WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Airbus is trying to find ways to cut the aviation industry’s emissions, and they’re getting closer to the first full size commercial zero emissions aircraft prototype.

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After the recent success in testing the hydrogen fuel cell system Airbus has announced that it’s set to install the fuel cell propulsion system on its ZEROe test bed, an Airbus 380 registered F-WWOW, where it will be used in in flight testing from 2026.

In June 2023, the team at Airbus successfully tested the hydrogen fuel cell system, which reached 1.2 megawatts, its full power level. Later that year, the propulsion system prototype, which includes the hydrogen fuel cell system and the electric motors, was powered on at 1.2 megawatts at the E-Aircraft House in Munich.

The 1.2 megawatts that the prototype reached during testing is also the power Airbus aims to test on the A380 in-flight demonstrator, according to Mathias Andriamisaina, Head of Testing and Demonstration on the ZEROe project. This brings the project closer to in-flight testing, with the next step for the ZEROe team to continue testing and to optimize the size, mass and specifications of the propulsion system for flight conditions.

The Future of Aviation, by keynote Matthew Griffin

ZEROe gets its name from zero-emission and is Airbus’s answer to the growing demand for sustainable aviation technologies. The ultimate aim of ZEROe is to produce a hydrogen-powered commercial plane by 2035 using innovative technologies and concepts.

What exactly will the first ZEROe plane look like? There is no definite answer to the question as Airbus is exploring various concepts and technologies for the aircraft. The four concepts that Airbus proposed back in 2020 will pursue either hydrogen combustion or hydrogen fuel cell technology. The latter will be used on a fully electric aircraft type and will be the one tested on the A380 demonstrator.

The designated ZEROe demonstrator is also the very first A380 to be produced by Airbus, with production serial number MSN001. The aircraft was the very first ever superjumbo to take to the sky on April 27th, 2005, marking the start of a truly amazing run by the biggest commercial aircraft known to the world.

The life of MSN001 is just as fascinating as the A380 program itself. MSN001 first took on the role of the prototype, conducting technical testing to achieve the certifications necessary to get the plane ready for commercial operations. This includes tests like water ingestion, extreme hot and cold weather operations, high-speed rejected take-off, and more. The aircraft also went on multiple tours around the world and represented Airbus at various airshows, sometimes wearing special liveries.

After the height of the A380 program, MSN001 was preserved by Airbus while many of the other original prototypes were scrapped. MSN001 became an important instrument for testing the Trent XWB engines for the A350 program, fitting the engine under its wing as the number two engine. It first tested the Trent XWB-84 for the A350-900 variant and was then tasked with testing the Trent XWB-97 for the A350-1000 as well.

More recently, MSN001 was involved in multiple test flights for the use of sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF. The first test flight, partnered with Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney, used 27 tonnes of unblended SAF provided by Total Energies on the three-hour mission and was followed by several other test flights focused on Performance during take-offs and landings.

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WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

While most companies are betting big on electric vehicles some are now spreading their bets just in case.

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Volkswagen, following in the footsteps of Toyota, has announced they’re developing a new hydrogen fuel cell that’s much cheaper than existing ones and have said that we could soon see a car travel more than 2,000km on a single tank – provided that is that the owners of the vehicle can find somewhere to fill their shiny new tanks in the first place, something that Toyota and others are working on as we speak. They’ve also just applied for a patent for their new fuel cell which is cheaper to produce than existing solutions.

The news represents a significant U-turn by Volkswagen. Like Elon Musk does every time he has the opportunity, the German manufacturer’s CEO, Herbert Diess, denied the potential of hydrogen as a power source for electric cars in a tweet published in May 2022 saying: “It has been shown that the Hydrogen car is not the solution to climate problem. In transport, electrification has taken over. Fake debates are a waste of time. Please listen to the science.”

The patent application for their new fuel cell, developed together with the German company Kraftwerk Tubes, also shows that Volkswagen has decided to play it safe and not have all its eggs in one basket with Lithium-Ion electric vehicles.

