green hydrogen

Investors have applied for an environmental assessment for about 5 GW of wind and solar in Australia, which will support plans to produce green hydrogen and ammonia at a massive new facility.

Advanced Ionics has developed an electrolyzer that runs at temperatures below 650 C. It is reportedly able to produce hydrogen for $0.85/kg or less. CEO Chad Mason recently spoke with pv magazine to provide a closer look at the water vapor electrolysis tech.

Elsewhere, Lotte Chemical and Air Liquid Korea will establish a joint venture to build a hydrogen supply chain in South Korea and the US Department’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) offered a conditional commitment for a US$504.4M loan guarantee to the Advanced Clean Energy Storage Project in Utah, which combines alkaline electrolysis with salt cavern storage for grid scale energy conversion and storage using hydrogen as the energy carrier.

Researchers at the University of Genoa have conducted a techno-economic analysis to assess green hydrogen produced via water electrolysis and its conversion into three alternative fuels – methane, methanol, and ammonia. They looked into efficiency, storage capacity, annual costs, and production costs of the different fuels, which they found to be significantly higher than market reference values.

In other news, Hydrofuel Canada developed hollow hybrid plasmonic nanocages to create an electrocatalyst for ammonia synthesis from nitrogen (N2) and water (H2O) and said green hydrogen could be separated from this ammonia and sold at about $1.50 per kilogram. Furthermore, Norway’s Aker Horizons and Statkraft are exploring green hydrogen and ammonia production opportunities in India and Brazil, targeting local steel and fertilizer industries.

While a Japanese team developed a series of Er(Ho)Co2-based magnetic cooling alloys for hydrogen cooling, a US research team used a “simple” acid treatment to increase flow of hydrogen atoms within protonic ceramic electrochemical cells (PCECs). Hydrogen-fuelled mobility registered significant developments: the first hydrogen-electric passenger aircraft was piloted between two major airports in Germany, and a 75-passenger ferry service in the San Francisco Bay braces for operations in June.

The hydrogen generation facility will be initially powered by a photovoltaic plant, but Essent may also add wind power for periods when the sun is not shining. The energy company also plans to deploy some battery storage capacity at the plant for the temporary storage of the surplus of solar power that cannot be immediately converted into hydrogen or supplied back to the grid.

Reversible fuel cell systems based on solid oxide cell (SOC) technology may become an efficient tool to cope with price volatility in the energy market, according to new research from Stanford. Through the proposed model, which mainly considered the electricity markets in Germany and Texas, the research group found that the reversible system may be competitive at current hydrogen prices, provided that there is sufficient variation in daily electricity prices.

A new report from IEEFA says green ammonia could help India significantly reduce its trillion-rupee fertilizer subsidy bill and cut dependence on liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports for fertilizer production.

Created by a Dutch group of companies and research institutions, the mobile solar system may also be combined with an electrolyzer for hydrogen generation. Two prototypes are currently being tested by a farmer and a research institute in the Netherlands.