I just read an update on LinkedIn from Mark Cannon, CTO at Hydrogen in Motion (H2M). His company works on the development of a low pressure hydrogen storage system. The hydrogen is adsorbed to a material. This technology is interesting because hydrogen is hard to store. You need a large volume of hydrogen to get the energy you need. For this reason hydrogen is stored at extremely high pressure. Such high pressure storage systems are very expensive.
Mark wrote on LinkedIn: "A year ago we successfully synthesized a material which adsorbed 4.2 wt % hydrogen and desorbed 70% of it at 50 bar and ambient temperatures. For the past year we have been focusing on improving the synthesis of this material and understanding all the mechanisms at play. We are currently adsorbing 5 wt % and releasing 80% of the hydrogen, effectively a 4 wt % material. Gravimetrically comparable to 250 - 700 bar compressed tanks but with a volumetric capacity better than 40 g/l. Now we are increasing material production for demonstration tanks for our strategic partners"
Now 4 weight percent (wt %) doesn't sound like much, but you have to realize that hydrogen is the lightest existing material on the planet. A fuel cell vehicle needs only 5 kg to drive about 500 km. So 4 wt % means that a storage system for 5 kg would weigh about 125 kg, which does not add too much weight to a vehicle. A high pressure storage cilinder for 5 kg weighs about the same.
Now of course this kind of storage technology has downsides as well. The number of filling cycles is limited. When asked Marked answered that "Early tests show 100's of adsorption/desorption cycles. " If a vehicle can drive 500 km on a tank, that means 200 cycles gives the tank a lifetime of 100.000 km.
Filling times are also important. High pressure cilinders can be filled in only 5 minutes. Mark did not mention how long it took to fill, but similar materials require hours to completely adsorb the hydrogen.
The main advantage of these systems is a much lower price. According to Mark: "Goals is to be half the price of compressed tanks of equivalent performance."
If filling times are a problem then you may end up with a hybrid system. Say a 4 kg high pressure cilinder and a 1 kg low pressure tank. The 4 kg can be filled quickly and the final kg serves mainly as an emergency supply in case the main tank is empty. If used, the emergency supply can slowly refill itself from the main tank after this has been refueled. Use as emergency supply also means that the number of filling cycles will not be an issue.
For the first time in Europe and possibly worldwide a hydrogen vehicle supplied electricity to the power grid. At the Green Village at the Delft University of Technology a Hyundai ix35 was connected to the electrical grid to feed it with electricity. The Green Village site is used to demonstrate new technology. The demonstration marks a step towards a hydrogen economy where excess renewable energy is converted to hydrogen and where hydrogen vehicles can supply backup power at times when there is insufficient (renewable) electricity available. This means that no conventional electric plants will be required as backup.
ITM Power signed an agreement with Toyota to supply hydrogen. This is the first time I know of a contract has been signed for public sale of hydrogen where the price is mentioned. The price is GBP 10/kg (€ 13,63 or $ 15,46). The Mirai can drive ~480 km on 5 kg, so that's a cost of € 0,14/km. In comparison a vehicle driving 20 km/liter of gasoline costing € 1,60 (Dutch price including high taxes) has a cost of only € 0,08/km. Prices will need to come down for hydrogen to become competitive. A target price for hydrogen is € 5/kg, which would be competitive.
The hydrogen economy, once a visionary idea is slowly becoming a reality. It may not be obvious, but our economy is slowly evolving. It's a slow evolution not a revolutionary change. One of the telltale signs in the Netherlands where I live are government plans to change our natural gas law. They are changing the specifications of natural gas.
Why is this so important for a hydrogen economy? Natural gas is the main source of hydrogen today. Since hydrogen storage and distribution is so inconvenient and therefore expensive, we make hydrogen on-site using natural gas. If you say hydrogen, then that's a gas made from natural gas by steam reforming.
The changes to our law include the possibility to add more hydrogen to the natural gas grid. That means that it is now also possible to transport hydrogen by mixing it in the grid. That makes our gas grid the easiest an cheapest way to transport and store hydrogen, irrespective of how the hydrogen is produced.
The government is already looking forward to raising the allowed hydrogen concentration even further in the future even though that will mean that all our gas equipment will need to be modified. In the Netherlands natural gas is our main source of energy. This change is a critical step towards a hydrogen economy.
Once you add hydrogen to the gas grid that you can take it out again, either by steam reforming, or by separating it from the natural gas using a membrane. That means we can now hookup smaller local hydrogen networks as well.
Dutch company Teesing is developing a more efficient technology for hydrogen refueling. Teesing is my former employer, but I am still involved in this project. Teesing's patented technology is used to transfer hydrogen from one storage (e.g. a refueling station) to another (e.g. a vehicle fuel storage tank). Until now hydrogen has to be pre-cooled using liquid nitrogen for fast refueling before it can be transferred. Teesing's new technology is more efficient, which makes cooling unnecessary. This results in a cheaper solution for fast refueling at pressures up to 700 bar.