The huge batteries of electric cars are accumulators of electricity that is released according to the needs of the vehicle. Hydrogen fuel cells, by contrast, are capable of generating their own electricity.

For this they need a high-pressure tank that stores the hydrogen in gas form – if it were liquid it would need to be stored at very low temperatures – and a fuel cell that converts hydrogen into electricity.

Fuel cells also have an anode and a cathode like batteries. Hydrogen enters through the anode and passes through an electrolyte membrane which is responsible for dividing hydrogen (H2) into a proton (H+) and an electron (e-). An electrolyte then causes them to take different paths to the cathode.

The electrons go through an external circuit creating a flow of electricity—which is what makes the car’s engine work—while the protons pass through the electrolyte to the cathode. There they unite with oxygen, which enters directly to the cathode, and with the electron, producing water and heat. However, Volkswagen and Kraftwerk’s fuel cell puts a spin on materials traditionally used for membranes.

Sascha Kühn, Kraftwerk CEO explains in an interview: “The main difference with Hyundai and Toyota hydrogen cells is that [we] use a ceramic membrane instead of the usual plastic one. That’s a big difference. The big advantage of our solution is that it can be produced much cheaper than polymer fuel cells and it does not require any type of platinum,” a precious metal that makes the final cost of the product more expensive.

This technology, Kühn says, resembles solid-state batteries. According to the executive, both have almost the same electrolytes and a similar material structure. The difference is that, while solid-state batteries use a compact material to store energy, in fuel cells that role is assumed by hydrogen in gas form.

In addition, the new ceramic membrane, says Kühn, does not need to be moistened, so it does not freeze in winter, dry out in summer, or attract mold. The manager also points to another advantage that will save costs in the manufacture of vehicles: the fuel cell generates heat that can be used both to replace the car’s heating and air conditioning, which would also mean greater energy savings.

Although this patent has been requested together with Volkswagen, Kraftwerk assures that it can be used by other vehicle brands aswell: “Regardless of the manufacturer, our goal is for our technology to be launched in a series vehicle by 2026. We are talking about series of about 10,000 vehicles, spread over several car manufacturers,” says the CEO of Kraftwerk.

“Lithium is definitely not a way forward. Solid-state battery would be an option, but it’s not there yet,” explains Kühn, who sees his technology as an alternative for drivers who don’t have a suitable charging option on the go, at home, or do not want to waste their time at charging stations. According to the executive, with his system “we can travel up to 2,000 kilometers with a single tank of fuel.”

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WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

For a whole bunch of reasons the transition from polluting fossil fuels is now truly getting underway and it’s great to see it happening.

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Four years after embarking on a two year trial run in Germany to find greener ways to power their trains a bunch of Coradia iLint hydrogen fuel-cell trains have entered passenger service along a new hydrogen only route in Lower Saxony. It’s also the first time hydrogen has been used to completely power new trains and it’s yet another win for the fuel which is now powering everything from hyper cars and trucks to flying taxis and superyachts, as well as even conventional gas turbines.

The passenger service trial, which began in September 2018 and ran for almost two years, involved the successful operation of two pre-series Coradia iLint hydrogen fuel-cell trains along an existing route operated by Eisenbahnen und Verkehrsbetriebe Elbe-Weser (EVB).

The Future of Energy and Transport, by keynote Matthew Griffin

Now the project has officially entered public service, and expanded to 14 trains designed by Alstom engineers at the regional trains facility in Salzgitter, Germany, and the traction systems center in Tarbes, France. They were purchased by Lower Saxony Ministry of Transport and are owned by the state-run Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen mbH (LNVG) railway authority, which started looking for alternatives to diesel locomotives in 2012 and has committed to buying only non-diesel – hydrogen fuel cell or battery electric – trains from here on in.

Emitting only steam and condensed water, and with a range of 1,000 km (~620 miles), each train is expected to operate on a single tank of hydrogen for a full day’s service along the route between Cuxhaven, Bremerhave, Bremervörde and Buxtehude. Travel speeds on the EVB network are reported to run between 80 and 120 km/h (50 – 74.5 mph), but the trains can get up to 140 km/h (87 mph).

