After decades of research, Linde AG says the elements needed to make
hydrogen-fuelled cars a viable challenger to Tesla Inc’s battery-driven
vehicles are finally falling into place. The world’s largest industrial gas supplier will today open a plant
that uses wind power to convert water into the gas. That completes the
circle for an almost carbon-free fuel -- from the extraction of the gas
to refueling facilities and the vehicles themselves -- and also boosts
hydrogen’s green credentials, according to Munich-based Linde.
The research plant on the banks of the River Rhine, dubbed
Energiepark Mainz and developed with Siemens AG, adds to two other
significant fuel cell developments this year. Toyota Motor Corp., the
car industry’s biggest manufacturer, is starting production of its
hydrogen-fuelled car, the Mirai, and a group including Linde, Royal
Dutch Shell Plc, Daimler AG starts the roll-out of a standardized
network of hydrogen-friendly refueling stations across Germany.
“The whole thing only works if we have three steps: the generation of
the hydrogen, the refuelling, and the cars,” said Andreas Opfermann,
Linde’s head of research and development. “We are in a better situation
than battery cars where every country has its own plugs, its own level
of voltage. We now have standard fueling stations.”
‘Longer Ranges’
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has argued that most
commercial hydrogen to run fuel cells is made from natural gas in a
process that consumes energy and emits carbon. Hydrogen is also
dangerous to store and transport, he has said. Still, hydrogen-fuelled cars have two main advantages over their
battery-powered rivals, said Salim Morsy, a New-York based analyst for
Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
“They are faster to refuel and have much longer ranges than electric
ones,” the analyst said. “It can take just five minutes to refuel a
hydrogen car for a range of 400 miles, compared to up to a seven hour
charge for an electric vehicle to travel just 200 miles.”
Linde says Energiepark Mainz could help put an end to the criticism
that hydrogen fuel cells are only marginally more environmentally
friendly than traditional combustion vehicles, and allow the gas to be
extracted anywhere there’s wind and water. BMW AG is also starting tests
of a vehicle powered by hydrogen this month.
Station Pumps
“When we heard the Mirai was going into production it was one of the
most important announcements for our industry,” said Robert Adler, who
has spent 15 years as Linde’s chief engineer at its hydrogen research
site on the outskirts of Vienna. “It would be a shame if it didn’t take
off, because we’ve built up a real expertise.”
While there is currently global capacity for thousands of fuel
cell-powered vehicles, many are private and in poor locations, according
to New York-based BNEF analyst Claire Curry. She expects global
automotive demand for hydrogen to increase five-fold by 2019 from the
current 600 kilograms per day as cars such as the Mirai are sold.
The German hydrogen initiative -- dubbed “H2 Mobility” and also
including Air Liquide SA, Total SA and Austrian gas station operator OMV
AG -- aims to install 400 hydrogen refuelling stations in Europe’s
largest economy by 2023 at a cost of some 350 million euros. About half
of that will be funded by state subsidies, according to Linde’s
Opfermann. Each hydrogen-fuelled car would thus be within a 50-minute
drive of a gas station.
Public Infrastructure
“It’s not ideal, we’d prefer 5,000, but the car companies say that’s
enough coverage to have commercial, attractive public infrastructure,
particularly compared to the slow refuelling of batteries,” Opfermann
said. Rather than building new gas stations, the aim is simply to add the
new pump and equipment at existing sites, taking advantage of operators’
customer infrastructure.
One kilogram of hydrogen can fuel a car for 100 kilometers, and each
tank typically has four kilograms of capacity. If extracted from natural
gas, it can cost about 8 euros per kilogram, and some 10 euros per
kilogram, when made by electrolyzing water with wind power, a reflection
of the current higher cost of wind energy. “There was a long time where we built up our knowledge base without
really growing our revenue,” said Linde’s Adler. “Now things are getting
exciting.”
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/news/2015/07/german-wind-to-hydrogen-plant-takes-car-fuel-battle-to-tesla.html