June Updates from CHBC’s Development Specialist
During the course of the month of June, the following notable works were performed by Cory Shumaker. This summary only includes information that would be found valuable for CHBC members. Meeting and event summaries are meant to be published in the CHBC newsletter or website as felt necessary.
Attended the CertifHy webinar on June 12. The summary of the webinar is as follows:
The first European-wide guaranty of origin system for green and low carbon hydrogen was created through the CertifHy program in 2014. The program has three phases, with the first phase completed in 2016; the objective was to define green and low carbon hydrogen. Green hydrogen is defined as being produced from biogas, hydropower, wind, or solar. Blue hydrogen is considered ‘low carbon’, defined as being produced from fossil fuel or nuclear sources with carbon capture.
Phase two began in 2017 with the objective to setup and run a pilot hydrogen guaranty of origin (GO) scheme while defining the necessary actions to achieve an EU wide deployment. Four pilot producers with different production hydrogen pathways will lead to the issuance of GO made available to the market: 1) SMR of natural gas with carbon capture in Port Jerome, France by Air Liquide 2) Electrolyzer with wind power in Halle, Belgium by Colruyt 3) Chlorine Alkaline in Botiek, Netherlands by Air Products and AlczoNobel 4) Electrolyzer with grid power in Falkenhagen, Germany by Uniper. Phase three will commence in 2019 with the plan of preparing for EU wide deployment and finalizing regulation, codes and standards. There are over 25 stakeholder members in the program with growing international interest from the US and Australia. For more information go to http://www.certifhy.eu/
Attended the World Hydrogen Energy Conference on June 18-21 in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. The summary of the event is as follows:
Every two years the World Hydrogen Energy Conference meets at a different location to discuss the global progress of hydrogen energy in applications around the world. This year the event was hosted in Brazil, a country known for its well-built out ethanol infrastructure and large scale renewable energy projects, specifically hydropower. Diesel is not readily available in Brazil, as a result most vehicles run on ethanol with the exception of heavy trucks and equipment. There is a large opportunity for SOFCs that can run on ethanol in the country.
Another opportunity for Brazil is to take advantage of the excess energy produced from hydropower in the rainy season. There is too much electricity produced at the hydropower dams water is spilled over instead of going through the turbine generators. This excess water energy could be converted into a large source of green hydrogen. The grid is about 80% power generation from hydropower. The issue with introducing hydrogen infrastructure into Brazil is the lack of experience with the technology and the desire to develop that expertise domestically. Hydrogen has a long way to go in Brazil and South America, although there is great potential with a renewable dominant electricity grid in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.
Other updates from around the world were presented at the conference. Argentina has their first power-to-gas plant in operation since 2009 operated by Hychico. The 2.4 million cubic meters of hydrogen produced have been mixed with natural gas to supply fuel to a genset providing electricity. The objective is to have 10 fuel cell buses running on green hydrogen.
China has 40 types of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles registered, over 1,000 FCEVs integrated last year and has a desire to make 10,000+ FCEVs per year.
Germany has been moving forward with hydrogen trains with 14 to be installed in Lower Saxony by 2021. Both Alstom and Siemens are testing hydrogen fuel cell trains. A total of 160 trains from a number of train operators are willing to order hydrogen trains within the next year. Germany is looking closely at hydrogen in maritime applications including providing auxiliary power for ships and propulsion for river vessels.
Japan is continuing to be aggressive with FCEVs lead by Toyota and Honda. The goal is to have 200,000 FCEVs on the road in Japan by 2025 with 320 stations, and 800,000 FCEVs with 900 stations by 2030. Cost of building hydrogen stations in Japan is still much higher than the US and rest of the world. However, fuel cell costs and vehicle costs have come down significantly with Toyota able to reduce the cost of a Mirai by a multiple of 20. For the upcoming Olympic Games in Japan the objective is to have 100 fuel cell buses in operation.
Overall, the world needs to come together to continue to reduce the cost of fuel cells and hydrogen. It will be a critical part of reaching the emission reductions set forth by the Paris Agreement as the final emission reductions will be the most difficult to achieve.
Attended Driving Mobility 5 put on by SustainOC on June 28th in Irvine, CA. The summary of the event is as follows:
In its 5th year, Driving Mobility 5 had the objective of putting together a day with speakers to discuss the different aspects of what the future of transportation will look like. Hydrogen and fuel cells were well represented on the first panel of the day.
To kick off the event, Matt Miyasato, SCAQMD, talked about how important it is for the south coast air basin to clean up its air for the local communities. NOx is a major pollutant in the south coast with 80% of the NOx emissions coming from mobile sources. The federal mandate that comes with penalties for not achieving the target is to reduce emissions by 40% in 2023. This translates into 200,000 heavy duty vehicles that must reduce their emissions in the next 5 years. Cummins engines for heavy duty trucks are now certified to be 99.8% cleaner.
BYD, Peterbilt, Kenworth and Volvo are all working on low and zero emission drayage trucks. For the Class 8 truck market to make the necessary changes the OEMs need to be fully engaged, there needs to be a zero emission mandate and incentive funding for the end user. Currently the SCAQMD has $250 million to help change over fleets with incentives of $100,000 per truck. Going forward there needs to be a national emissions standard to create a national market for low and zero emission trucks.
Keith Malone, CaFCP, stated there are currently 4,819 FCEVs and 21 fuel cell buses in operation and 32 fuel cell buses in development in California. Governor Jerry Brown wants 5 million ZEVs by 2030 and 200 hydrogen stations in CA; the bill is currently going through the legislative process. The State’s vision is to have 1,000 hydrogen stations by 2030 with trucks and buses playing a very significant role. One of the companies working to meet the growing need for green hydrogen is StratosFuel. They are working on phase 1 of their wind to hydrogen production facility that will produce 5,000kg/day by the end of the year. Large centralized production of hydrogen makes a lot of sense for distribution to transit agencies and heavy duty fleets. Fuel cell buses are approaching cost parity with battery buses and will need to be a chosen solution for cities looking to go zero emission. If all buses in CA were to be electrified it would require the current electricity grid to double. To help increase the demand for hydrogen, StratosShare was created with a fleet of 15 FCEVs in San Bernardino and Riverside County as a rideshare program.
The hydrogen panel ended with an interesting comment by Chris Bousain, Western Riverside Council of Governments, who performed an alternative fuel vehicle fueling infrastructure study. They are looking for the fuel with the biggest “bang for the buck”. A lot of cities and jurisdictions are hesitant to move to alternative fuels due to cost, O&M, and do not understand the benefits. They want to know if the benefits outweigh the costs and that message needs to be communicated to them.