They will each get daily top-ups at the Linde hydrogen filling station at Bremervörde, which is home to 64 high-pressure (500-bar) storage tanks, six compressors and two fuel pumps. Future plans call for hydrogen production on site via “electrolysis and regeneratively generated electricity.”

Five of the Coradia iLints are currently in operation according to EVB, with the remainder expected to join the fleet by the end of 2022 – replacing 15 diesel trains operating on the network, and saving an estimated 1.6 million liters of diesel and 4,400 tonnes of CO2 per year.

“This project is a worldwide role model,” said Premier of Lower Saxony, Stephan Weil. “It is an excellent example of a successful transformation Made in Lower Saxony. As a state of renewable energies, we are setting a milestone on the path to climate neutrality in the transport sector.”

Alstom’s hydrogen-powered train plans aren’t stopping with Lower Saxony, the company has also been contracted to supply 27 Coradia iLint hydrogen fuel-cell trains to the Frankfurt metropolitan area, as well as six Coradia Stream hydrogen trains for the Lombardy region in Italy, and a dozen Coradia Polyvant hydrogen trains for different regions in France. The company has been running operational trials in Poland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria as well.

Source: Alstom

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WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Hydrogen fuel is seen as the aviation industries only route to true zero emissions flight, and Airbus are leading the way.

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When it comes to trying to decarbonise the global aviation industry Airbus is ahead of the pack with their zero emissions Zero-E line of hydrogen aircraft which they unveiled late last year. And now, just months after they used an A380 to test a new open fan engine concept which could cut aircraft emissions by up to 20% they’re using another A380 demonstrator to test their first hydrogen powered zero emissions jet engine.

When Emirates received its 123rd Airbus A380 in December it marked the end of the line for the biggest passenger plane ever built, just 16 years after launch, with new orders dwindling as a result of advances in technology making newer models more economical, and the pandemic’s devastating impact on global demand.

The Future of Aviation and Mobility, by speaker Matthew Griffin

Now the manufacturer has announced plans to retrofit its super-jumbo, which has a capacity of 525 passengers, with hydrogen fuel technology as part of ongoing efforts to introduce the world’s first zero-emissions aircraft by 2035. The project is a partnership with CFM International – a joint venture involving GE and Safran Aircraft Engines.

Hydrogen-powered gas turbines will be installed between the A380’s two upper level doors, with storage and distribution systems for the fuel located inside the aircraft, which was chosen for the test due to its huge size, which Airbus believes will allow it to better evolve the concept over time.

Learn more about the new concept engine

“This is key in enabling us to achieve our ambition of having a zero-emission aircraft in commercial service by 2035,” said Glenn Llewellyn, a leader on aviation climate strategy and VP of Zero Emission Aircraft at Airbus, in a video posted to the company’s YouTube channel.

With global air travel accounting for 915 tonnes of CO2 in 2019 alone, the pressure is on the aviation sector to perfect lower and zero-emission alternatives. Last year, it emerged that Europe’s five largest airports – London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, Amsterdam Schipol and Madrid Barajas – emitted more CO2 than the whole of Sweden.

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WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

What if your cars battery lasted longer than you could live?

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With things like fast charging and long lasting million mile batteries that can pack more power into a smaller lighter format, electric roads, and even beefier fast charging cable systems, electric vehicles (EV) are improving all the time. That said though one of the biggest concerns about EVs is that the batteries will need replacing after a few years, at great expense. After all, your smartphone battery is likely to have seen better days within as little as three years. But now a Tesla researcher is getting ready to kick this idea into touch once and for all, after demonstrating batteries that could potentially outlive most human beings.

Tesla enthusiasts are likely to have heard of Jeff Dahn already. He’s a professor at Dalhousie University and has been a research partner with Tesla since 2016. His focus has been to increase the energy density and lifetime of Lithium-Ion batteries, as well as reducing their cost. Dahn appears to have hit the motherload along with colleagues on his research team. In a paper published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society, the group claims to have created a battery design that could last a staggering 100 years under the right conditions.

