Applications of Hydrogen Fuel

Recently, its popularity grow rapidly due to the Paris Agreement and its minimal carbon footprint during consumption. It can be burnt directly or fed into a hydrogen fuel cell. There are four main applications for hydrogen fuel. They are transportation, industrial processes, energy, and buildings.

History

The implementation of hydrogen fuel is longer than you expected. NASA has been adopting hydrogen fuel since 1958. Hydrogen gas has been used both as rocket fuel and during space missions. Oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for fuel is produced through water splitting on the space station. In recent years, as the technologies improve, hydrogen shows a high potential for commercial use.

Transportation

Hydrogen fuel can be used in automobiles, railways, ships, and aircraft. Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, or the FCEVs, are suitable for both light and heavy-duty. Current existing FCEV models on the market include Mirai from Toyota, Clarity from Honda, and ix35 from Hyundai. They demonstrated excellent traveling range and charging time. For instance, Toyota Mirai in 2018 offers a maximum traveling distance of 550 km and a fully refilling time of 3 minutes. Compared to the electric vehicle, the batteries used by Tesla require a few hours to fully charge the vehicle to travel a distance of 450 km. Even with the supercharger, electric vehicles can only travel for 200 to 250 km with a charge time of 30 minutes. Hydrogen can have a higher energy density when contained under high pressure. Compared to a battery of a similar size, FCEV provides a longer traveling distance for the hydrogen vehicle and a faster refilling time than the electric vehicle.

Industrial Processes

For industrial processes, hydrogen can be used in steelmaking, refining, and chemical production to replace the role of fossil fuels. Heavy industry has caused a large amount of pollution and damage to the environment. As hydrogen fuel emits no greenhouse gases during consumption, it can eliminate the problem. In 2021, a Swedish iron- and steelmaking company SSAB announced the first commercial fossil-free steel. The announcement drew international attention and demonstrated the possibility of implementing hydrogen fuel. As heavy industries such as steel and cement making are difficult to replace with electricity, it is a sweet spot for hydrogen fuel.

Energy

In the energy sector, hydrogen can be a backup and off-grid power for essential infrastructures such as hospitals and data centers. For data centers, hydrogen fuel can improve operational flexibility and decreases the constraints of clean air permits. Grid-connected hydrogen generation has the flexibility of scaling up and down to better suit different renewable energy systems. Moreover, hydrogen fuel can act as long-term storage for renewable energy. This can prevent the use of batteries and their potential of polluting the environment.

Building

Hydrogen can be used for the heating of domestic and commercial buildings by feeding into hydrogen fuel cells to generate electricity. Although pure hydrogen is possible for heating, it lacks the basic infrastructures such as pipelines for transferring the hydrogen gas. A compromise can be made by mixing hydrogen with fossil fuel to provide heating. A phase-out of fossil fuel for residential and commercial heating is feasible once the infrastructures for supplying hydrogen are fully installed.

All in all, hydrogen fuel has several applications across different sectors and shows high potential in substituting fossil fuel.