Energy Transition (Hydrogen Storage)
The hydrogen economy refers to a system in which Hydrogen is produced and widely used as the primary energy carrier. The use of Hydrogen as an energy source has many perks for the ecosystem, energy security, the economy, and consumers. Safe, compact, light, and cost-effective hydrogen storage is critical for developing a hydrogen economy. The common liquid or gaseous state storage systems face safety and budget issues for onboard applications and thus do not achieve expected targets for a hydrogen economy. Luckily, solid-state storage systems based on metal hydrides have shown great potential for storing vast amounts of Hydrogen in a reasonably safe, compact, and repeatedly reversible manner, making them an increasingly appealing option for hydrogen applications. However, the techno-economic feasibility of hydrogen storage systems has yet to be accomplished since none of the current metal hydrides meet all of the essential criteria for a practical hydrogen economy, owing to low hydrogen storage capacity, slow kinetics, and unacceptable temperatures of hydrogen absorption/desorption.
This article provides a brief overview of Hydrogen Storage with its challenges and its prospects of huge economic countries.
Hydrogen storage has been in the mainstream of research of most institutions, scientists, engineers and, governments for the last few decades. The main reason is that Hydrogen can aid in tackling the growing need for energy and cope with climate change. Hydrogen storage is the key to letting technology for sustainable energy development for the glee of the future. The hydrogen economy needs both types of storage systems (stationary and movable) to succeed.
It is expected the movable systems to be a higher number of consumers in the future, like Toyota hybrid cars, etc. Although Hydrogen has adequate features for fueling internal combustion engines in vehicles (cars, etc.), it is expected that Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) will replace conventional engines in the event of a hydrogen-based economy. Unlike other machines, which convert chemical energy into heat and then heat into mechanical energy, a PEMFC directly and efficiently transform the chemical energy of hydrogen fuel into electrical power and water (as the only byproduct) and is capable of reducing carbon emissions, current energy use, and dependence on oil.
Both stationary and movable storage systems, nevertheless, have some requirements and challenges. Challenges such as weight and volume are not as severe in stationary applications as they are in movable systems. Stationary systems have a larger space and perform at high temperatures and pressures. Despite this, incompetent materials are considered a significant technical barrier to the development of stationary systems.
Hydrogen can be stored in three basic types related to the size of storage and area of application:
- The gaseous state storage system
- The Liquid state storage systems
- The Solid-state storage systems
Let’s look at current policy of leading countries:
The US Department of Energy (DOE) targets the storage needs of movable applications recognizes the significance of weight and volumetric storage capacity. Here is a summary of DOE technical targets for onboard hydrogen storage for light-duty vehicles. In summary, high values of both parameters are highly preferred for competent hydrogen storage. However, how much the volume of the system is larger, the variety of the vehicles is more restricted. Other vital aspects of requirements for onboard hydrogen storage contain low-operating pressure, low-operating temperature between, low heat of formation to minimize the energy necessary for hydrogen release, low heat dissipation during the exothermic hydride formation, limited energy loss during charge and discharge of Hydrogen, etc.
The European Hydrogen roadmap to reach a sustainable pathway report which the details can be found in hear is also expresses the importance of Hydrogen in the energy transition, which is expected to consume 24% of whole energy by 2050. Here, it is said that Hydrogen is the only scalable technology that can cope with its challenges on a global scale.
The United Kingdom Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, set out a ten-point plan for a green industrial revolution(the ten points can be found here); interestingly, Hydrogen is one of these ten points that show how crucial it is. The UK has a strategy that is publicly accessible here.
The hydrogen industry is also considered in China’s 14th Five-Year-Plan as one of China’s six future industries. The China Hydrogen Alliance predicted that the value of the hydrogen industry will accomplish 152.6 billion dollars by 2050.
Also, Some giant oil companies(Royal Dutch Shell, BP, TotalEnergies SE) to redefine their future main role in the energy industry in a less fossil fuels dependent world, often with government support, have invested millions of millions of dollars in hydrogen.
Developing a hydrogen economy enables big Oil Companies to lead the energy industry, where energy is produced with no carbon dioxide emitting.
Shell has seen the great potential of hydrogen and found it as a great opportunity of accomplishing Net-Zero. you can see the shell’s project to implement the largest PEM Fuel Cells in Europe at some strategic locations, more information is available here.
Recently Total and Enie inked a cooperation agreement to develop France’s largest site in order to generate hydrogen with a creative management solution for hydrogen production and storage, further information can be found here.
Also, BP has decided to implement the largest project in the UK in Teesside to produce hydrogen united with carbon capture and storage (CCS); it is expected to start by 2027.
Finally, there are several other attempts by these companies and other companies which are trying to make a sustainable world for future generations.
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