The Future of Mobility 2030, by Keynote Speaker Matthew Griffin

Dahn’s paper contrasts cells based on Li[Ni0.5Mn0.3Co0.2]O2 chemistry (“NMC 532”) to LiFePO4. The latter is the “Lithium Iron Phosphate” (LFP) chemistry that Tesla is currently using in Chinese-built standard Model 3 cars imported into Europe. The LFP chemistry has lower energy density than more widespread Lithium-Ion alternatives, but is cheaper, more durable, and allegedly safer, too. LFP can last up to 12,000 charge-discharge cycles, so beating it in this regard is no mean feat. Dahn’s NMC 532 cells showed no capacity loss after nearly 2,000 cycles. The paper extrapolates this out to imply a 100 year lifespan even though they obviously haven’t been testing the battery that long.

Dahn also presented a keynote in March at the international battery seminar in Orlando, Florida, where he talked about a “4-million-mile battery”. This included some of the findings in the paper, prior to its release this month. Dahn had previously promised the million mile battery, and has been testing cells based on his adjusted chemistry since October 2017. Apparently, they have been going strong and after 4.5 years of continuous cycling at room temperature, they have only seen 5% degradation. This would mean they could power an EV for 4 million miles before needing to be replaced.

Part of the reasons for the longevity is the switch from polycrystalline to single-crystal cathodes, which don’t break down so rapidly during the charge-discharge cycle. The NMC 532 chemistry Dahn is using contrasts with the NMC 811 chemistry currently employed by LG Chem, which has eight parts nickel in its cathodes for each part of manganese and cobalt. Last year the Tesla Model Y switched from NMC 811 to LG Chem’s NCMA chemistry cells, aka “high nickel”. These are expensive compared to either LFP or NMC 811 but offer the highest density for longest range. NCMA chemistry uses nickel, cobalt, manganese, and aluminum for its cathodes, but the majority is nickel (89%).

The NMC 532 chemistry Dahn has been testing promises another leap forward in battery technology. However, cars don’t need to last 100 years, and they don’t need to go 4 million miles either. Considering that the average vehicle age in the USA is 12 years doing 14,000 miles per year, the mean lifetime distance driven by an American car is 168,000 miles, and in Europe it’s a lot less. So, in reality, batteries with 4 million mile durability will enable applications such as Vehicle to Grid (V2G), which will increase the rate of charge-discharge cycling. But they are more likely to be most useful for static energy storage in houses and for grid buffering capacity from an intermittent renewable energy supply like wind or solar power.

Hydrogen enthusiasts often argue that batteries are just a stopgap until Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles and hydrogen storage systems hit the mainstream. But with all the development taking place in battery technology, hydrogen is likely to be too little, too late when it does arrive in volume for transportation. Technologies like those Dahn is working on, alongside Lithium Sulfur batteries developments such as from Theion and ultra-rapid charging technology such as StoreDot’s, will mean that in just a few years’ time batteries have solved all the problems posed against them, which would then possibly mean that the need for hydrogen based vehicles becomes a moot point.

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WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

As the world weans itself off fossil fuels the new fuels we use need to be much greener to produce.

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Three years ago, scientists at the University of Michigan (UoM) discovered an artificial photosynthesis device made of silicon and gallium nitride (Si/GaN) that harnesses natural sunlight to generate carbon-free hydrogen fuel, known as green hydrogen, for fuel cells with twice the efficiency and stability of some previous technologies.

Now, scientists at Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley national laboratories – in collaboration with UoM – have uncovered a surprising, self-improving property in Si/GaN that contributes to the material’s highly efficient and stable performance in converting light and water into green hydrogen. And while this might not sound all that exciting the research, reported in Nature Materials, could help radically accelerate the commercialisation of both artificial photosynthesis technologies and hydrogen fuel cells, and help wean the world off of harmful fossil fuels faster.

