Page 32: of Marine News Magazine (July 2022)

31 33

Feature

Alternative Fuels ydrogen is everywhere. You know that from match with the very foundations of chemistry and phys- high school chemistry. And you also know it ics—and economics.

from Marine News’ almost daily updates about Regulators, not to mention a concerned citizenry, will

H powered vessel projects around the world. need to take a deep breath about proposals to transport

H

As a fuel that could potentially replace fossil fuels, H is and store hydrogen. Maybe production could be kept in the spotlight. Perhaps the brightest spotlight, at least in remote, but at some point, a fuel has to move to where the U.S., is within the Department of Energy’s “Energy it’s needed: ports, holding tanks, rail yards, transfer ves-

Earthshots” initiative. sels, truck depots, airports. Acceptable risk will be dif-

R&D on H was the ? rst such Earthshot announced last ? cult to document.

year. DOE wants the “Hydrogen Shot” program to “accel- erate innovations and spur demand of clean hydrogen by Some lessons learned reducing the cost by 80%.” Reports about new H projects are important, of course,

Note the reference to “clean” hydrogen. Currently, U.S. but there are also quite a few H projects that have conclud- industry produces several million cubic feet of H daily, ed. Do the lessons from those projects con? rm the kind used for industrial applications such as re? ning, treating of expectant promise inherent in a national initiative like metals and food processing. H is produced using high- Hydrogen Shot? Here’s a closer look at two such H projects temperature steam (“steam reforming”) and via electroly- with a maritime focus.

sis – splitting water into H and oxygen. Each process is energy intensive and expensive, usually fueled by natural Sandia National Lab’s Fuel Cell Generator gas. The conundrum has always been: why use H as fuel In 2017, Sandia National Laboratories, part of DOE’s when natural gas is so cheap? The carbon factor forces a network of energy R&D labs, completed a Maritime Fuel different perspective. If clean H could be generated using Cell Generator Project in Hawaii. This ? rst-of-its kind hy- renewable energy, there could result an almost limitless drogen fuel cell (FC) generator was built by Hydrogenics, supply of a fuel that, according to many experts, shares a company now owned by Cummins, Inc. Young Brothers, characteristics with natural gas, making H a relatively fa- the Hawaiian shipping company, agreed to use the genera- miliar replacement.

Hydrogen Shot seeks to reduce the cost of clean hydro- gen by 80% to $1 per 1 kilogram in 1 decade (“1 1 1”).

To get traction on this, in February, DOE published a re- quest for information on “clean hydrogen manufacturing, recycling and electrolysis technology research, develop- ment and demonstration (RD&D)” and a second request pertaining to establishing a number of R&D “Hydrogen

Hubs” at various research facilities in the US. One goal is to locate the R&D Hubs in the same city or region as new H production. Then, R&D and production could work together to get H mainstreamed even faster.

The optimism about H, of course, has to be tempered with dif? cult realities, very dif? cult realities. Hydrogen is volatile, highly ? ammable and explosive. It’s expensive to produce. Storage and transport are dif? cult, requir- ing even more energy to compress the gas into a liquid and then store it at low temperatures. Trying to overcome these challenges involves a mental and physical wrestling

U.S. Department of Energy www.marinelink.com MN 33|