Hydrogen: a fuel with a future

Nowadays, hydrogen is primarily relevant to industry as a chemical base material – but scarcely as an energy source. This is set to change, however, Ulrich Bünger from Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik GmbH is convinced. He believes that mobility will help hydrogen blossom into a universal energy source. For this to actually occur, he recommends “opportunistic entry strategies”, which include adding hydrogen to natural gas (analogous to biogas) or methanating hydrogen. The latter involves producing synthetic methane gas from hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2). The advantage: The gas can be stored in the existing gas network and used to power gas cars. Naturally, converting hydrogen into methane affects the efficiency. Nevertheless, it is precisely this kind of swiftly realizable application that is paving the way for hydrogen as the energy source of the future. Consequently, besides the pure use of hydrogen, the addition of hydrogen to biogas and, in a later expansion step, the production of synthetic methane is also being examined in the mobility demonstrator “move” at Empa.
Cost is the key factor if hydrogen is ultimately going to achieve the status predicted by Bünger. Felix Büchi from PSI described how fuel prices for diesel- and hydrogen-powered vehicles will be on a par in a few years’ time. However, considerable progress will have to be made in both hydrogen production through electrolysis and the development of fuel cells for vehicles to reduce the costs in these fields. Hansjörg Vock, Managing Director of Diamond Lite S.A., delivered a first-hand account of the progress made with so-called PEM electrolyzers, which are also used in “move”: Thanks to a substantial performance boost, the costs per kilowatt have dropped by more than 70 percent in the last 15 years or so. Robert Adler and Michael Stefan from the Linde Group also spoke about considerable cost reductions in the field of hydrogen production and distribution, which are achieved, among other things, via the serial production of standardized hydrogen filling stations. The Linde Group now has the possibility of achieving a production capacity of up to 110 hydrogen filling stations per year, which saves around a third of the costs compared to made-to-order production.