrogen infrastructure?
Economic growth.
