Hydrogen

South ustralia has joinrd the Hydrogen Bandwagon.
from The Australian

Construction of the world’s largest hydrogen electrolyser facility, to be built in Port Pirie, could begin in little more than a year, with an engineering study into the $750m project under way.
Global commodities company Trafigura, which owns the Nyrstar lead smelter at Port Pirie, and the state government will co-fund a $5m “front end engineering and design” study into building a hydrogen plant next to the current lead smelter.

Trafigura general manager Australia Tim Rogers said the company expected to be in a position to make a final investment decision on the project by the end of 2022, and with approvals in place, construction would start the following year.
The project would create 150-300 jobs during construction and up to 25 ongoing roles, and solidify Port Pirie’s future as an industrial hub, Mr Rogers said.

The project would be built out in stages, with the full-scale plant able to produce 100 tonnes per day of green hydrogen from a 440 megawatt electrolyser – a device which splits water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewably-sourced energy.

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Guess its the only way they can keep a heavily electric dependant industry running.
Depending on how good the storage medium is, it would be an ideal way to use the "spare" electricity generated by solar rooftops and other renewable projects when demand is at an ebb (like in the middle of the day on Sunday when its not too hot for airconditioners ).

Mick

Things are quietly moving along.

I found an excellent resource on the current advances hydrogen production technololy. Well worth checking out IMV


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Producing cheap, clean hydrogen: new updates​

By Julian Atchison on December 8, 2021

Key techno-economic drivers reducing the cost of hydrogen​

Click to enlarge.
Waterfall chart illustrating the various contributions to reducing the levelised cost of hydrogen from Bristowe & Smallbone, “The Key Techno-Economic and Manufacturing Drivers for Reducing the Cost of Power-to-Gas and a Hydrogen-Enabled Energy System“, Hydrogen, July 2021.

A team at Durham University has shown that a massive scale-up of PEM electrolyser manufacturing capability can slash the capital costs of producing electrolyser units by up to 70%. Mass manufacturing would also have a large impact on the price of hydrogen, with deployment & installation of the produced electrolyser units then driving down the $/kg cost even further. The authors use a baseline production capacity of ten 200kW PEM electrolyser units per year for a given factory, noting that the largest PEM electrolyser factory in the world currently has 30 MW production capacity (~150 units). Planned multi GW factories will be capable of producing 5,000 of these units per year per GW of production capacity.

The authors estimate that the current, baseline cost of hydrogen ($6.40/kg) would be pushed down to $4.16/kg if production capacity was lifted to 5,000 units per year. Improvements in offshore wind turbine technology and a ten-fold scale-up of current installed electrolyser capacity further reduces the cost of hydrogen to $2.63/kg, with a one hundred-fold scale-up further reducing the cost to $1.57/kg. A similar pattern holds for the capital cost of electrolyser units: a baseline of $1990/kW, to $590/kW (production capacity increases) then on to $431/kW and $300/kW (installed capacity increases).

Avoiding water competition in hydrogen production​

Click to learn more.

Important characteristics of global hydrogen production, looking ahead to 2050 (based on the IEA’s “Net Zero by 2050” report). From Germscheidt et al., “Hydrogen Environmental Benefits Depend on the Way of Production: An Overview of the Main Processes Production and Challenges by 2050“, Advanced Energy and Sustainability Research, June 2021.

In their review of different production pathways, a team from the University of Campinas has proposed more focus on electrolysis of waste and seawater to produce hydrogen. The use of water sources unfit for human consumption to produce hydrogen represents an opportunity to “produce clean energy with social responsibility”, according to the authors.

Prototypes and small-scale demonstrations of wastewater & microbial electrolysis cells exist and show promise (especially if deployed in a distributed, point-of-use fashion), but significant material engineering obstacles stand in the way of seawater electrolysis. The authors note that progress has been made applying protective layers to electrodes to block the approach of interfering species, and that promising work is proceeding in high-performing catalysts that are a mixture of Pt and earth-abundant metals.

New catalysts for hydrogen production from sunlight​

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New catalyst structures for hydrogen production directly form sunlight, from Butson et al., “Surface-Structured Cocatalyst Foils Unraveling a Pathway to High-Performance Solar Water Splitting“, Advanced Energy Materials, Nov 2021.

And a team from the Australian National University has demonstrated a new pathway forward for hydrogen production directly from sunlight. A new “photoelectrode” design incorporates optimised photoabsorbers (Si and GaAs) with an earth-abundant cocatalyst (in this study, a Ni-based foil) achieves a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 13.6% and maintains an efficiency of over 10% for longer than nine days – results previously unreported in solar water splitting systems.