Materials in solar fuels systems usually degrade and become less stable over time, and as a result they then produce hydrogen less efficiently until they altogether stop – but the team found an unusual property in Si/GaN that somehow enables it to become more efficient and stable over time.

Previous artificial photosynthesis materials are either excellent light absorbers that lack durability or they are durable materials that lack light-absorption efficiency – but this material is both durable and an excellent light absorber. Furthermore, silicon and gallium nitride are abundant and cheap materials that are widely used as semiconductors in everyday electronics such as LEDs and solar cells, said co-author Zetian Mi, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UoM who invented the first Si/GaN artificial photosynthesis devices a decade ago.

When Mi’s Si/GaN device achieved a record-breaking 3 percent solar-to-hydrogen efficiency, he wondered how such ordinary materials could perform so extraordinarily well in an exotic artificial photosynthesis device – so he turned to senior author and Berkeley Lab scientist Francesca Toma for help, and this is the result.

Source: UoM

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Plants are getting more super powers than ever before and it’s all thanks to new tech and weird scientists …

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Over the past couple of years scientists have managed to create plants that generate electricity and can be connected to power the grid, glow, and even grow on Mars. And that’s before I mention what the us military are up to with them which includes everything from finding new ways to bring them back from the dead using genetically engineered bugs, and turn them into living sensor networks.

With so much going on you might ask what’s next for plant-kind?And the answer might surprise you. It may sound like something out of a futuristic science fiction film but scientists have now managed to engineer spinach plants which are capable of sending E-Mails. By using nanotechnology, engineers at MIT in the US have transformed spinach into living sensors capable of detecting explosive materials. These plants are then able to wirelessly relay this information back to the scientists to alert them.

When the spinach roots detect the presence of nitroaromatics in groundwater, a compound often found in explosives like landmines, the carbon nanotubes, which are nanoscale sized tubes made from carbon, obviously, within the plant leaves emit a signal. This signal is then read by an infrared camera, sending an E-Mail alert to the scientists.

This experiment is part of a wider field of research which involves engineering electronic components and systems into plants. The technology is known as “plant nanobionics,” and is effectively the process of giving plants new abilities.

“Plants are very good analytical chemists,” explains Professor Michael Strano who led the research. “They have an extensive root network in the soil, are constantly sampling groundwater, and have a way to self-power the transport of that water up into the leaves.”

“This is a novel demonstration of how we have overcome the plant/human communication barrier,” he adds.

While the purpose of this experiment was to detect explosives, Strano and other scientists believe it could be used to help warn researchers about pollution and other environmental conditions. Because of the vast amount of data plants absorb from their surroundings, they are ideally situated to monitor ecological changes.

In the early phases of plant nanobionic research, Strano used nanoparticles to make plants into sensors for pollutants. By altering how the plants photosynthesized, he was able to have them detect nitric oxide, a pollutant caused by combustion.

“Plants are very environmentally responsive,” Strano says. “They know that there is going to be a drought long before we do. They can detect small changes in the properties of soil and water potential. If we tap into those chemical signalling pathways, there is a wealth of information [we can] access.”

When it’s not busy E-Mailing researchers though spinach looks like it could also hold the key to efficiently powering hydrogen fuel cells too. Scientists from the American University have found that when spinach is converted into carbon nanosheets, it can function as a catalyst to help make metal-air batteries and fuel cells more efficient.

“This work suggests that sustainable catalysts can be made for an oxygen reduction reaction from natural resources,” explains Professor Shouzhong Zou, who led the paper.

Metal-air batteries are a more energy efficient alternative to Lithium-Ion batteries, which are commonly found in commercial products like smartphones.

Spinach was specifically chosen because of its abundance of iron and nitrogen, which are important elements in compounds that act as catalysts. The researchers had to wash, juice and grind the spinach into a powder, turning it from its edible form into nanosheets suitable for the process.

“The method we tested can produce highly active, carbon-based catalysts from spinach, which is a renewable biomass,” adds Zou. “In fact, we believe it outperforms commercial platinum catalysts in both activity and stability.”

