Energy

<p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Currently, different transport technologies for hydrogen are available. Yet, regarding costs, convenience, and technological readiness, it is essential to understand that the right choice depends on several factors.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">The article below briefly overviews the most discussed technologies involving:</span></p><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li style="list-style-type: disc;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Compressed hydrogen</span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Liquefied hydrogen</span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Ammonia</span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">LOHC</span></li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;" data-preserver-spaces="true">Approaches for Hydrogen Transportation</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Compressed Hydrogen</span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;</span></span></strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">From a practical perspective, powering heavy-duty vehicles (e.g., buses, trains, and trucks) favors compressed hydrogen, whether at 350 Bar or even up to 700 Bar. The 700 Bar solutions primarily depend on the available gas station infrastructure, which differs from country to country.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">A minimum transport distance of 200-300 km is crucial since batteries are often a more economical solution for shorter distances.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Compressed hydrogen is also the preferred approach for storing and transporting hydrogen for up to 1000-2000 km.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Liquefied Hydrogen (LH2) &nbsp;</span></strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">By contrast, the use of liquefied hydrogen has&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">not solved</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;the issue of boil-off gas so far.</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">This</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;causes a significant loss of hydrogen over time, making it a&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">rather</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;poor choice for powering vehicles. Hence, the (heavy-duty) mobility sector will also use compressed hydrogen in the near future.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">However, looking at the transport of larger quantities of hydrogen (several tons) and longer distances (&gt; 2000 km), liquefied hydrogen is typically of interest for the maritime sector and the build-up of a global hydrogen infrastructure, where the low energy density of compressed hydrogen makes it simply too expensive to become a viable alternative.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">In particular, the transport of (green) hydrogen from its place of production in areas with low $/kg production costs (e.g., Middle East, Australia) to the regions of consumption (e.g., Europe and other regions with a high density of energy consumption) might, therefore, use liquefied hydrogen.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Though the energy loss from hydrogen liquefaction, the already mentioned issue around boil-off losses and insulation, and the high material requirements for temperatures below 250&deg; Celsius remain areas for improvement.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Ammonia (NH3)</span></strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">The technology for synthesizing (green) hydrogen with nitrogen to get (green) ammonia is well known and has been established for over a century.&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">However, the later extraction of the hydrogen from this green ammonia (cracking) has not yet been developed at a smaller scale that would be more compatible&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">e.g.</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;with gas stations.</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;Therefore, a possible mitigation might be to use ammonia directly as fertilizer or fuel and&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">completely</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;avoid hydrogen extraction.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">The transport of ammonia itself is&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">common</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;practice and less demanding than liquefied hydrogen. However, the fact that ammonia is&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">an extremely</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;hazardous substance will make it difficult to store&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">larger</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;amounts in densely populated areas.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true">LOHC</span></strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">LOHC (Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier) stores the hydrogen in an oil-like substance, which can then be transported at ambient temperatures without additional insulation or problems around toxicity&ndash; a significant advantage compared to LH2 and NH3.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">However, the energy demand for extracting the hydrogen again out of the oil is enormous.&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">At the same time, the technology has&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">not</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;yet&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">been</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;proven</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;to work on a larger scale, with several tons of hydrogen to be transported over decades (as with NH3 or LH2) to know about the degradation of the oil substance.</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">The transport of the &ldquo;de-loaded&rdquo; oil (after the hydrogen has been extracted) back to the place of &ldquo;re-loading&rdquo; (where produced hydrogen will be stored again in the oil) requires a much more complex infrastructure and a high level of dependency on the supplier of the LOHC chemicals.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Therefore, LOHC still requires more research and could cover&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">certain</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;niches along the intercontinental sea transport supply chains, where LH2 and NH3 are less convenient.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"><em>This article was contributed by our expert </em></span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/florian-jais-072989197/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Florian Jais</em></a></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h3 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Frequently Asked Questions Answered by Florian Jais</span></h3><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-preserver-spaces="true">1. What are the key trends shaping investor sentiment towards hydrogen transport and infrastructure investments, and how are these trends expected to evolve?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Two&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">major</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;aspects here are:</span></p><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li style="list-style-type: disc;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Price of hydrogen&nbsp;</span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Levelised Costs Of Hydrogen (LCOH).&nbsp;</span></li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">In the coming years, with larger production quantities of (green) hydrogen and the respective equipment (electrolyzers, fuel cells, cylinders,&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">etc.</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">), the costs for H2-production will go down, as will the LCOH.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Therefore, it is now more a question of which of the different transport technologies the majority of the investments&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">will go</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">.</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Larger companies are pushing for LH2 (Linde plc) and ammonia (Air Products) to build global infrastructure while LOHC is still under development.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-preserver-spaces="true">2. What are the potential synergies between hydrogen infrastructure development and other renewable energy initiatives?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Hydrogen can serve as a buffer to stabilize the electricity networks. Hence, overcapacity of electricity (e.g., solar power during the day)&nbsp;can be stored as hydrogen and is then released when there is a need to (e.g., at night).&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Even though the energy losses when transforming electric energy into hydrogen and back are valid, it is still better than not having this buffer at all. As a result, the more hydrogen we can produce with a respective infrastructure, the more the usage of renewable energies (solar, wind) will benefit&mdash;and vice versa.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-preserver-spaces="true">3. How does LOHC technology revolutionize the transport and storage of hydrogen compared to traditional methods?</span></h2><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li style="list-style-type: disc;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">No toxicity (compared to ammonia)</span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Usable</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;at ambient temperature (unlike LH2) and pressure levels (unlike compressed H2).&nbsp;</span></li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Therefore, the already existing infrastructure for transporting oil could&nbsp;be used without&nbsp;</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">major</span><span data-preserver-spaces="true">&nbsp;modifications.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p>