Forget “green” hydrogen. It’s now all about the “blue.”
It’s been about 30 years since I took my first ride in a hydrogen-fuelled vehicle — a prototype bus powered by an early developmental Ballard fuel cell.
I’ve lost track of how many hydrogen fuel-cell-powered vehicles I’ve driven or ridden in since then, but what they almost all had in common (beyond their powertrains) was that they were experimental vehicles — not production models. And the storyline for each was that hydrogen was the fuel of the future.
Since that first ride, I’ve written about breakthroughs in fuel-cell development on average every two years, including a few times in this column. And the storyline hasn’t changed; hydrogen is still the fuel of the future. A future that perpetually seems just out of reach. Or is it?
Given that background, I admit to some cynicism on learning that our federal government is developing a long-term strategy to give Canada a role in the hydrogen market, which it says is expected to be a significant global industry in the decades ahead.
The fact is, most of the automotive companies that pioneered and made major investments in early fuel-cell research and development have dramatically backed off, if not abandoned their efforts.
Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Toyota, and others have all built fuel-cell prototypes for real-world evaluation — some of them in significant numbers, including 100-plus Chevrolet Equinoxes, converted by GM Canada in Oshawa.
More recently, a 2017 joint venture between GM and Honda on hydrogen fuel-cell development has now shifted its focus to battery-electric vehicles.
Still, Honda, Hyundai and Toyota have persevered with the technology and both the Hyundai Nexo and Toyota Mirai, with fuel-cell power plants, are now commercially available in some regions of Canada. But they remain high-priced novelties, not threats to mainstream norms or even to battery-powered electric vehicles. And that seems to be the ongoing narrative for the fuel-cell future — at least for personal vehicles.
So why are the feds developing a hydrogen strategy? And why have both Alberta and Quebec committed funding to the hydrogen industry?
As we’ve discussed here before, the big advantage offered by hydrogen fuel cells is zero emissions at the tailpipe. Their only output is water vapour. Their negatives, however, include high manufacturing costs for fuel cells and high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from the production of hydrogen.
While “green” hydrogen with net-zero emissions can be produced by electrolysis using electricity generated solely by renewable resources, that capability is currently both expensive and very limited. Almost all the commercial hydrogen currently produced here comes from steam reformation of natural gas, for which GHG emissions are very high.
Some recent rethinking on both the fuel-cell and hydrogen fronts could make more attractive alternatives than they have been until now.
With respect to fuel cells, it’s a case of bigger is better. The bigger and more expensive the vehicles they are propelling, the less important their relative cost becomes. Which makes heavy-duty trucks a promising market, especially in Europe where stringent GHG-emissions regulations are forcing alternatives to traditional diesel power.
In those high-energy applications, hydrogen fuel cells offer substantial weight advantages compared to battery electrics.
Hyundai recently began delivery of its hydrogen-fuelled Xcient heavy-duty trucks — powered by two fuel-cell stacks from its Nexo crossover — to customers in Switzerland. And it is working on next-generation hydrogen trucks, ultimately destined for Europe, China, and North America.
Toyota, too, has announced plans to develop a Class 8 fuel-cell electric truck for the North American market, along with truck subsidiary Hino. Daimler recently unveiled a fuel-cell-powered, long-haul rig scheduled to begin customer trials in 2023. And Nikola promises an entry as well.
On the fuel side, while significant commercial supplies of “green” hydrogen may still be a distant hope, production of “blue” hydrogen seems more promising. Like the current commercial product, “blue” hydrogen is produced from natural gas using the steam reformation process, but its resulting GHG emissions are constrained via carbon capture technology.
It is that “blue” hydrogen potential that makes hydrogen fuel-cell technologies politically attractive to governments, both at the federal and provincial level, for it offers a potential means of addressing global warming concerns and fossil-fuel industry declines at the same time. That is, if carbon capture technology proves to be truly effective in the long-term at commercial scale.
The upside of those developments for potential fuel-cell use in private vehicles is that their prices are likely to come down, and hydrogen infrastructure should improve as production levels for both the power plants and the fuel increase. Maybe!