In an interview with Australian press, the authors explain that their approach solves a common stability issue with photoelectrodes by using the Ni-based cocatalyst foil to shield the operational surface from chemical degradation. The possibility of combining solar photovoltaic cells with solar water splitting cells on household rooftops also presents an exciting opportunity: distributed, small-scale green hydrogen production that can be used onsite to offset intermittent renewable energy generation.

Every man, his dog and their puppies has a new hydrogen project on the boil.
This one is special. The project sucks water out of the air and then splits it into hydrogen and oxygen.

Solar to bloom in the desert thanks to innovative NT green hydrogen project​

A $15 billion green hydrogen project that utilises solar powered water-from-air technology to save on the cost of hydrogen generation and save the precious water resources of arid regions, has received Major Project Status from the Northern Territory government and aims to be in commercial production by 2023.
December 14, 2021 Blake Matich

• Hydrogen
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• Asia
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Aqua Aerem plans to utilise its water-from-air technology to save costs on green hydrogen generation, and also save precious water resources in arid regions.
Image: Aqua Aerem / Screenshot

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The Northern Territory (NT) government has granted Major Project Status to water-from-air technology company Aqua Aerem to develop its $15 billion 10 GW Desert Bloom Hydrogen project (Desert Bloom) in Tennant Creek, NT, with ambitious plans for commercial production by 2023.

Around the world, large-scale green hydrogen projects are being touted for highly irradiated regions looking to utilise solar resources for the much touted future green hydrogen economy. However, it is often the case that highly sunny places are also places of high water scarcity. And this is exactly the hurdle Desert Bloom has a unique ability to avoid.

According to Aqua Aerem (literally ‘water-air’ in Latin), for every one kilogram of hydrogen produced, nine litres of water is required. Aqua Aerem’s patented proprietary technology captures water from the atmosphere in arid environments using off-grid solar energy, with no waste other than air. This commercial quantity of water can then be used in solar electrolysis whereby water is split into its constituent parts, namely hydrogen and oxygen.

Aqua Aerem’s co-founder and CEO Gerard Reiter said the project was “transformative” in the way it had managed to overcome water supply and solar/electrolysis integration problems that have so far held back global renewable hydrogen production.

“With today’s announcement, the pathway for green hydrogen becomes a reality,” said Reiter. “Our air-to-water technology, which solves this previously intractable water supply problem, is a world first; invented and developed here in Australia. This technology will open the door for green hydrogen projects to be located where the best renewable power sources are available, which is generally in the driest areas of the planet.”

First shipment of liquid hydrogen due to be loaded in Victoria, a huge step forward on the hydrogen road.

Hydrogen fuel cells = massive CO2 emissions.

Well at last a good overview of what we have been saying for years, but it sounds better in a media article.

For all the rev heads out there, don't despair there is hope.

Step change in efficiency in hydrogen electrolysers. And the technology has been developed in Australia ..
Be very interesting to see how effective this technology actually is. There is more to the story than one element.
But the take away point is that there is much research and advances in the field.

Australian researchers claim ‘giant leap’ in technology to produce affordable renewable hydrogen​

Morrison government’s hydrogen stretch goal of $2 a kilogram to make the fuel competitive could be reached by 2025, Hysata says

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Hysata chief executive officer Paul Barrett and chief technology officer Gerry Swiegers with the company’s capillary-fed electrolysis cell. Photograph: Mark Newsham

Peter Hannam
Wed 16 Mar 2022 06.56 GMTLast modified on Wed 16 Mar 2022 06.58 GMT


Australian researchers claim to have made a “giant leap” in lifting the efficiency of electrolysers, bringing forward the time when green hydrogen will be competitive with fossil fuels as an energy source.
Hysata, a company using technology developed at the University of Wollongong, said its patented capillary-fed electrolysis cells achieve 95% efficiency, meaning little wastage, beating by about one-quarter the levels of current technology.

The achievement, published in the peer-reviewed Nature Communication journal today, could see the Morrison government’s so-called hydrogen stretch goal of $2 a kilogram to make the fuel competitive reached as soon as 2025, the Hysata chief executive, Paul Barrett, said.

SA environment minister challenges Morrison government to ‘fast-track’ electric vehicle transition
Read more
“We’ve gone from 75% [efficiency] to 95% – it’s really a giant leap for the electrolysis industry,” Barrett said.

