The following is an edited talk given by David Blekhman, PhD, Professor for Sustainable Energy and Transportation, who holds the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Alternative Energy at California State University Los Angeles, California, USA, at the 28th International Conference for the Unity of the Sciences, in April 2022.
A combination of climate change concerns and attempts to restart the economy after COVID-19 have led to exciting developments around hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. The hydrogen economy is far more universal than the economy based on lithium batteries because few countries and companies have access to mining and processing of lithium into battery electrode materials.
Many countries and industries can economically benefit from working in the hydrogen space, which is growing from individual deployments to bigger concepts like hydrogen hubs or valleys. For example, Cal State’s Los Angeles hub includes such sustainable technologies as solar photovoltaics (PV) installation, robust electric vehicle (EV) charging, a fleet of fuel cell vehicles, and a Hydrogen Research and Fueling Facility. In similar combinations, the concept will continue to repeat in various forms and sizes tapping hydrogen for electric power and transportation.
Fuel Cells Are Electrochemical Generators
Fuel cells are electrochemical generators that use fuel and oxidizer to produce electricity. Their advantage is that, unlike combustion engines, conversion to electricity is direct and at a higher efficiency than in its thermo-mechanical counterparts. Most fuel cells today concentrate on proton exchange membrane fuel cells utilizing hydrogen for fuel and oxygen from the air as an oxidizer. Conveniently, in addition to electricity, the only other emissions are pure water and heat that are appropriately managed.
While the history of hydrogen and fuel cells is 180 years old, the more recent practical application was implemented for space exploration in the Apollo (1966) and then in Space Shuttle (alkaline fuel cells) programs (1981-2011). The advantage of fuel cells was also apparent for the same reasons they are beneficial now: For the long haul, it is a much lighter system than batteries. The Space Shuttle program utilized three 7-kW fuel cells in each shuttle. Systems up to 10 kW can be used in homes, forklifts, or portable generators. New systems have grown to 100 or 200 kW per fuel cell stack and can be chained to any power required.
Cal State LA Hydrogen Research and Fueling Facility
The Cal State LA Hydrogen Research and Fueling Facility is the world’s largest campus-based, on-site hydrogen generation station. It uses electricity and water to produce 60 kg/day of hydrogen, which is sufficient to fuel up to twenty passenger vehicles per day. Its Grand Opening was celebrated on May 7, 2014, and it has been providing motorists with hydrogen ever since.
While operating as a fueling facility, the goal is to conduct applied research, workforce training, and public outreach. Over the years, the facility has hosted more than 10,000 visitors, of which 85% were K-12 and college students, and the rest were industry and government professionals.
Accurate Hydrogen Fuel Metering
In November 2014, the Cal State LA facility became the first in the world to demonstrate accurate metering to approve the sale of hydrogen by the kilogram directly to fueling customers. This achievement had a further national impact, as the National Institute of Standard and Technology adopted new hydrogen meter accuracy requirements informed by this experience.
(A Cal State LA student created a fantastic 3-min video introducing Cal State LA Hydrogen Research and Fueling Facility that can be found on YouTube. More information can be found at www.calstatela.edu/ecst/h2station)
In February 2019, Cal State LA unveiled a fleet of zero-emission fuel cell Hyundai Tucson vehicles for use by the university community in an urban, shared-mobility model. Before COVID-19, students and faculty used the service to drive emission-free vehicles free for the first two hours. The fleet of eighteen vehicles had six vehicles deployed in serving Parking and Transportation Department needs and twelve vehicles dedicated to shared mobility service. In the aftermath, the Waive company that managed the program did not survive the pandemic. Eleven vehicles were returned to the manufacturer while the remaining seven continue to serve campus needs. Cal State LA plans to restart some of the shared mobility activities with fuel cell vehicles later in 2022 with another provider.
California — Trendsetter in Clean Transportation
California has been the trendsetter in clean, sustainable transportation around the world, compelling the mighty and powerful automotive companies to deploy emission-free vehicles. Currently, California boasts the largest fleet of hydrogen-powered vehicles that exceed 10,000 cars on the road. While this is not a large number, it is a start that allows us to break the everlasting chicken-or-egg conundrum. Car manufacturers provide vehicles, and the state takes responsibility for the hydrogen infrastructure. Perhaps, we might see up to 50,000 fuel cell vehicles in a few years.
Hydrogen Fueling Stations
California has the most operating public hydrogen stations in the US—forty-nine—with 124 more on the way. [See Stations Map | California Fuel Cell Partnership (cafcp.org)] The development process was initially proposed as a cluster model where several stations would be nearby and supporting each other during downtime. The newer models emphasize major corridors with larger stations over 1,000 kg/day retail and smaller, backup stations with about 400 kg/day. In 2020, California awarded a more than 120-station network to be built by three companies in three batches over time. [See: California Hydrogen Station Race Winners: First Element, Equilon, and Iwatani.] Some companies are trying to develop independent hydrogen networks, called Hub and Spoke, with private funding especially for the heavy-duty transport. Where the hub produces hydrogen, it fuels trucks and vehicles on location and delivers hydrogen to nearby stations.
