hydrogen economy

Fortescue Future Industries says the first electrolyzers to be manufactured at the facility, early next year, are earmarked for use in Queensland at FFI’s planned green-hydrogen-to-ammonia project on Gibson Island.

Adani and Canadian PEM fuel cell producer Ballard Power Systems will examine various co-operation opportunities including fuel cell production.

Researchers from the United States have investigated how fuel cells and electrolyzers may be able to operate under intermittent availability provided by both wind and solar and have found that an affordable hydrogen-based system for seasonal energy storage could be achieved at a hydrogen price lower than $3, produced from inexpensive renewable electricity at $0.02/kWh.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory launched a new catalyst based on nitrogen and carbon to extract hydrogen from hydrogen storage materials at mild temperatures and under normal atmospheric conditions. Furthermore, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the country is working on attracting new investments in electric vehicles and hydrogen and Norwegian consultancy and classification society DNV launched, together with 18 industry partners, a new Joint Industry Project (JIP) to enhance the standardization for hydrogen production systems that use renewable energy-powered electrolysis to produce green hydrogen.

Researchers at Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE have estimated the costs for both alkaline (AEL) and proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers and have found that AEL systems have bigger margins for cost reduction. According to their calculations, the costs of a large scale AEL electrolyzer with a capacity of 100MW should drop from €663/kW in 2020 to €444 in 2030.

Researchers from Finland and Sweden have reviewed different ways to store compressed gaseous hydrogen, including storage vessels, geological storage, and other underground options.

Germany’s Schaeffler is developing a hydrogen fuel cell that runs on a liquid organic hydrogen carrier, and Australia’s H2X Global has formed a joint venture with Indian automotive components manufacturer Advik Hi-Tech to manufacture hydrogen fuel cells, generators and vehicles.

Elsewhere, several hydrogen projects were announced in Norway, Germany, India, China and the UK. Royal Dutch Shell started operations at the power-to-hydrogen electrolyzer in China and Germany’s Linde Engineering signed a contract for the construction a green hydrogen demonstration plant in Norway. Furthermore, Green Hydrogen Systems signed a supply agreement with Edinburgh-based Logan Energy to deliver electrolysis equipment for a project in England.

New research from the U.K. shows the increasing competitiveness of long-distance hydrogen interconnectors over the next three decades. Compared to high-voltage electricity cables, hydrogen interconnectors may soon achieve a much lower levelized cost of storage and their ability to further reduce the final LCOE will depend on how much electrolyzer costs will reduce over the years.

According to BloombergNEF, electrolyzer shipments may reach up to 2.5GW in 2022, up significantly from 458MW last year. China and the United States will become the world’s first and second markets, respectively.