August 02, 2021 • Paul Rodden • Season: 2021 • Episode: 34
Welcome to The Hydrogen Podcast!
In episode 034 , Hyundai is bringing a fleet of hydrogen trucks to the US. Jera Americas is pushing forward with hydrogen blending projects. Black and Veatch guide point of views hydrogen production for vehicle fuel study. And Johnson Matthey acquires assets to accelerate green hydrogen scale up. All of this on today’s hydrogen podcast.
Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy the podcast. Please feel free to email me at info@thehydrogenpodcast.com with any questions. Also, if you wouldn’t mind subscribing to my podcast using your preferred platform… I would greatly appreciate it.
Respectfully,
Paul Rodden
VISIT THE HYDROGEN PODCAST WEBSITE https://thehydrogenpodcast.com
CHECK OUT OUR BLOG https://thehydrogenpodcast.com/blog/
WANT TO SPONSOR THE PODCAST? Send us an email to: info@thehydrogenpodcast.com
Listen Now:
>Direct Link To The Hydrogen Podcast MP3<
Transcript:
Hyundai is bringing a fleet of hydrogen trucks to the US. Jera Americas is pushing forward with hydrogen blending projects. Black and Veatch guide point of views hydrogen production for vehicle fuel study. And Johnson Matthey acquires assets to accelerate green hydrogen scale up. 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 an article from autoweek.com a fleet of axcient trucks is on his way to California, but the state will still need more hydrogen stations. Hyundai is one of several automakers that have made a bet on a hydrogen fuel cell power trains ranging from passenger cars to semi trucks. And this year Hyundai will bring the ladder to California in a trial run of sorts. The South Korean automaker will send its axcient trucks across the Pacific, which the company bills is the world’s first mass produced heavy duty hydrogen fuel cell trucks. After the vehicles debuted in Switzerland in 2020. It’s a class eight vehicle which offers a maximum of 500 mile range and a gross combination weight of more than 37 tons. The trucks are planned to be used by the automakers public and private partners to operate within the state.
Two trucks will arrive this year as part of an EPA funded pilot effort, with an additional 30 arriving in early 2023. Starting in August, the first two trucks will perform long haul freight runs between warehouses in Southern California, mostly relying on three hydrogen stations operated by First Element Fuel for 12 months. The second larger effort will be funded by grants from the California Energy Commission and the California Air Resources Board. In addition to funds from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the Alameda County Transportation Commission, the consortium led by the Center for transportation and the environment plans to build a high capacity hydrogen refueling station in Oakland.
With enough fuel plan to support 50 trucks, it’s expected that the trucks themselves will serve similar routes from the ports to warehouses. This effort looks to mirror largely the hydrogen truck trials currently underway in Europe, with trucks using a hydrogen corridor of sorts between large port cities and manufacturing centers. The bigger picture here is that hydrogen fuel cell power trains increasingly appear to be more fruitful endeavor for class A trucks rather than passenger cars. A number of automakers including Hyundai are still trying to make hydrogen fcev’s happen for passenger vehicles. But the glacial pace of hydrogen infrastructure growth has made the effort seem like a missed opportunity to have invested in EV’s instead.
Several truck makers are now betting that large trucks owned by logistics companies, coupled with hydrogen corridors between port cities and industrial centers will present a much more realistic opportunity for growing this zero emission technology. According to the deputy director of fuels and transportation division at California Energy Hannon Rasool. We are proud to fund this Hallmark deployment of 30 hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks and improve the air quality in Northern California. These investments will support zero emission trucks and infrastructure development and deployment as part of the US market ecosystem.
Public and Private project partners have come together to take a big step forward in decarbonizing freight and goods movement as part of the carb and CEC’s clean air initiatives. Personally, I’m glad to see more fuel cell EV class eight trucks headed to the US with my hope being that more port cities will invest in hydrogen infrastructure. And next in an article from h2view.com Jera America’s pushing forward with hydrogen blending projects. Jera America has unveiled plans to blend hydrogen at two plants to support the reduction of carbon emissions. This has seen the group make initial strides towards employing hydrogen fuel blending in its us power generation portfolio. An example of this is Linden Cogeneration, who Jera Americas has a 50% interest in signing an agreement with Phillips 66 Linden cogen will take hydrogen containing fuel gas produced at the Bayway refinery and blend it with natural gas used to fuel the 172 megawatt Linden Cogen unit six gas turbines. The modification will enable using a fuel gas blend which contains up to 40% hydrogen.
The project is expected to be completed in 2022 and will improve overall refinery and Linden cogent operational efficiency or reduce air emissions primarily through improved furnace and flare efficiencies. While actual reductions will based on how much hydrogen is used at any given time. Plant operation, the company anticipates a reduction in carbon emissions of up to approximately 10% annually from unit six. And in addition to this, Jera Americas is also involved in a second project to employ hydrogen technology to reduce carbon emissions in the Cricket Valley Energy Center. The company is part owner of cricket Valley, which signed a memorandum of understanding with GE to develop a green hydrogen demonstration project in New York State.