And there you have it – spinach truly is a super plant.

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WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

In the future homes won’t be powered by electricity from power stations – and there will be plenty of alternatives.

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The energy industry is changing. Yesterday you were heating your home using gas from the gas grid, and in the far future you could be powering it with energy from a black hole. Kinda. In the interim though, between now and then, you’ll have a range of new energy options that let you end your reliance on fossil fuels. You’ve got heat pumps, solar panels, and zero energy materials that generate electricity for your home using the coldness of space, obviously, but how about hydrogen?

As expected, this decade looks like it’ll be shaped by renewable energy sources and battery technology. But while Tesla, for example, is already cranking out batteries as fast as humanly possible, other companies are getting into the home energy storage game too, companies like Australian tech company Lavo, which now has pre-orders open for its $30,000 hydrogen home batteries.

Aesthetically the batteries obviously look different to Tesla’s sleek Lithium-Ion based Powerwall home batteries and look like a combination of gaming console and vending machine – the giant silver tanks that Lavo’s team members holding in the in the picture below are the hydrogen containers that slot into the system.

According to Lavo its home batteries are “designed for everyday use and can be used by residential homes and businesses alike.”

Courtesy: Lavo

They’re also capable of holding enough charge to power the average residential home in Australia for two days. The company also says the batteries don’t need hydrogen to be stored as a gas or liquid which would require extreme pressures or cold temperatures and cause an obvious hazard – something that the crew of the Hindenburg blimp which was full of explosive hydrogen before it caught fire and blew up knows all too well …

Lavo’s system works by drawing in water and using electrolyzers to separate it into its constituent atoms, namely hydrogen and oxygen. The system then stores the hydrogen in its solid state as a metal hydride powder in the silver tanks which can then be run through a traditional fuel cell to generate electricity.

“We’re very excited to be building the next generation of energy storage in Australia alongside the leading researchers at the University of New South Wales and our world-class manufacturing partners,” Lavo’s CEO, Alan Yu, said in a press release. “Lavo’s technology is truly a game changer for the energy storage market and we believe it will have a real positive impact on the way people power their lives.”

All this said though prospective buyers will not only have to shell out $30,000 for one of these things but they’ll also wait until September 2022 to receive it, unless they order the most expensive version that is which will start shipping later this year.

On top of that it’s also possible that hydrogen batteries may not work as well as Tesla’s Lithium-Ion ones because they need energy to produce their hydrogen in the first place. But now at least you have another option to power your home or business … until black hole energy arrives.

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WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Hydrogen has more than ten times the energy density of lithium Ion batteries, zero emissions, and nothing to recycle, but distributing it has been an issue until now.

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With over 1 trillion watts of installed renewable energy generation renewables have finally become the world’s cheapest form of energy so it should come as any surprise that using fossil fuels as a means to generate energy is under threat. While renewables like solar and wind power are rising to prominence other forms of green energy production like Hydrogen have been languishing in the slow lane in part because in order to switch the global economy to hydrogen fuel companies would have to make huge investments in building out the infrastructure, from production plants to distribution centers and so on, to support it.

One of the key issues making hydrogen a less attractive energy source than Lithium Ion batteries, for example, for use in electric vehicles is the fact that it needs to be kept cold and pressurised in special tanks, like the ones in this superyacht, which makes the logistics of trucking it around considerably tougher than that of gasoline.

See the idea for yourself

But now a new hydrogen blending technology offers a potential solution – by injecting hydrogen directly into the existing natural gas grid it could be piped quickly and efficiently across an entire city, and gas stations could simply separate it out and suck it back out of the gas pipelines to fill their tanks. The distribution problem would then disappear, enabling hydrogen pumps to quickly pop up all over town – all of which means fuelling your hydrogen powered drone, supercar, or truck is no longer an issue.

To test the concept, SoCalGas is setting up a hydrogen blending demonstration program that will see surplus renewable energy electrolysed into hydrogen gas, which will be blended into the natural gas supply. An isolated segment of the grid will be chosen early this year – one that uses mainly polyethylene piping – and hydrogen will be blended in at an initial proportion of around 1 percent, potentially rising as high as 20 percent during testing.

