July 18, 2022 • Paul Rodden • Season: 2022 • Episode: 131
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Welcome to The Hydrogen Podcast!
In episode 131, A monster announcement by Monolith gets released and research and markets talks hydrogen fueling station growth. All of this on today’s hydrogen podcast.
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Transcript:
A monster announcement by Monolith gets released and research and markets talks hydrogen fueling station growth. All of this on today’s hydrogen podcast.
So the big questions in the energy industry today are, how is hydrogen the primary driving force behind the evolution of energy? Where is capital being deployed for hydrogen projects globally? And where are the best investment opportunities for early adopters who recognize the importance of hydrogen? I will address the critical issues and give you the information you need to deploy capital. Those are the questions that will unlock the potential of hydrogen, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Paul Rodden, and welcome to the hydrogen podcast.
In a press release on July 14, Monolith raises more than $300 million and their latest funding round led by TPG Rise Climate, Decarbonization Partners. Monolith a global leader in clean hydrogen, carbon black and ammonia, on July 14 announced its latest investment round of more than $300 million led by TPG rise climate the dedicated climate investing strategy of TPG Global Impact Investing platform TPG rise with decarbonisation partners, a partnership between BlackRock and Temasek as CO lead the investment marks the latest milestone in the company’s global decarbonisation efforts. additional investment was also received from NextEra Energy Resources, SK, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America and Azmuth Capital Management. The existing investor group including Azmuth, Capital Management, Cornell capital, and Warburg Pincus will retain their majority ownership stake in the company. According to Rob Hansen, co founder and CEO of Monolith, global decarbonisation by 2050 will require bold steps and transformational partnerships, which they believe they found in working with TPG rise climate and decarbonisation partners. He says that they’re eager to continue monoliths growth trajectory to support a high energy low emissions future.
Now monolith cleanly produces essential materials including hydrogen and carbon black by utilizing an innovative and proprietary breakthrough and commercial scale methane pyrolysis, and was the first US manufacturer to produce clean hydrogen using methane pyrolysis at scale. This innovation attracted worldwide attention, prompting organizations like SK to sign a memorandum of understanding last October with monolith to produce clean hydrogen and carbon black in South Korea. It also generated a collaboration agreement and letter of intent with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in late 20 of 21. Now, this latest round of funding will be applied toward further technological development that will offer next generation product capabilities and other corporate level expansion. It will also enable monoliths continued development of a deep backlog of clean hydrogen, ammonia and carbon projects with industry leading partners.
And in a quote from Jonathan Garfunkel, who is a partner at TPG and senior member of its climate investing team. He says our investment in monolith reflects TPG rise climates pursuit of companies developing clean molecules and materials providing sustainable cost competitive alternatives to carbon and hydrogen based products. He continues to say following a decade of research and development, monolith has developed expensive intellectual property, deployed the methane pyrolysis process in innovative ways and established itself as a unique solution for an industry that is otherwise incredibly emissions intensive. He says that they look forward to partnering with monolith to further develop and scale its technology. And also in a quote from Dr. Megan Sharp Global Head of decarbonisation partners, she says producing sustainable hydrogen and carbon black is crucial to decarbonizing the energy and materials industry. She says that they’re pleased to support monoliths growth and continued expansion, monolith has established itself as a technological leader. In methane pyrolysis providing sustainable low cost hydrogen and carbon black from natural gas. They said that they see significant opportunity for the company to continue scaling as technology and abling, the decarbonisation of a broad range of important in markets. Now monolith has attracted the interest of numerous high profile clean energy investors, and recently received conditional approval for more than a billion dollars in loans from the Department of Energy Loan Programs Office to expand his production facilities in Nebraska.
The DOE loan has not yet closed and is still subject to satisfaction and final conditions. Now Monolith is headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, and was founded in 2012 and currently operates its first commercial scale production facility and Hallam Nebraska. They also have offices and r&d facilities in Lincoln, San Carlos, California, Denver, Colorado and Kansas City, Kansas. Its newest production facility olive Creek to is expected to be completed in 2026. Okay, so a huge funding round for monolith. And it’s no surprise that these companies are just throwing money at them. They have a great technology for generating hydrogen and solid carbon, and have been doing so for a decade. It’s also not surprising to see some big global players start investing in this company, if for no other reason than their ammonia production capabilities, and I’ve talked about this before on the show, ammonia is going to be a critical resource in the next few years as fertilizer suppliers from Eastern Europe have dried up. And something else of note that I’ve covered a couple of times in the past, and that is the ability for new hydrogen operators to be able to scale. And Monolith is a prime example of how hydrogen operators are doing that with the olive Creek 2 production facility. Now, that’s still four years away, but even still, I’m expecting explosive growth from this company. Next in a press release on July 13.