Further details on Hysta technology





Technology

Electrolysers use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen and are the key technology for producing green hydrogen.
Green hydrogen is widely acknowledged to be a crucial part of reaching net zero emissions globally, enabling decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sectors like steel, heavy transport and chemicals.
It is expected to supply 15-25% of energy in a net zero global economy, creating a huge commercial and decarbonisation opportunity.
The main challenge today for the green hydrogen industry is that existing electrolysers are complex, costly and only moderately efficient.
Over the last 50 years, there have only been incremental improvements in electrolyser designs.
Until now.
Hysata has completely redesigned the electrolyser, resulting in a step-change improvement over existing designs, redefining efficiency, balance of plant simplicity and modular manufacturability.

Hysata’s technology offers step-change improvements in 3 key areas:​

New category of electrolysis with world’s highest efficiency

• 95% system efficiency (41.5 kWh/kg), compared with ~75% for incumbents (52.5 kWh/kg)
• Low-cost design, based on earth-abundant materials

Simplified balance of plant (BOP)

• High cell efficiency eliminates the need for expensive cooling
• Efficient, low-cost, grid-friendly power electronics
• Integrated BOP and stack design to provide an optimised, turnkey system that delivers high purity green hydrogen at the lowest levelised cost

Ease of manufacturing and scaling

• Manufacturing is based on simple unit operations; easy to automate and scale
• Modular technology – same basic building block for MWs to tens of GW installations

Hydrogen development is receiving a boost, with Germany’s rush to move away from Russian gas.

UAE, Germany sign ‘blue hydrogen’ contract in Abu Dhabi​

Hydrogen and LNG in Australia getting some positive comments from the Japanese ambassador, China/Russia obviously making them nervous also.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04...acing-too-many-eggs-in-china-basket/100947006
From the article:
Mr Yamagami said Japan had been subject to a similar campaign by its North Asian neighbour 12 years ago when China restricted exports of rare earth materials needed for several high-end manufacturing industries.
He said the episode was the catalyst for Japan's move away from a near-total reliance on Chinese rare earths towards other suppliers, including Australia.
And he noted that the decision had all but underwritten the development of Western Australia's Mount Weld mine, which is operated by local rare earths champion Lynas Corporation.
"Japan succeeded in reducing dependence on Chinese source from almost 90 per cent to 60 per cent," Mr Yamagami said.
Amid a wholesale push by Japan to develop a "hydrogen economy", Mr Yamagami said Tokyo was betting big that Australia would be crucial to making the ambition a reality.

Much like Japan had bankrolled Australia's iron ore and LNG industries in the 20th century, he said there was every expectation the same would happen with hydrogen.

He said that while the most advanced project between the two countries involved converting coal into hydrogen in Victoria — a so-called brown hydrogen project — there were as many as 20 other projects on the drawing board.

Many of these, he said, would produce fewer or even no emissions by using gas or renewable energy as the feedstock, potentially holding a key to both countries' emissions targets.

Despite the focus on hydrogen, Mr Yamagami acknowledged Japan would rely on natural gas to help power its $6.6 trillion economy — the world's third-biggest — for many years to come.

He declined to be directly drawn on industry speculation that the massive Browse gas field off WA's north-west coast could be used to backfill the $45 billion Ichthys LNG project owned by Japanese company INPEX.

However, he said the benefits to Japan of stable energy supplies from a country such as Australia were paramount and "it is possible for INPEX to enhance its project in Australia".

"We are not like Russia. We are not like China … we are not running a planned economy," Mr Yamagami said.

This article fills in some key points about the costs and comparisons between hydrogen and other fuels.

Some rules of thumb of the hydrogen economy​

June 11, 2021

Most analysis of the role of hydrogen in the global economy uses numbers that are not immediately translatable into conventional measurements. The purpose of this article is to offer some simple rules of thumb that help place hydrogen alongside other parts of the energy system

Bloombergs can see a potential problem with Hydrogen replacing fossil fuels, which of course cause climate change.
Bloombergs Climate Change

A world desperate for a climate-friendly fuel is pinning its hopes on hydrogen, seeing it as a way to power factories, buildings, ships and planes without pumping carbon dioxide into the sky.

