Mobility will play a key demand role in the transition to a global hydrogen economy, according to panellists speaking on a PE Live roundtable hosted in association with Air Liquide titled Hydrogen Mobility – Moving forward into a low-carbon world.

Hydrogen could be responsible for 22pc of global final energy demand by 2050, according to global CEO-led initiative the Hydrogen Council.

The fuel is starting to be a viable decarbonisation option in sectors not previously considered a few years ago, according to Erwin Penfornis, vice-president of the Hydrogen Energy World Business Line at industrial gases group Air Liquide.

“We see sectors that were not considered before, leveraging hydrogen to decarbonise aviation, for example,” he said. “The heavy-duty road sector is going to play a role, but so is maritime and rail.”

“The heavy-duty road sector is going to play a role, but so is maritime and rail” Pen-fornis, Air Liquide

A wide range of technologies must be considered in the development of a hydrogen economy, according to Didier Gambart, vice-president of sales, marketing and customer experience at vehicle manufacturer Toyota Motor Europe.

“We need to consider all potential solutions to reach carbon neutrality,” he said. “Each technology has a key role to play, and diverse solutions will address diverse customer expectations and market conditions.”

Gambart added that hydrogen has the potential to link sectors in ways that could bring the technology costs down for all.

“We see a kind of coupling effect that could be extremely interesting not only for transportation, but for the overall CO₂ emission roadmap,” he said.

Aviation

In the aviation sector, hydrogen has the highest potential of any option to reduce an aircraft’s climate impact, according to Glenn Llewellyn, vice-president of Zero Emissions Aircraft at aircraft manufacturer Airbus.

“We looked at butane, propane, methane, ammonia batteries, hybrid electric, including batteries, and the result of that analysis has been that hydrogen really has the most potential,” he said.

A study earlier in the year by thinktank the Energy Transmissions Commission found that passenger cars and light commercial vehicles are more likely to be battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the future, whereas buses and heavier road freight will increasingly be powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

It is likely that a dual infrastructure will be required for road transport—one for BEVs and one for fuel cell electric vehicles, according to Penfornis.

“It is mandatory that we rely on both if we want to decarbonise quickly and cheaply,” he said, noting that power demand alone will be extremely large if the whole road transport sector is electrified.

“If you want to be able to decarbonise heavy-duty sectors with BEVs in countries like Germany or France, you are talking about 400 recharging stations that you would have to implement across the country of 20MW each—20MW is the power demand of a city of 25,000 inhabitants.”

A hydrogen road transport infrastructure could have synergies with an aviation refuelling infrastructure, according to Llewellyn.

“Airports are hubs for aircraft but they are also cargo hubs, which means that they are often receiving trucks. And there are various buses and ground infrastructure for moving aircraft, all of which need to be decarbonised,” he said.

22pc – Amount of global final energy that could be met with hydrogen in 2050

Gambart added that stability of policy is important for both infrastructure and technology investments.

“Our industry needs to plan and invest and we have a five-to-seven-year cycle to do so,” he said.

“Stability of the trajectory of government incentives is very important, and we believe the ban of the internal combustion engine model by 2030-2035, depending on the country, is a very good thing.”

The PE Live roundtable, Hydrogen Mobility – Moving forward into a low-carbon world, hosted in association with Air Liquide, is now available on demand.

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Author: Tom Young