A hydrogen-natural gas blend at these proportions behaves almost identically to a regular compressed natural gas feed when it’s burned to power kitchen stoves, boilers, hot water services and other such appliances. The main difference is a reduction in CO2 emissions at the burn site. Only once blends reach the 30 to 40 percent level does it really need to be treated much differently to a normal gas line.

On the other end, SoCalGas has also announced it’s working with Dutch company HyET Hydrogen to deploy HyET’s Electrochemical Hydrogen Purification and Compression (EHPC) technology to get the H2 out of the gas pipes and into a compressed storage tank. The EHPC system uses an electrically-actuated, hydrogen-selective membrane to suck the small hydrogen molecules through without allowing the methane and other natural gas molecules through.

The initial deployment is expected to extract and compress about 10 kg, or 22 lb, of hydrogen per day, but within two years that figure will rise tenfold. As 100 kg, or 220 lb, of compressed hydrogen would be enough to fill up about 20 fuel-cell cars, so it’s not far from that point to a commercially workable solution for gas stations.

If gas stations can easily hook themselves up to a reliable and fuss-free hydrogen source, then a lack of H2 pumps could quickly cease to be a barrier for fuel-cell vehicles which would then no doubt help accelerate their roll out. The same infrastructure could also feed larger trucking depots or airports where hydrogen-fuelled aircraft, like Airbus’ latest E-Zero hydrogen concept aircraft, could stop to refuel.

Source: SoCalGas

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WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Hydrogen packs ten times the energy of traditional LiON batteries and is a clean, green fuel, but its commercialisation has so far been alot slower than competing energy alternatives.

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Hydrogen might finally be coming of age after more and more companies unveil their latest hydrogen powered creations which include everything from commercial airliners, flying taxis, and ocean going drones, right through to more common-a-garden hydrogen powered semi-trucks and supercars, all of which, asides from being powered by hydrogen, have one two other things in common – world beating ranges with zero emissions. Now, as I predicted a while ago during my Future of Superyacht Design keynote at Chelsea Harbour in London, the world’s first hydrogen powered superyacht has broken cover too – although reports that it has already been bought by billionaire Bill Gates are apparently untrue.

Designed by Dutch company Sinot, the $644 million “Aqua” superyacht is a 376 foot (112 meter) monster that runs entirely on liquid hydrogen stored at extremely low temperatures in two 28 ton vacuum-isolated tanks. A spiral staircase in the center of the ship leads to the bottom deck where these two monoliths sit behind strengthened glass, keeping the hydrogen stable at a cool -253°C (-423.4°F).

See the promo reel

The five deck superyacht can accommodate 14 guests and 31 crew members, and has a world beating range for a superyacht of over 3,750 nautical miles (4,315 mi, 6,945 km) with a jaunty top speed of 17 knots (20 mph, 31 km/h).

The ship converts the liquified hydrogen into electrical energy using Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells, with water being the only by product, and the tanks split off power at up to 4 MW, powering two 1 MW electric propulsion motors and two 300-kW bow thrusters for superior manoeuvring. Meanwhile, a 1.5 MWh battery pack acts as a buffer, providing instant access to power and running the ship’s electrical systems.

Courtesy: Sinot

The ship also, naturally, has a huge indoor health and wellness center featuring a gym, a hydro-massage room, and a yoga studio, and several luxurious indoor-outdoor entertaining spaces with a formal dining area that seats 14.

At the front of the yacht, a “Bow observatory” then accommodates two people who can enjoy views of the horizon through giant windows, and other design features include Japanese influenced interiors, an optional helipad, where a hydrogen powered EVTOL, like the one I mentioned above, can drop off guests, and a mini-waterfall that cascades down from the deck pool over stone steps. All of which is then complimented by an exterior inspired by ocean swells where all the ships liquid hydrogen, which eventually turns into pure water, ends up.

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