Hydrogen energy efficiency technology in action — ship industry
Innovation is nothing more than a way to generate the next big ideas. In the world of the phrases “added value”, innovation plays a central idea in the popular imagination, in the public policy and in the media. Thus, human progress could not happen without plenty of innovation into new advanced technologies which are present in all industries and allow to transport goods around the world.
As the global media releases every day tons of news regarding the global climate changes and environmental damages done by people, more and more technological companies take into account their business impact on everything around. One of the most pressing global challenges which can get a business into trouble is lack of resources available for production purposes or much more important — global warming. Without swift action to those challenges, global technological progress is set to accelerate with potentially catastrophic consequences.
In view of megatrends such as urbanization, industrialization, agriculture growth, the world electricity demand is expected to increase by more than 70% by 2040. The power sector accounts for more than half of the increase in global primary energy use. However without logistics companies could not deliver anything to their customer. In the 21stcentury around 90% of world trade by volume is carried by the international shipping. The global ship industry contributes an essential part of the modern world economy. For centuries, wind was the force that moved cargo ships around the globe, until it was replaced by steam and then diesel during the previous industrial revolutions. Currently, because of global warming, business is required to significantly reduce CO2 emissions. As the shipping sector comes under even more pressure for its emission and pollution, there is a huge demand for new advanced sail power solutions to transport cargo.
Globally, shipping emits 3% of CO2 and would be the 6thbiggest emitter after energy sectors, transport and industries. The only thing we can do to change these statistics is to accelerate innovation which is a key component in bridging the CO2 emission.
One of many new potential technologies for shipping is hydrogen fuel cells as a means of ecofriendly ship propulsion. Fuel cell technologies play an increasingly leading role in accelerating the industry wide adoption of sustainable solutions for both land and marine e-mobility. Generally fuel cells generate energy by exploiting an electrochemical reaction at the interface between anode or cathode and the electrolyte membrane. In this case, chemical energy is converted from hydrogen into electricity through electrochemical reaction with oxygen producing also water and heat. Because of low operating temperature (below one hundred Celsius degrees) water is usually in liquid state and is removed from cathode side. The base technology already exists for use on land where it helps overcome the problem of intermittent energy supply from renewables but hydrogen fuel cells have never been used at sea before until 2018.
In 2018, Toyota released the news that the company was going to send the first autonomous hydrogen vessel to a tour and deliver a system that produced carbon free hydrogen from seawater. The main purpose of the project was to show the feasibility of hydrogen power which had struggled to find a practical and affordable use. Finally the ship was going to visit 50 countries during the 6 year long tour. As the source of power the ship removes the salt and ions from ocean water and then separates it into its base element: hydrogen and oxygen — the basic components needed to produce power. The hydrogen is stored until it’s needed for fuel.
Then a year later, ABB — the global automation and robotics company announced that it provides a power and propulsion solution based on hydrogen fuel cells for a newly built vessel operating in France, due for delivery in 2021. According to the corporation website, with hydrogen for the fuel cells sourced from shore-based renewable energy, the complete vessel energy chain will be CO2 emission free. The ABB project objective is to demonstrate that fuel cells can be a practical and deliverable propulsion solution for ship builders of mid-sized passenger or freight vessels.
According to international statistics, fuel has been and is still the biggest factor in the operational cost of vessels. If alternative fuel prices are equal, the efficiency of the entire system is going to play the first role. Thus, there is a chance that after Toyota and ABB — other global technological companies will consider hydrogen as an alternative source of power.
The problem is always the cost. While hydrogen-based vessels seem to be economical to build and are estimated to cost no more than a diesel-powered vehicle, the only thing standing in the way is operating costs. Currently, unlike with an electric vehicle where initial cost is high but maintenance is much lower, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles struggle in long term competitiveness due to the cost of hydrogen fuel which is relatively quite high. Definitely, in a couple of years, synthetic fuels and hydrogen will be much more cost competitive than they are now, while renewable power energy will grow in zones where that capacity exists.
Summary
Without an innovation strategy, innovation improvement effects can easily become a waste bag of much touted best practices: setting up corporate joint venture capital funds, dividing R&D into autonomous teams or spawning internal entrepreneurial ventures. In the long term, hydrogen and renewable sources of power production will grow together with logistic chain development and infrastructure. Furthermore, hydrogen fuel cells seem to be one good emission-free alternative to power marine vessels.
Looking at the list of advantages of hydrogen fuel, we can indicate that the only emission it releases is water, hydrogen can also be stored and used whenever there is a need. What is more, none of those potential advantages includes the significant fact that such as boat would contribute less to climate change than a similar diesel vessel.
Green shipping technologies including hybrid or hydrogen concepts will reduce fuel costs and other operation costs. The EU, Japan, the US and now China are all moving on hydrogen fuel cell technologies and promoting their use in various applications. It’s just a matter of time when a new source of power will replace the current diesel powered ships. This would allow us to move away from combustion in 30 years with a combination of batteries and fuel cells.
Written by Lukasz Kudlak