Research and markets report global market for hydrogen fueling stations for 2022 through 2036, enhanced capabilities and lowering costs to drive growth. And the report out of Dublin the global market for hydrogen fueling stations 2022 report has been added to research and market dot coms offering by year end 2021. Over public hydrogen stations were deployed globally, representing a dramatic increase over 2020. These deployments represent the highest number of station deployments in a single year. The deployments of hydrogen stations have picked up in several countries, particularly in APAC, and Europe, and 2021 the highest number of new hydrogen stations were deployed in China, followed by Korea and Europe, France led with new deployments, and so with 2021 as the base year This report provides a 15 year forecast through the year 2036. During the forecast period, the deployments of hydrogen stations will grow as a function of their declining costs and the uptake of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The capabilities of hydrogen stations are being enhanced while their costs are declining. The capabilities include higher fueling pressures, increased fueling capacity, and expanded hydrogen storage. Now there is currently a push to supply these stations with green hydrogen or hydrogen produced from clean energy sources such as solar panels and wind turbines. Now this trend is in line with a global drive for green energy completely free of carbon. Information trends projects that by 2030, the industry in many countries will become sufficiently self reliant and independent, so as not to need any intervention from governmental organizations for its financial sustenance.
South Korea, Austria and Denmark are the first countries where enough hydrogen stations were deployed to allow a fuel cell vehicle to travel across the country. And in the US hydrogen station deployments in California allow a fuel cell vehicle to travel anywhere in the state and be supported by the hydrogen fueling network. In addition to hydrogen stations for passenger vehicles, hydrogen stations for heavy duty transportation are increasingly being deployed. These include stations for buses, trucks, and forklifts, and in the upcoming years, the fueling stations will begin to supply hydrogen to trains, aircraft and maritime vehicles further driving their growth. The sums of money being poured into hydrogen station deployments are staggering. These deployments will generate $9 billion in revenue through 2036.
The biggest chunk of the revenue will come from the APAC region, followed by Europe. And just a brief look at the scope of this study. Now in this study, hydrogen stations are classified as retail non retail and private. Now retail stations are those designated for light duty passenger non commercial vehicles. Non retail stations are those designated for commercial vehicles such as buses, trucks, forklifts, locomotives, and maritime vehicles. They include stations being used by companies and organizations just for their internal needs. And then there are private stations and these stations are being used for trials and r&d. Both retail and non retail stations are considered public and quantifying the market this study considers only retail and non retail stations. The study does not consider hydrogen enriched compressed natural gas stations as part of the hydrogen station market. hydrogen stations offered compression levels below 30 MPA are also beyond the scope of this study. Okay, so some interesting future looking figures from research and markets.
And from what I can tell in the hydrogen market as a global whole, I think they’re right in saying that the APAC region is going to experience the biggest growth in terms of hydrogen fueling station development and revenue. I also think they’re right in saying that Europe will follow. I think their projection of 9 billion in revenue future 2036 may be a bit inflated, though, just because I don’t see in this timeframe, trains aircraft and maritime vehicles pushing growth that much. That’s not to say, I don’t believe that there’s a market there. I do think so. But I think that transition is going to take longer than the next 15 years. I also think their statement about green hydrogen in this article is a bit of greenwashing. Because when it comes to fueling stations, if you look at the current fueling stations, for internal combustion engine vehicles, the gasoline that you get there can come from any source, all of that refined product from upstream and midstream operators, like shell, and Exxon, are all stored together in massive tanks. And then the operators will put in their additives after that, to go to the filling stations. And I think it’s going to be the same way for hydrogen. It’s not going to matter how the hydrogen is developed, it’s all going to go to a central facility and then redistributed for the filling stations. I do think the biggest question right now is if and when the US is going to adopt a hydrogen infrastructure. And I know there have been talks of hydrogen highways running from the East Coast to the West Coast. And hubs are in development throughout the United States.
But as of now, there are no unifying plans to create a hydrogen infrastructure network within the United States. But if that does happen, you can look to see explosive growth here in the US for markets like hydrogen fueling stations. And so to me, that’s the big question mark right now for this market.
Alright, that’s it for me, everyone. If you have a second, I would really appreciate it. If you could leave a good review on whatever platform it is that you listen to Apple podcast, Spotify, Google, whatever it is, that will be a tremendous help to the show. And as always, if you ever have any feedback, you’re welcome to email me directly at info@thehydrogenpodcast.com. And as always, take care. Stay safe. I’ll talk to you later.
Hey, this is Paul. I hope you liked this podcast. If you did and want to hear more. I’d appreciate it if you would either subscribe to this channel on YouTube, or connect with your favorite platform through my website at www.thehydrogenpodcast.com. Thanks for listening I very much appreciate it. Have a great day.
