Hydrogen for Transport: Generating Light not Heat

Having spent more than 15 years in technology and innovation, Arcola Energy’s Strategy Director, Richard Kemp-Harper’s ambition is to separate hype and hope from reality in technology and innovation. In a series of Arcola Insight blogs, Richard tackles the hydrogen for transport debate head-on. First he sets the scene for the series and suggests some other people to read!

Smoke and Mirrors

My reading over the last couple of months has included the excellent book by science and technology writer Gemma Milne “Smoke and Mirrors. How hype obscures the future and how to see past it”. Gemma discusses a wide range of emerging technologies, from Agritech to AI, and digs into the gap between the media and social media hype for each and the reality of what is really going on in the field.

I highly recommend it to anyone involved in technology and innovation – particularly if you are interested in the communication and wider social and political impacts of technology. Apart from anything else it’s an insightful exploration of a series of topics that we all hear a lot about, but mostly what we hear generates more heat than light.

Although Gemma doesn’t have a chapter on it, hydrogen is no different in this respect. In fact, hydrogen and associated technologies have been through several hype cycles and we appear to be in the middle of another phase of dramatic, bullish statements, generally discussing how the future market for hydrogen is worth squillions – mostly from people relatively new to the topic. There is also an extensive cohort of social media hydrogen enthusiasts who seem to think hydrogen is the answer to everything. (Narrator: It isn’t).

Pushing back

I think, partly in response to the hype, there are some experts out there pushing back. Michael Leibriech, founder and senior contributor at BloombergNEF, recently did two blog posts on “Separating the hype from hydrogen” on both the supply and demand side of the story. Gniewomir Fils is energy and climate advisor at Agora Energiewende and does some excellent analysis and epic Twitter threads on hydrogen production and use. On the zero emission transport side Auke Hoekstra is a researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology and serial debunker of dodgy reports and scare stories about electric vehicles and renewable energy systems.

Michael and Auke particularly are strong advocates of electric vehicles and, while I disagree with some of their conclusions, I have found the data and arguments both informative and thought provoking in challenging some of my assumptions. Some of what I plan to write about on this blog is stimulated by their comments, either as a counter-argument or as insights from discussions. I recommend a follow as a good antidote to a lot of the hyperbole knocking around at the moment.

The Arcola perspective

At Arcola Energy we have a different perspective, one grounded less in analysis and more in practical experience of hydrogen technologies. Ben, our CEO, did a PhD on the Rolls Royce fuel cell, consulted for a while and then founded Arcola 10 years ago on the principle of less talk, more actionJoe, our Commercial Director has many years of experience in the sector at Johnson Matthey; and Simon, our Engineering Director, knows as much as anybody about the practical engineering of hydrogen for transport. My background in this world started 10 years ago while I was at InnovateUK, work that included enabling funding for many of the hydrogen projects around the UK, before escaping to the sharp end of making projects happen.

Between us as a team, we have decades of practical experience in hydrogen and fuel cells, have seen most things and tried many of them (with mixed success). We know better than most what does and what doesn’t work, what is a silly idea (hydrogen bikes for starters) and what has been done before.

I aim to share some of that experience on this blog in the coming weeks and hopefully will provide more light than heat to the discussion about decarbonisation of transport. With that in mind, and perhaps unusually for a blog about hydrogen for transport, I will write next time on how we can make the most of battery electric vehicles in the transition to zero emissions.

P.S.
Arcola Top Tip: If someone starts an article with “hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe” the author doesn’t know what they are talking about and you can skip the rest of the article.

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Leave a Comment

Andreina Perez

 04/02/2021, 14:42:39

I love it! :-)Reply toAndreina Perez

Paul Noble

 26/04/2021, 15:41:40

Just received a copy of a report on the “Hydrogen Market” from a well respected source, with the opening line “Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical substance in the universe”. Re-Arcola Top Tip….why exactly should I skip (rubbish skip?) the rest of the report?Reply toPaul NobleFirst Name*Last NameEmail*WebsiteComment*https://www.google.com/recaptcha/enterprise/anchor?ar=1&k=6Ld_ad8ZAAAAAAqr0ePo1dUfAi0m4KPkCMQYwPPm&co=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYXJjb2xhZW5lcmd5LmNvbTo0NDM.&hl=en&v=f-bnnOuahiYKuei7dmAd3kgv&size=invisible&badge=inline&cb=f5qw6znhwpq9

Source: Hydrogen for Transport: Generating Light not Heat (arcolaenergy.com)

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