๐๐ก๐๐ซ๐ ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐ซ๐๐๐ง ๐ก๐ฒ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ ๐๐ง ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐๐ฎ๐๐๐? ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ต ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ด๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ-๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ค๐ข๐ด๐ฆ๐ด? (See all my decarbonization posts - Net Zero by Narsi - from here - https://lnkd.in/gjrf59dk ) I have been working in climate tech for 15 years, and my work has touched almost every prominent energy/fuel domain. Across all these, the ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐๐ฎ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ of fuel/energy dominates most other costs associated with it. Even though we would like renewable energy to be produced in a distributed manner, closer to or at user location, most renewable energy/fuels are produced at scale and transported some distance - biofuels, ground mounted solar, wind power, biomass briquettes & pellets...cost of transport (transmission, if it is electricity) usually is a small percentage of the total landed cost of energy. (in some cases such as loose biomass transport over long distances, these could be quite significant). For green hydrogen, transport cost could play a far more important role if done on a small scale, and over road. Hydrogen needs to be compressed or liquefied for transport, and enough safety precautions are needed at every stage of the transport & storage. There are many fixed cost components for these, making economies of scale play an outsized role. I remember talking to an industry expert in India a few months back and he said that for small-volume road transport for some regions in India, the cost of transport of hydrogen could be 50%-100% that of its production. At the current green hydrogen production cost of $5/Kg - already expensive - that would imply a landed cost of $7.5-10/Kg - whew! So, one question that has been hotly debated is: In cases where use is in small or medium volumes, should green hydrogen be produced at site of usage to minimize, or totally avoid, transportation? This question, even if relevant, is an infeasibility for many other fuels owing to feedstock availability challenges. But for green hydrogen, all you need as inputs are water and green electricity - the former is available in most places, and the latter can be derived from rooftop solar or solar power despatched from off-site solar or wind power plants. The question of hydrogen transport cost might be much less important for some forms of transport like pipeline transport where transport cost could be only a small fraction of production cost. But for some others, the topics of storage and transport are worth discussing because, for all its pedigree as a wonderful energy carrier, hydrogen has two intrinsic properties about which I don't see what anyone can do anything: ๐๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐๐ซ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ, ๐๐ง๐ ๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐๐ซ ๐๐ฅ๐๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐๐ฅ๐. PS: One alternative could be to transport it not as hydrogen - convert it into something more easily transported such as ammonia, but this route has its own challenges, and we will consider this in a separate post. .
Shankar Jain
1mo
Which is more efficient ? Solar power used to pump up water and use hydro energy OR solar energy to hydrogen to power in the nights ?
Sarthak Jain
1mo
Great post Narasimhan Santhanam! One more problem with Green Hydrogen is that the entire infrastructure needs to be very different since it canโt be retrofitted in a lot of industries. Experts do discuss green hydrogenโs utility in mobility for heavy duty vehicles but the infrastructural development of tanks and stations will come at huge cost
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1moFor producing green hydrogen there is a huge requirement of fresh water and not sea water also it's need a huge amount of electricity and the both are not available in huge quantities in India. Hydrogen is not good source of energy. Fresh water reserve is around 4 % in the world And 60% of electricity is produced by fossile fuels. And in my perception hydrogen is a almost- 62 percent fuel is comparison of electricity. Narasimhan Santhanam the clear thing is Donโt get fresh water to drink 365 days with everyday supply of freshwater in India all over as well as electricity 24/7 365 days all over India. So it's worthless idea to produce green hydrogen in huge quantities.