Trucks and Buses
There are now thousands of fuel cell buses deployed around the world. Multiple manufacturers can integrate fuel cells into their coaches. Fuel cell buses are running in London. Canada was also successful in demonstrating fuel cell buses during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Over the years, there have been attempts to launch fuel cell trucks. The early market introductions have been supported by newcomers like Toyota, Hyundai, Refire, Hyzon, Gaussin, and others. Volvo and Daimler formed an alliance to produce their own trucks. [See: Volvo’s Fuel Cell Truck Alliance With Daimler Is a Return to the Hydrogen Bandwagon.]
Hyundai has come out with several projects that deploy hydrogen trucks. Their project in Switzerland, with seven fuel cell trucks, shows their excellent performance in mountainous regions, where their battery counterparts would have had challenging times climbing those peaks over a distance. Thirty more trucks will be coming to Northern California for Glovis America, a logistics service provider, operating at the Port of Oakland. These trucks are equipped with 700 bar storage, allowing them a 500-mile range.
Gaussin is a French company that manufactures warehouse and port logistics electric and fuel cell vehicles. It is ambitious and bold. Just to prove their confidence in fuel cells, in less than one year they put together the very first in the world hydrogen racing truck to compete in the 2022 Dakar Rally. The Gaussin team was successful in completing all stages of the race. (More information about Gaussin’s history, aspirations and products can be found in the article Dakar Rally to See Its First Hydrogen Truck Entry by Gaussin in Partnership With Aramco.)
Locomotive and Trains
A Colorado-based company, Vehicle Projects, was involved in several innovative heavy duty hydrogen projects in the early years of hydrogen. One of them was a switch locomotive by BSNF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway) at its switchyard in the city of Commerce, demonstrated in 2011. The 127-ton locomotive allows transients above 1 MW, while the 240 kW Ballard PEM fuel cell continuously recharged them. Hydrogen storage was 70 kg at 350 bar. The locomotive demonstrated the demanding switching-shunting for up to ten hours per fueling.
Light rail has also been very actively pursued by several manufacturers. Fuel cell trains provide convenient, zero-emissions transport without the hassle of costly electrification and thus have a strong advantage, as they require the hydrogen infrastructure only at a few refueling points.
Warehouse Logistics
Surprisingly, the warehouse logistics industry holds the most hydrogen fuel cell vehicles—tens of thousands of forklifts are deployed. Fuel cell forklifts are a natural fit for this industry: Fuel cells refuel fast and can operate 24/7 indoors with no pollution. Battery-based forklifts need to recharge for hours or require special rooms for swapping batteries and recharging them while taking up valuable space and personnel.
Marine Industry
In 2017, the marine industry started to think about real projects as well. Concurrently, the fuel cell industry responded by developing fuel cell packages that could be seaworthy like those now available from Ballard and PowerCell. Around the world, several smaller ships, such as ferries and pushers, are under construction or have even recently been completed.
The Antwerp-Bruges Port Authority will soon welcome the Hydrotug, the first hydrogen-powered tugboat. The Hydrotug consists of two BeHydro V12 dual fuel medium speed engines that can run on hydrogen and traditional diesel fuel. Other ports around the world are also coming forward with various hydrogen deployments, such as the port of Rotterdam, Netherlands; the port of Valencia, Spain; and the port of Los Angeles, California.
After several years of design and manufacturing, San Francisco is to see Sea Change, a hydrogen ferry, operating its routes. Switch Maritime completed construction and started the sea trials of the ferry in November 2021. The ferry has 360 kW of fuel cell power supplied by Cummins and has a capacity to hold 246 kg of hydrogen. (Notable is that the first fueling took place from a hydrogen trailer that contained hydrogen produced at Cal State LA Hydrogen Research and Fueling Facility.)
Aviation
Aviation is also fair game for hydrogen deployment. As other industries turn green, aviation might be accounting for a much larger portion of emissions if it does not change its ways. Thus, ZeroAvia not only imagines but realizes the fuel cell-based propulsion in the air. In recent announcements, Airbus also proposed to use hydrogen planes, but its work is based on using turbines burning hydrogen.
In September 2020, ZeroAvia “completed the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell powered flight, which took place at the company’s R&D facility in Cranfield, England, with the Piper Malibu six-seat plane.” The flight was eight minutes long and climbed to 1,000 feet.
Wind and Hydrogen
The Norwegian research institute SINTEF is involved in the hydrogen research and demonstration project Haeolus, a 2.5 MW electrolysis production powered by wind. Kawasaki of Japan is designing a liquid hydrogen ship carrier, as Australia and other countries aspire to supply the world with clean fuel. (Australia plans to produce liquid hydrogen for Japan, hence Kawasaki wants to build an LH2 ship carrier to transport that hydrogen from Australia to Japan.) This aligns well with many turbine manufacturers’ efforts converting their turbines to run on hydrogen.
The hydrogen hub efforts in the United States are slightly behind those in the European Union. It seems that Europe started later but drives much faster. Germany and Japan already have more than 100 hydrogen stations each. Under the guidance of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, Europe has been funding a relatively large number of Hydrogen Valley projects, descriptions for which can be found on the H2V website. We are to see many hydrogen projects spreading around the world and creating opportunities for many countries and industries. Please extend your warm welcome to the hydrogen economy.