The agreement calls for using hydrogen for 5% of the fuel and one of the three units to power the station, which initiates the first step toward converting to 100% hydrogen fuel capable plant. Stephen Wynn, CEO of Jera Americas said our parent company Jera has set an ambitious goal to be net zero carbon by 2050. With an interim goal of 20% reduction in carbon emission intensity for its business in Japan by 2030. They set the vision to be a global leader in LNG and renewables, sparking the transition to a clean energy economy. We support that goal and we’ll also be working toward the same net zero carbon emissions goal here in North America. We intend to move forward on many fronts to achieve meaningful carbon reductions. These two agreements at Linden, cogent and cricket Valley are a starting point on our journey to a clean energy future.
Next, an article from Yahoo Finance, Black and Veatch guides point of views hydrogen production for vehicle fuel study, artificial intelligence business Empati, has commissioned black and Veatch to deliver a study into the feasibility of using distributed production of green hydrogen to fuel vehicle fleets. Black and Veatch will provide an economic logistical and technical assessment of on site on demand hydrogen productions potential as a fuel for fleet operators seeking to decarbonize. Hydrogen is a proven vehicle fuel. Green hydrogen produced using renewable energies offers fleet operators are route to achieving decarbonisation targets.
The convention is for centralized hydrogen production than transportation for storage of Fleet depots or filling stations. Black and Veatch’s study will seek to confirm the small scale distribution hydrogen production, at the point of views offers a viable alternative and achieving competitive price points. According to Jonathan Christiani, who’s the Advanced Power and fuels engineer at Black and Veatch, we will establish the technical requirements of the economic model for distributed renewable generation to power small scale on site hydrogen production. Because commercial viability requires a supply chain capable of supporting a network of distributed green hydrogen facilities. Our study addresses the entire hydrogen ecosystem, and not just the technology.
The study will build upon the company’s experience in developing hydrogen vehicle fuel infrastructure, and distributed hydrogen power assets, as well as project experience that establishes hydrogen as a viable piece of the future of decarbonisation. The study will be carried out along with a collaborative project to integrate Empati’s ai platform with Black and Veatch’s asset 360 platform. According to Gopal Ramchurn, the CO CEO of Empati, we see green hydrogen as a digital fuel that is a perfect fit for a decentralized setup such as networks of filling stations, or fleet depots, we look to deploy our technology globally, partnering with the most innovative companies across the hydrogen supply chain.
As a technology agnostic partner with real world experience in hydrogen and every point in the lifecycle of distributed power and alternative vehicle infrastructure. Black and Veatch is ideally placed to help us do that. Now this study is going to be a critical piece of the advancement of the hydrogen industry. And I’m very excited to see how the study by Black and Veatch turns out. And lastly, by a press release from Johnson Matthey, they’ve acquired assets to accelerate green hydrogen scale up. So on July 28, Johnson Matthey, who is a global leader in sustainable technologies, announced its acquisition of the assets and intellectual property of Oxus Energy limited, which is based near Oxford, UK. Oxus Energy was a lithium sulfur battery developer with assets which can be adapted for the manufacturing of components for green hydrogen production.
The company entered administration on the 19th of May of this year. With moderate additional investment and upgrades, this transaction will significantly accelerate the scale up of Johnson Matthey growing green hydrogen business. The facility will further expand Johnson Mattheys abilities to develop, test and manufacture catalyst coated membranes and advanced materials for electrolyzers. As this market continues to develop very rapidly, in response to a positive progress with customers, the site will enable to production of 10s of 1000s of catalyst coated membrane parts per year, enough to equip hundreds of megawatts of electrolyzer capacity.
The CEO of Johnson Matthey Robert MacLeod said, We are delighted to secure this acquisition. The capability this opportunity delivers on a raw green hydrogen business to accelerate the scale up of CCN production in line with market demand. The purchase of these assets further demonstrates our commitment to developing a low carbon economy and progressing toward net zero. Eugene Mckinna, the managing director of green hydrogen commented, acquiring oxus energy’s assets enables us to support our customers as they meet the strong demand for proton exchange membrane electrolyzers used to produce green hydrogen, improving electrolyzer efficiency and reducing the cost of hydrogen are key to furthering the development of the green hydrogen market and scaling up CCN manufacturing will help bring Johnson Matthey and our customers closer to achieving this goal.
Alright, that’s it for me, everyone. If you have any questions, comments or concerns about today’s episode, come and visit me on my website at thehydrogenpodcast.com and let me know. I would really love to hear from you. 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 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.
