Can hydrogen help the world reach net zero? | FT Film

The global push for net zero carbon emissions is one of humanity's greatest challenges. In this film, the FT's Simon Mundy explores how hydrogen - the lightest, most abundant element in the universe - could play a crucial role. From southern Spain to Swedish Lapland, we meet those at the forefront of this fast-growing space - all seeking a share of the billions to be made in the emerging hydrogen economy.

#hydrogen #greenhydrogen #EmeraldHydrogen #steel #hydrogeneconomy #zerocarbon #emission

00:00 What is Hydrogen
00:50 Green Hydrogen
02:50 Current uses of hydrogen
04:10 The concerns
05:00 The Hydrogen rainbow
05:51 Emerald Hydrogen
07.35 The investors
10:50 The policymakers
13:40 Green steel
17:35 Cleaning up aviation
22:15 The hydrogen economy of the future

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[FinancialTimes]

Watch FT Moral Money editor Simon Mundy uncover some of the biggest opportunities and challenges within the global shift to cleaner energy. Click the links below for related videos:

*Fusion power: how close are we? | FT Film*

*Inside the global race for lithium batteries | FT Film*

[netional]

I used to be lukewarm about hydrogen but recently read about a project at the hospital Rijnstate in Elst, the Netherlands which changed my views. They have a huge array of solar panels of which the electricity oversupply will be stored in a local hydrogen tank by electrolysis. When electricity is needed the hydrogen is converted to electricity by a fuel cell.
They also use all the waste heat in the entire round trip process for heating the hospital which increases the efficiency significantly. Because of the waste heat re-use and because it takes less area they choose this solution over batteries.
The solar panels never feed electricity back into the grid which also prevents those problems. So the grid is not burdened by this renewable solution, and the grid electricity usage has gone down to some 40% of the original grid electricity usage.

[matthewbaynham]

The guy at timestamp 10:22 who said "Europe is a little bit too regulated in the way it processes it's knowledge", he seems obsessed with getting rid of regulation.

The problem I've always noticed is that when people are complaining that there is too much regulation never seem to explain which bit of regulation is the problem. Normally it's a safety regulation, or a tax regulation, or a money laundering regulation, or something else where there is a very good reason why the regulation is there because it's protecting something or someone.

But then come along people who complain about there being too much regulation without explaining which regulation, so you can't have a counter argument to explain the reason why that particular regulation is important.

I don't like people who complain about too much regulation without saying exactly which regulation they don't like.

[Astrogator]

Hydrogen is a key part of the future energy mix, but there are issues with production, transportation, and energy generation that need to be addressed but glossed over in the video, they are better reported on by others on YouTube etc.

A major issue ignored in video and by most other commentator is hydrogen's small size, which makes long-term storage challenging as it easily escapes containers to the atmosphere. As hydrogen rises to the ozone layer, where it reacts with ozone to form water, resulting in ozone depletion and the production of water vapor, a potent greenhouse gas.

If hydrogen becomes widely used as a fuel, the amount lost to the atmosphere and the resulting damage could be even worse than the concerns about the ozone hole in the 1980s. This highlights the consequences of combining economists and engineers tunnel vision without considering historical lessons.

On another note, it's important to clarify that the airships mentioned from the early 20th century used hydrogen for buoyancy, not as a power source, this does not reflect well on quality of video

[zinaustro]

Thanks for this video. Like any pioneering effort, the early days pose many challenges but we have to press on toward the future. It would be great to see another video on ammonia as a hydrogen carrier, particularly in light of recent news that Japanese scientists have formulated a compound that stores ammonia at ambient temperature and pressure.

[iansmith]

The ingenuity surrounding some of these processes fills me with optimism for a clean future, there is not one silver bullet but many solutions to suit the prevailing conditions

[johnwebb]

Perhaps one of the major drawbacks to the whole fuel cell family of industry is the need for iridium and other precious metals in quantities greater than known Earth resources.

[trueriver]

Could you post links to the other videos in this three part series, please? Or a link to a playlist containing all three?

[ssab]

Thanks for visiting us and featuring our HYBRIT project for fossil-free steelmaking in the reportage!

[HairyNumbNuts]

This completely glossed over the biggest issue with electrolysed H2 - the awful efficiency, not a lot better than petroleum. The round trip efficiency (electricity to H2 to electricity to power) is around 40%. You have to make a case that it's 2 and a half times better than simply storing the electricity in a battery. There are certainly use cases where the answer to that is "yes", but they're not as many as the proponents think. The second problem is that the fossil fuel industry piggy-backs on the "clean hydrogen" message to push their own hope that making H2 from fossil fuels will save them, always neglecting to mention that "blue" H2 requires CO2 capture & storage, a technology that in 20 years they have completely failed to demonstrate can succeed. In that same 20 years we've gone from no commercial electric cars to the amazing ones we have today and a grid that's rapidly decarbonising.

