Towards a hydrogen fuel economy

Lazarus Sauti

Professor Philip Kuchel of the Australian Academy of Science says the supply of future clean energy to meet ever-increasing requirements is one of the global challenges for the present generation.

Worldwide energy needs are estimated by the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation dedicated to serve as an information source on statistics about the international oil market and other energy sectors, to increase by over 50 percent from 2004 to 2030 as populations increase and economies expand.

As the specialist in the theory and practice of nuclear magnetic resonance, Kuchel adds that the reliance on fossil fuels is not sustainable because of their contribution to increased greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, and these scenarios have led to an increased interest in alternative sources of renewable energy such as solar and wind, processes for energy production from coal and other fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage, and research into energy from hydrogen.

“Hydrogen is the ultimate clean energy carrier. It is the most plentiful element in the universe, and its efficient oxidation in fuel cells generates power and releases only water,” says the professor of Biochemistry in the School of Molecular Bioscience at the University of Sydney, adding that “the realisation of a hydrogen economy by mid-century would have hydrogen as the primary energy carrier derived from renewable energy sources, with the advantages of a reduced reliance on dwindling reserves of oil and gas and reduced emissions of carbon dioxide.”

To demystify it, hydrogen economy refers to the vision of using hydrogen as a low-carbon energy source – replacing, for example, gasoline as a transport fuel or natural gas as a heating fuel.

Hydrogen is attractive because whether it is burned to produce heat or reacted with air in a fuel cell to produce electricity, the only byproduct is water.

It is not found in pure form on Earth, however, so it must be produced from other compounds such as natural gas, biomass, alcohols or water. Prof Nigel Brandon of the Energy Futures Lab and Grantham Institute for Climate Change, Imperial College London, in collaboration with the Guardian, in an article “What’s the ‘hydrogen economy’?” note that one of the most potentially useful ways to use hydrogen is in electric cars or buses in conjunction with a fuel cell which converts the hydrogen into electricity.

In addition to transport, they also assert, hydrogen may be useful as a way to store renewable energy from intermittent sources – for example, when the wind is blowing but there is not high demand for electricity.

“In this context, it is an alternative to large-scale batteries or other storage systems... Another possibility is to use hydrogen as a heating fuel in our homes and buildings, either blended with natural gas or heat,” they say, adding that “it is the flexibility that hydrogen offers that makes it so potentially useful within future low-carbon energy systems.

“It can be produced from a wide variety of resources and can be used in a wide range of applications, such as power generation, as a transport fuel for low carbon vehicles, for the chemical industry, and for low carbon heating.”

Moreover, hydrogen is already used extensively in the chemical industry so industry is familiar with its production, handling and distribution on a large scale. For all these reasons, many experts see hydrogen as a key enabler of the lowest-cost low-carbon energy system.

Accordingly, countries within and across Africa should move towards a hydrogen fuel economy by taking advantage of the continent’s large supply of platinum deposits. Platinum is a key catalytic material used in hydrogen fuel cells, and the continent of Africa is well-endowed with platinum resources.

Zimbabwe, together with South Africa, for instance, holds up to 75 percent of the world’s platinum reserves, of which large percentages are platinum group metals that can be used to produce jewellery, electronic goods, catalytic convertors and hydrogen fuel cells.

Derek Hanekom, former South Africa Minister of Science and Technology, believes moving towards a hydrogen fuel economy would lower the continent’s demand for fuel – a move that would also boost industrial development and create decent jobs.

Hanekom adds that embracing hydrogen fuel economy would also see governments leaning towards knowledge and research-driven innovative economies.

“We need to think more strategically about our mineral resources and about extracting our mineral resources into something more productive.

We will do better if we get honest feedback based on rigorous research…We are driven by a notion of moving towards a more knowledge-driven economy, where we convert that knowledge into real things that make a difference or real economic competitiveness becomes an opportunity that we have to clutch.

“We would like to say that research and development underpins it, but at the end of the day, that research and development, and that technology, have to be translated into innovation. We think that innovation has to form the basis of that new economy.

“Investing in the hydrogen fuel economy would, therefore, create a global demand for platinum deposits,” asserts Hanekom, who is the current Minister of Tourism in President Zuma’s new cabinet.

To effectively embrace hydrogen fuel economies in African countries, think tanks are needed to reassure governments that they are moving towards the right direction. More so, African researchers can make significant contributions, such as in hydrogen storage materials, carbon capture and storage, and solar-thermal reforming of natural gas.

This means governments, development planners, and all stakeholders in science and technology sectors must invest in the research and production of hydrogen fuel cells to ensure that Africa can both contribute to this sector in areas of niche strengths, and also develop the necessary expertise to incorporate international hydrogen energy developments into the continent’s energy strategies in a timely manner.

It is also important for African governments, private sectors and other players in the energy fraternity to develop scientific policies, strategies, programmes and roadmaps to effectively adopt the hydrogen economy.

To effectively move towards a hydrogen fuel economy, however, it is critical for African countries to address considerable scientific, technical and economic challenges such as infrastructure for hydrogen delivery and filling stations, improved hydrogen storage technologies, and codes for safe handling of hydrogen and addressing public safety concerns before hydrogen could become a widespread energy alternative in Africa.