But now scientists are warning that hydrogen leaked into the atmosphere can contribute to climate change much like carbon. Depending on how it’s made, distributed and used, it could even make warming worse over the next few decades, even if carbon poses the bigger long-term threat. Any future hydrogen-based economy, they say, must be designed from the start to keep leaks of the gas to a minimum, or it risks adding to the very problem it’s supposed to solve. Some ideas now being tested, like shipping hydrogen in pipelines built to hold natural gas or burning it in individual homes, could cause an unacceptable level of leaks.

“The potency is a lot stronger than people realize,” said Ilissa Ocko, a climate scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund, a non-profit group. “We’re putting this on everyone’s radar now not to say ‘no’ to hydrogen but to think about how we deploy it.”

Hydrogen doesn’t trap heat directly, the way CO₂ does. Instead, when leaked it sets off a series of chemical reactions that warm the air, acting as an indirect greenhouse gas. And though it cycles out of the atmosphere far faster than carbon dioxide, which lingers for centuries, it can do more damage than CO₂ in the short term. Over 20 years, it has 33 times the global warming potential of an equal amount of carbon dioxide, according to a recent UK government report. Over hundreds of years, carbon is more dangerous, due to its longevity.


Hydrogen’s warming potential was never a problem before, as its use was largely limited to oil refineries and chemical or fertilizer plants. But now governments worldwide are investing billions to build a hydrogen economy, seeing the gas as one of the only options for decarbonizing many industries that can’t easily run on electricity. President Joe Biden has set aside $8 billion to build at least four “hydrogen hubs” where the fuel will be produced and used, and states are gearing up to compete. US utility companies that now deliver natural gas see it as a savior, announcing more than two dozen hydrogen pilot projects in the last two years.

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Sometimes. ya just can't win.
Mick

mullokintyre said:

Bloombergs can see a potential problem with Hydrogen replacing fossil fuels, which of course cause climate change.
Bloombergs Climate Change

Sometimes. ya just can't win.
Mick

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Ok, so I just did some reading on this and the issue is a little complex, but I think hydrogen will be much better than fossil fuels, let me explain the issue.

So two of the worst green house gases are Carbon dioxide and Methane, these gases retain heat in the atmosphere and will cause climate change.

Methane is about 25 times worse than Carbon dioxide at trapping heat, but over time methane breaks down into carbon dioxide using “Hydroxl Radicals” that exist in the atmosphere, so methane with have a half life of about 9 years.

Now Hydrogen itself does not trap heat like carbon or Methane, however hydrogen also uses Hydroxl radicals in its chemical reactions back to stable molecules.

So if a lot of hydrogen is leaked, it could cause Methane to break down at a slower rate, which would be bad for climate change.

The reason I don’t think this will be a big issue is

1. As we move away from fossil fuels we should be leaking less methane into the atmosphere from Oil and gas wells and coal mines.

2, you would think that the hydrogen leaks should be small compared to the amount of Carbon being emitted from the fuels it’s replacing. Eg even if it’s 33 times worse than Carbon dioxide it might be offsetting more than 33 times the amount of carbon, especially when you factor in leaks of methane.

3, once hydrogen does form other molecules, it doesn’t leave behind carbon, where as Methane does.

So over all Methane is the problem, which is leaked from Oil and gas wells even old abandoned ones, coal mines, decaying plastics, land fills and also animal factory farms. Atleast the hydrogen industry should reduce oil, gas and coal dependence over time, and therefore methane to

mullokintyre said:

Bloombergs can see a potential problem with Hydrogen replacing fossil fuels, which of course cause climate change.
Bloombergs Climate Change

Sometimes. ya just can't win.
Mick

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The future for Hydrogen is not as a general gas replacement and using existing low pressure gas pipes ro transport it is just dangerous.

Hydrogen will be used for many different industrial processes, some we haven't thought of yet.

Value Collector said:

Ok, so I just did some reading on this and the issue is a little complex, but I think hydrogen will be much better than fossil fuels, let me explain the issue.

So two of the worst green house gases are Carbon dioxide and Methane, these gases retain heat in the atmosphere and will cause climate change.

Methane is about 25 times worse than Carbon dioxide at trapping heat, but over time methane breaks down into carbon dioxide using “Hydroxl Radicals” that exist in the atmosphere, so methane with have a half life of about 9 years.

Now Hydrogen itself does not trap heat like carbon or Methane, however hydrogen also uses Hydroxl radicals in its chemical reactions back to stable molecules.

So if a lot of hydrogen is leaked, it could cause Methane to break down at a slower rate, which would be bad for climate change.