[subrahmanyanvravishankar]

Most imp use of hydrogen is industrial, all reducing agents in industry starting steel, and all metals. Petro reduction. Then ammonia production that is majority fertilizer industry.

[grahamcook]

Green hydrogen for iron and steel production, as demonstrated by SSAB at their Lulea plant, is an excellent idea.

[Barfsimpson]

The overall cost to produce hydrogen to this scale is cost prohitive and just a dream.

[aryammansahlot]

Amazing movies, please keep this up. Should be getting way more views.

[kevindruce]

I am pleased that some of the negative points about hydrogen where shared in this video.

[MusikCassette]

It is important to surplace the grey hydrogen we use at the moment with green hydrogen.
To be really green the hydrogen must not just be produced from renewable energy, but from surplus renewable energy. In that way it has an important role in compensating for seasonal differences in energy porduction. But it is not a good energy carrier. There are better alternatives for that.

[trsu]

Solar hydrogen seems like a good idea for somewhere sunnier than the UK. For 'net zero' all we need to do is to stop exhuming fossil carbon. Our modern lives are based on hydrocarbon outputs of refineries, not what comes out of fossil deposits - they just provide the feedstock for refineries. We should use Direct Air Capture (DAC) and Hydrolysis to synthesise all the good stuff that currently comes out of refineries, and we get to keep all our current technology (prices will change, motivating adoption of non-hydrocarbon technologies). In the UK our greatest potential for renewable energy is offshore wind, which has long 'slack' periods, during which we currently burn gas in CCGT power stations.

Given *that's what we have now*, it seems obvious to use excess energy from offshore wind to synthesise CH₄ (methane, mains gas) and store it in vast quantities - as lots of countries already do - and burn it in our CCGT plant when renewable energy is in shorter supply. Otherwise we don't have a workable plan for long, cold, dark, still intervals (which occasionally happen). Generating CH₄ means the first startup can inject their gas today - no new tech is needed. As renewable and synthesis capacity grows, we use less and less methane from fossil sources.

We can synthesise other hydrocarbons using the same Carbon and Hydrogen inputs, so everything downstream of refineries *still works*. Synthesising hydrocarbons using DAC and Hydrolysis will make 'hydrocarbons' more expensive than electricity or hydrogen, but that will *motivate* people to switch technology, while the capacity to provide energy directly for hydrogen and electric-only applications (like EVs) will already be in existence. Additionally, the eventual switch away from hydrocarbons (when we're already net zero) will leave us with colossal spare DAC capacity which we can use to 'turn the clock back' - go *net negative*.

[gilgamecha]

The headline caveat should be that hydrogen is not an energy source. It's a transmission and storage mechanism. Possibly better than batteries - we'll see.
Green grey or emerald is a secondary issue.

[silverismoney]

Liquid ammonia stores more hydrogen than liquid hydrogen does, and it solves the transport/storage problem.

[aaronwilliams]

There are major issues dealing with hydrogen. There are numerous H2 stations in my area, but at any given time at least 30% of the pumps are offline. Not only that, the stations can only handle a limited number of vehicles due to all the effort needed to compress H2 and cool it to -40 before filling. Trucks typically carry 300kg, enough for only 60 cars (assuming 5kg). This is a fraction of the number of cars one gasoline truck can fill. Despite all these claims of it getting cheaper, it hasn't changed at all here. It's still over $16/kg, so 5kg will cost over $80. Not only that, open the filler door on any Mirai and you'll see an expiration date, after which you are no longer allowed to fill the car. Not only that, the Mirai is rather cramped due to the H2 tanks. The resale value of the Mirai is also absolutely abysmal. We should not be wasting money on this. We should be investing more in battery technology and charging infrastructure, which is FAR cheaper. Each H2 station costs at least $1.9M and they are expensive to maintain. For that price, you can build 40 fast DC charging stalls (Tesla costs < $50K each). Hydrogen is a real pain in the butt to deal with. It leaks like crazy and is dangerous. There have been numerous fires and explosions at hydrogen filling stations. One fire and explosion in my area (Santa Clara) shut down the entire hydrogen supply for six months! Not only that, EV chargers can be installed just about anywhere. I fill my EV in my garage for a fraction of the price of hydrogen. They keep promising cheap hydrogen, but I don't see any sign of it. The only advantage H2 has is fast filling when it works and the nozzle doesn't freeze itself to the car, but the speed of EV charging is rapidly increasing. An Ioniq 5 will charge from 10% to 80% in 18 minutes. While not 5 minutes, these times are still rapidly decreasing.