All aboard a hydrogen-powered revolution
The world is speeding down the runway of a hydrogen energy revolution, and the Pennsylvania-Ohio-West Virginia region is ready for takeoff.
As much as elected officials, policymakers and energy experts have talked about the electrification of everything, some things simply can’t be electrified: air travel, cargo ships, heavy manufacturing, long-haul trucking.
Energy-intensive transportation and manufacturing industries will never be able to run solely on renewable energy or electrification, but they can use hydrogen as an avenue to reduce their CO2 emissions. Technology improves every day in the race to produce hydrogen by using natural gas, renewables or nuclear sources of energy.
As heavy industrial power users move to reduce their emissions and implement the use of hydrogen, a study by the International Energy Agency concludes that now is the time to scale up technologies and bring down costs to allow hydrogen to become widely used and drive the U.S. to a sustainable energy economy.
No one’s waiting. Manufacturers of large trucks, commercial and transit vehicles, planes and trains are eyeing hydrogen fuel cell technologies as a way forward. It is especially attractive to the long-haul trucking industry, because hydrogen fuel cell systems have a longer range than electric vehicles and can be refueled faster – always a bonus in the time-pressed industry.
A glance at projects underway:
- Lehigh Valley-based Air Products, a world leader in the supply and transport of hydrogen, and Cummins Inc., a global power and hydrogen technologies leader, are working together to accelerate the integration of hydrogen fuel cell trucks in the Americas, Europe and Asia. After a presumed successful pilot phase this year, Air Products plans to convert its global fleet of 2,000 trucks to hydrogen fuel cell zero-emission vehicles.
- Stark Area Regional Transit in Canton, Ohio, has transitioned one-fourth of its bus fleet to run on hydrogen, emitting nothing but water vapor.
- Volvo Trucks, Daimler Trucks AG and other manufacturers have announced partnerships, hoping to commercialize their research and offer zero-emissions trucks that save money and meet stricter pollution regulations.
- In 2018, the world’s first hydrogen-powered train debuted for commercial service in Germany. The Coradia iLint™ is now operating in Sweden, France and Poland. This summer, another rail operator commissioned seven hydrogen-powered trains for Germany’s capital.
- Delta Air Lines is partnering with Airbus, the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer, to develop a hydrogen-powered passenger plane and explore how to store and supply hydrogen at airports. Airbus is building its own demonstration engine to test hydrogen propulsion in one of its A380 superjumbo jets.
It’s just the beginning of a new industrial revolution, and the Ohio-Pennsylvania-West Virginia region offers all of the essential ingredients for success: one of the world’s largest natural gas basins; the existing point sources for CO2 capture and the geology to store it; and extensive pipeline infrastructure to move hydrogen to end users.
With hundreds of years of experience as industrial innovators, the region is ready to be a leader of the hydrogen and carbon capture, utilization and storage revolution.