Teesing's solution works by initially filling the target fuel tank with demineralised water which later is exchanged for 700 bar hydrogen. Because the exchange is made at a low pressure differential, much less energy is lost.
Earlier this month Hyundai announced to slash the Korean price of their Tucson Fuel Cell by 43% to the equivalent of US$ 77,000. Yesterday Hyundai announced the new price in Europe: € 55,000 (US$ 62,700). In the Netherlands that results in a consumer price of € 66,550 incl. VAT. In Europe the Tucson is called ix35. In comparison the Hyundai Fuel Cell is available in the USA for lease only at a monthly price of $ 499.
The new price is close to being a competitive offer to traditional cars with combustion engines. If Hyundai doesn't lose too much on it, it would mark a significant step towards making fuel cell vehicles competitive, although there still is a long way to go. The ix35 with combustion engine is available in the Netherlands at prices starting at € 27,495 (incl. VAT).
Figures published by Aumacon show that CNG / green gas vehicles were the most popular alternative fueled vehicles in the Netherlands in 2014.
The largest vehicle category in the Netherlands in terms of sales remains the traditional gasoline car. 248,796 of these were sold in 2014. This is a drop of 6% compared to 2013. Traditional gasoline cars are slowly losing ground.
Diesel cars sales were better. 105,102 were sold in 2014, a growth of 1,5%.
The third category in the Netherlands in terms of sales is the hybrid vehicle (including plug-in hybrids and range extended electric vehicles). Compared to the top year 2013 sales decreased by 38% as a result of reduced fiscal stimulation. Despite this (as I wrote yesterday) the number of these vehicles on the road is still increasing.
Number four in the Netherlands in terms of cars on the road is LPG. Sales of LPG however are declining because the Dutch government no longer stimulates LPG despite verbally advocating its use. Sales dropped by 53% to 988. As a result the number of LPG vehicles on Dutch roads is decreasing. This is in sharp contrast to worldwide developments.
2014 was a great year for CNG / green gas vehicles. 3,232 CNG vehicles were sold, an increase of over 500% compared to 2013. Despite these impressive numbers CNG still has a long way to go to overtake LPG as the most popular alternative fuel.
Next are the fully electric cars. 2,982 of these were sold which is a 14% increase compared to 2013. Electric cars are slowly gaining market share.
Other than these fuels not much is happening in the Netherlands. When the first public hydrogen station was opened it was already known that the Dutch government would leased two Hyundai ix35's. No other hydrogen vehicles were registered in 2014.
The sale of cars on ethanol has come to a near complete stop in 2014: only one was sold compared to 17 in 2013.
Audi hads a fantastic new prototype on the Los Angeles Auto show: the A7 H-tron. The H-tron is Audi's vision for the future of hydrogen. And it shows that Audi has a much better vision of what it can sell to its customers than its competitors Hyundai and Toyota who are now leading the actual sale of hydrogen vehicles. Those cars are attempts to just about offer the same as the average family car. Only they cost a lot more. Audi shows they can do a lot better.
The novelty in Audi's design is not the fuel cell powering the car: their fuel cell offers roughly 100 kWe: the same as every body else's fuel cell. But Audi uses this power much more effectively by storing energy into a 8,8 kWh battery system. This allows the vehicle to accellerate much faster and regenerate braking energy. The H-tron is designed as a plug-in hybrid, allowing the battery to be charged from the power grid, making the vehicle less dependent on the lacking hydrogen refueling infrastructure.
Because the fuel cell is the most expensive component in the vehicle, Audi can offer much better performance at only marginally higher cost. The performance speaks for itself:
- 50 km range on batteries, 500 km total
- four wheel drive
- 152 hp power from the electromotors
- 0 - 100 km/h in 7.9 s
- no emissions, little noise
It looks to me like Toyota and Hyundai can go back to their drawing boards.
This week on 3rd september the first Dutch public hyrdrogen station was opened along the A15 highway near Rotterdam. This is intended to be the first of 20 public stations to be opened in the Netherlands until 2020.
Hydrogen is considered a clean alternative fuel for use in cities as it does not pollute the air as the only emission is water and because the electric drive is less noisy.
The Dutch ministry of Infrastructure and Environment will be the first user with their two Hyundai ix35 FCEVs. The location in Rotterdam was chosen as it is close to a hydrogen pipeline from Rotterdam to Belgium and France. In Rotterdam a major share of the hydrogen for the European market is produced. The station near Rotterdam is owned by the French company Air Liquide, which intends to build a larger European network of hydrogen stations.
Until recently only a few trucks, a delivery van and a number of busses used hydrogen. They could refuel at private stations in Amsterdam, Arnhem and Helmond. This new station makes hydrogen also available to passenger vehicles. Currently there are concrete plans to move the Amsterdam station to a location where it can be public as well as to upgrade the Helmond station so this station to can be made public.