The reason I don’t think this will be a big issue is

1. As we move away from fossil fuels we should be leaking less methane into the atmosphere from Oil and gas wells and coal mines.

2, you would think that the hydrogen leaks should be small compared to the amount of Carbon being emitted from the fuels it’s replacing. Eg even if it’s 33 times worse than Carbon dioxide it might be offsetting more than 33 times the amount of carbon, especially when you factor in leaks of methane.

3, once hydrogen does form other molecules, it doesn’t leave behind carbon, where as Methane does.

So over all Methane is the problem, which is leaked from Oil and gas wells even old abandoned ones, coal mines, decaying plastics, land fills and also animal factory farms. Atleast the hydrogen industry should reduce oil, gas and coal dependence over time, and therefore methane to

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I was watching an excellent program called The Climate Show on Sky News ... and came across a promising commercial technology to transform methane into pure hydrogen and graphene. Appears cost effective and seems to be an excellent way to pick up the methane leakages from current landfills, coal mines ect.

The story comes at the 16 min mark.


The company with the technology and a current contract with UAE is Levidian

liked this quote:

“Hydrogen has been described as the ‘Swiss Army knife’ of energy solutions, which is to say: it can do just about anything, but is not always the best tool for the job,”

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from a crowd that has a TLA, so they must punch well for their weight

"Making hydrogen from gas and using carbon capture and storage to reduce emissions has questionable “clean” credentials, while its cost-competitiveness is also in doubt," said Institutional Shareholder Services, which advises pension funds and others on decisions around their corporate investments.

This is the first that I have heard of a "gold" hydrogen, naturally occurring underground.

H2EX, CSIRO to study “gold” hydrogen potential on Eyre Peninsula

Perth exploration start-up H2EX is tapping into the research expertise of Australia's national science agency as it steps up its bid to unearth “gold” hydrogen in South Australia.

The company has entered into a research agreement with the CSIRO in the search for naturally occurring hydrogen, after recently securing its first exploration licence on the Eyre Peninsula.

H2EX said the CSIRO would undertake a “desktop study” of the licence area - covering close to 6000sq m of land - as a first step towards understanding the natural hydrogen system in the region.

Historical drilling records indicate that hydrogen at up to 85 per cent purity could be tapped in the region.

The potential for natural hydrogen in Australia was underlined in a research paper published by the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia last year, which documents accidental discoveries of hydrogen across the country.

Natural hydrogen deposits form through chemical reactions underground, with the most well-known process being the oxidation between water and iron sediments.

Unlike “green” or “blue” hydrogen, which use energy and capital-intensive processes to extract hydrogen from water or natural gas, natural or “gold” hydrogen needs little processing and is potentially far cheaper and more energy-efficient to produce.

After adapting its resources legislation last year, South Australia remains the only state or territory where there is a legislative framework allowing companies to explore for natural hydrogen.

H2EX is one of a handful of companies that have since sought permits across the state, and according to advisory firm EnergyQuest, almost a third of the state is now covered by exploration licences or licence applications.

H2EX is progressing applications covering 32,000sq km.

The company’s co-founder and chief executive Mark Hanna said the CSIRO study on the Eyre Peninsula would be the first of its kind in the region, with the outcomes of the research expected by the end of the year.

“We are one of the first companies in the world to explore for natural hydrogen,” he said.

“This is an important step in finding clean energy sources created by Mother Nature for Australian local communities and industry.”

Mr Hanna, a former Woodside Petroleum executive, established H2EX alongside partner Greschen Brecker who is also ex-Woodside.

Former Woodside chief executive Peter Coleman, who chairs the board and is a major financial backer of the company, said the CSIRO was at the “forefront of natural hydrogen research and field work”.

The gold hydrogen push in South Australia is being led by Brisbane-based Gold Hydrogen, which was the first Australian company to secure a hydrogen exploration licence.

The company, which is aiming to drill for hydrogen on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula and Kangaroo Island, recently brought in former foreign minister Alexander Downer to chair its board.

South Australia is positioning itself as a major hydrogen hub, with the state government planning its own $593m hydrogen production, storage and energy facility at Whyalla in the Upper Spencer Gulf.

AGL is also assessing the viability of a hydrogen hub at its Torrens Island power station site near Port Adelaide, with heavyweights Brickworks, Adbri and INPEX also on board.

Naturally-occurring hydrogen is currently produced at just one site globally, in Mali.

GIUSEPPE TAURIELLO BUSINESS REPORTER

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Imagine this in the tank behind your seat
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