How Hydrogen Can Transform Heavy Industry
Hydrogen fuel cells have faced challenges in becoming a mainstream solution for passenger cars, but could possibly help other industries transition to a cleaner future. The main industries still exploring switching to hydrogen are heavy trucking, shipping, aviation, and especially heavy manufacturing.
While this author does see where hydrogen can serve extreme use cases longer-term for heavy manufacturing (iron/aluminum smelters, chemical plants, etc.), it is admittedly more difficult to see how the other industries might move to hydrogen as a fueling source at scale. We’ll explore some of the challenges and other opportunities for hydrogen in this article.
Overcoming Hydrogen’s Storage and Transportation Challenges
One of the reasons hydrogen has struggled to be a solution for passenger vehicles is its low energy density by volume. This poses a challenge for both storage and transportation. However, heavy manufacturing facilities are generally massive complexes that require large amounts of land and usually have extra land due to their zoning. The additional space available, plus high power demands, means having large, stationary storage tanks onsite is much less of an issue for the industry.
Most manufacturing complexes are used to having the necessary precautions and facilities for properly keeping large, flammable materials under pressure. Another option would be to build hydrogen pipelines, like we have for natural gas lines, to these facilities. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely we can convert existing natural gas lines to be used for moving hydrogen across the country. There are multiple concerns, and challenges, for converting existing natural gas pipelines to distribute hydrogen. The main one being that hydrogen atoms are much harder to contain compared to methane molecules.
High-pressure tanks are necessary to store hydrogen effectively, especially for applications requiring mobile fuel sources, such as trucking and shipping. While high-pressure storage introduces additional costs and complexity, advancements in tank design and materials are making these systems more robust and cost-effective. Heavy trucks can be equipped with these tanks, enabling them to carry sufficient fuel for long-haul journeys, but still not as far as traditional diesel trucks and closer in range to the current leading battery electric trucks.
Cryogenic storage is an alternative to the high-pressure tanks which are most often used. This involves storing hydrogen at extremely low temperatures. By liquifying hydrogen, its energy density is increased, making it a more practical option for aviation and shipping, though cryogenic storage systems are complex and expensive. A large focus of hydrogen research is in making these technologies more accessible and reliable.
Hydrogen Production, Infrastructure, and Distribution
Hydrogen is abundant, but the molecule rarely exists on its own in nature. To utilize it for transporting, storing, and delivering energy, it must be isolated using other energy sources. How hydrogen is produced is a critical factor in determining if industries can use it to move towards a cleaner future.
While most hydrogen today is produced from natural gas, cleaner methods like using renewable energy to power electrolysis (which separates hydrogen atoms from water molecules) are becoming increasingly viable. However using water as the basis for an energy source comes not without controversy. Even when powered by renewable energy, electrolysis requires a significant amount of energy – and due to conversion losses, batteries have an advantage. Because batteries can be recycled and require less total energy throughout their lifecycle, they appear to be the most promising technology for transitioning to a cleaner energy future.
The limited number of hydrogen refueling stations was a major barrier to the adoption of hydrogen for passenger vehicles. However, the lack of refueling stations is less problematic for stationary industrial applications and centralized logistics hubs. Heavy manufacturing facilities and shipping ports can establish dedicated hydrogen refueling infrastructure, ensuring a reliable fuel supply without the need for widespread public refueling networks.
Inherently, the distribution of hydrogen is challenging due to the element’s size – particularly over long distances, where the chance of a leak is increased and requires the need for specialized infrastructure.
Improving Safety and Public Perception
Hydrogen's flammability is a well-known concern. Public perception of hydrogen's safety remains a hurdle, influenced by its history and high-profile incidents. The need for it to be stored under pressure, or at a very cold temperature, also makes people very skeptical of its safety.
While other energy technologies like nuclear still receive strong public pushback, perceptions can be changed. Transparent communication and education about hydrogen's benefits and safety measures can help shift people’s thinking. This does seem to be another example of where Heavy industries are also set up well for transitioning to hydrogen. An industry accustomed to managing hazardous materials, and implementing stringent safety measures to safely use them, is a good fit for hydrogen.
Reducing Hydrogen Costs in a Quickly Shifting Landscape
The cost of hydrogen production and fuel cell technology is currently higher than that of conventional fuels and electric batteries. However, economies of scale, technological advancements, and increasing investment are expected to drive costs down. Heavy industries, which often have larger budgets and long-term investment horizons, are better positioned to absorb initial costs and benefit from future cost reductions. Government incentives and policies supporting hydrogen adoption can also play a crucial role in making hydrogen economically viable.
Hydrogen faces competition from other technologies – particularly electricity and battery storage. Not only has the market determined batteries to be better for passenger vehicles; there are now electric competitors arriving in other transportation industries as well. While both hydrogen and the batteries that power electric vehicles are seeing massive investments in money and research, it seems to be batteries that are seeing more consistent and scalable breakthroughs.
Hydrogen: Planes and Boats
Aviation and shipping have already seen electric and hydrogen options enter the market. In aviation, there seem to be more battery electric aircraft than hydrogen aircraft available on the market. These planes are currently targeting short flights to start – which is where the majority of pollution in the industry is.
Plus, while it’s currently more expensive, and unlikely to ever reach scale for passenger vehicles, there has also been a rise in alternative e-fuels for those industries that would create less pollution than traditional fuels. E-fuels are a possible stepping stone between current combustion-powered planes or boats and fully battery-powered ones. The simplicity of a fully-electric solution may inherently put the technology ahead of a hydrogen fuel cell system.
Durability and longevity of fuel cells are critical for industrial applications. This is another area where more research is being invested, but it’s also one where batteries have a leg up over hydrogen. Right now, most fuel cells last between 5 and 10 years before they to be replaced. Depending on the quality of hydrogen used, and how well the fuel cell is maintained, they can last longer. However, with batteries now having been used in automotive applications for the past decade, there is evidence that motors and batteries with liquid cooling are mostly maintenance-free with minimal degradation.
Advances in materials science and engineering are enhancing the durability of fuel cells, but we’ve yet to see if it will happen faster than batteries can increase in energy density.
A Catalyst for Minimizing Heavy Industry’s Environmental Impact
For decades, automakers claimed that hydrogen-powered vehicles were just a decade away. However, this timeline proved too lengthy for the industry – and batteries moved in to fill the void. While hydrogen fuel cell technology still holds potential for reducing industrial pollution and has seen advancements, the challenges associated with switching to hydrogen as we’ve shared suggest that only heavy industry is likely to make the transition to the world’s lightest material.
