Hacking Hydrogen: A Silver Bullet for our Climate Crisis
Three ideas for deep tech solutions to mitigate high CO2 emissions with hydrogen energy
We all know the bad news: Past climate change predictions from the scientific community are now manifesting quickly and intensely.
Rising sea levels, harsh droughts, prolonged wildfires, and severe tropical storms are just some of the few examples of the consequences expected to get more frequent and intense in the near future.
Fortunately, we also have good news to share: more and more countries are getting serious about implementing real solutions.
One prime example is Germany: a long-time industrial powerhouse that is making major strides in recognizing and assuming its responsibility in mitigating factors contributing to climate change — with a big focus on the energy sector. More specifically, the German federal government has identified green hydrogen as a high-potential solution in supporting their energy transition away from fossil fuels.
In order to achieve their goal of greenhouse gas (GHG) neutrality by 2050, Germany has outlined an unprecedented National Hydrogen Strategy: a comprehensive strategic framework for generating, transporting, and using hydrogen as an alternative energy source. This framework provides a roadmap for the sustainable integration of hydrogen into Germany’s energy mix — detailing the necessary steps needed to meet national climate targets, encourage investments, foster innovation, and facilitate greater international cooperation in harmonizing energy policies.
The strategy outlines a multidimensional set of goals on a public, private, and international level to maximize hydrogen’s potential and opportunities. Strategic goals range from initiatives to enhance transportation and distribution infrastructure — to efforts in establishing international markets for hydrogen. But the most critical component of the strategy is to make hydrogen a competitive option — period.
In order to replace fossil fuels on a significant level, hydrogen technology needs to become more cost-effective in order to be economically and politically viable.
But the opportunities are vast: There are endless potential applications of hydrogen for high-energy consuming sectors.
Green hydrogen can be processed further into various synthetic fuels (like e-Methane, e-Methanol, and e-Gasoline). These e-fuels can be mixed with fossil fuels in increasing amounts to gradually phase out fossil fuel-powered energy as the primary energy source for many industries with stubbornly high emissions.
As one of the pioneers of the Industry 4.0 revolution, Germany has a huge opportunity to leverage new capabilities made possible by cutting-edge technologies to make hydrogen a more viable option.
Here are three ways that deep tech solutions could be applied to increase the competitiveness of hydrogen:
1. Modeling Hydrogen Production with Computational Intelligence & Machine Learning
An important lever to creating a solid market for hydrogen and attracting investments is reducing uncertainty — so that investors are willing to fund hydrogen projects. The German government is supporting this goal with energy policy reforms and programs to encourage new hydrogen ventures. The tech sector can be involved in this initiative by finding solutions to mitigate technology risks involved in green hydrogen production.
Hydrogen production is possible by several different methods — all of which differ in the amount of energy used in the hydrogen generation process. Computational intelligence (CI) and machine learning (ML) techniques can be used in this context of modeling hydrogen production to predict, assess, and optimize different hydrogen production methods.
Normally, complex mathematical equations and concepts are needed to explore the feasibility of different hydrogen production approaches. CI and MI techniques break down this complex task to better understand hydrogen production — reducing uncertainty for stakeholders as a result, and ultimately empowering greater renewable energy adoption.
2. Maintaining Hydrogen Generation Machinery with Computer Vision & Predictive Analytics
As the most common element in the universe, hydrogen is present in almost all chemical fuels. However, only green hydrogen produced by renewable power (solar, wind, or hydro) is 100% GHG emission-free and sustainable for the long run.
Electrical currents from renewable energy-powered sources are used in an electrolyzer to split water into constituent hydrogen and oxygen components, where the hydrogen is then stored for usage or further processing.
Currently, the high price tag on clean hydrogen energy is largely based on costs of the electricity itself — which is actually good news! If costs of renewable electricity are further reduced, it’s more likely that hydrogen can become economically viable. Fortunately, costs of renewables and electrolyzers are in a downward trend thanks to greater investments, R&D, and upward-scaling.
One big opportunity to reduce the costs of renewable energy production is smart asset management. AI and computer vision technology can be useful here in helping to increase the reliability of renewables. Continuous energy production from solar-, wind-, and hydro-power stations can be ensured with predictive maintenance of equipment with remote sensors, AI, and computer vision analytics. Preemptively inspecting and monitoring the health of renewable energy systems can help to detect and resolve potential problem areas before they snowball into more concrete (and more expensive) blockers to energy production.
“Climate change is likely a key factor in the origin and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic we are currently fighting around the world — so it is more urgent than ever before to conserve our natural ecosystems and create stable supplies of renewable energy worldwide,” said Baraa Said, senior data scientist at Think-it.
Reflecting on her firsthand experience building real-time, automated defect-detection systems for wind turbines, Baraa added that, “[W]ind stations are among the alternative power sources that require a lot of careful monitoring and constant supervision. While conventional maintenance services are costly and inefficient, predictive maintenance and smart inspection provides an effective solution for safely maintaining the operation of wind turbines and generating consistent renewable energy production.”
Successfully implementing predictive maintenance of renewable energy power stations not only increases public safety and productivity, but also cuts down generator downtimes — further promoting the credibility of renewables in powering safe and affordable hydrogen production.
3. Forecasting Energy Production and Consumption with Machine Learning
Lastly, machine learning and data science methods can be used to produce data-informed insights and statistics on substituting existing energy systems with hydrogen. Extrapolating from existing data on energy consumption and GHG emissions, ML algorithms can predict and model the cost structures involved in a wide-scale adoption of hydrogen-powered energy.
The status quo data on energy production, consumption, and GHG emissions can be compared with potential energy consumption and costs of energy usage when substituted with the hydrogen-power alternative. Actionable intelligence derived from these computations would be a big help in persuading important international and government bodies to cooperate and promote hydrogen-energy adoption. Providing policymakers greater transparency on costs, benefits, and limitations can drive smarter decision-making in positioning hydrogen as a more central part of the energy mix.
Conclusion
Despite the increasingly devastating effects of climate change, we can still maintain a positive outlook for the future of sustainable energy consumption. High-emission sectors like manufacturing and aviation are increasingly considering hydrogen as a compelling green solution for an energy alternative.
Thanks to increasing international backing for investing in hydrogen infrastructure with programs like Germany’s national strategy, there is a promising future for our global decarbonization strategy with hydrogen in the driver’s seat.
The technology sector has an important role to play here in using their technical expertise to solve complex and meaningful problems — and help us create a more sustainable system of energy production and usage. The ideas we’ve shared here are just the beginning — and we’re excited to see more impact-driven innovation come to life.
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