Less publicized than electrical mobility solutions with batteries, hydrogen is however very present in transport, with ever more numerous and concrete uses. However, it seems to be less in individual solutions than in heavy solutions: trucks, bus, tram or ships.
The battle between electric cars fueled by batteries or by hydrogen fuel cells undeniably runs in favor of the first. The autonomy of electric vehicles with battery improves year after year, with, for small models, the CAP of 300 to 400 km real crossed this summer. The electrical infrastructure is already present in all households and requires only one adapter. The charging stations are also quickly deployed, even if the network has not yet reached an optimal scale. The solutions of private vehicles powered by fuel cells, conversely, seem to be five years late. Recharge stations, rare and costly, require an assertive political will. However, investing in the two segments at the same time is expensive and the public authorities of most states now prioritize the electric track.
Hydrogen mobility is not dead. First, and even if it seems to have revised its ambitions downwards, Japan is still betting on its “hydrogen society”. This bet, combined with the strength of its companies which have already put into circulation vehicles with fuel cell, could cause some emulation. Above all, the integration of renewable energies and the need to balance the network offer hydrogen a role of future, in competition with chemical batteries, via the Power-to-Gas. The existence of these solutions, which are developing in particular in Europe and Asia, guarantees a framework of production decarbon of a hydrogen which is currently lacking. Finally, hydrogen mobility does not stop at individual cars and the weight of batteries currently makes their use complicated for certain vehicles, where the fuel cell solutions are getting better, not to mention the advantage of a Much faster recharge time-a few minutes against half an hour at least. Hydrogen could therefore have a role to play, complementary, in the mobility of tomorrow and in the construction of an economy and a low carbon development model. Several promising tracks are indeed already open.
Mobility “heavy» as horizon
For the president of AFHYPAC and CEO of MCPHY ENERGY, Pascal Mauberger, interviewed by Green Innovation“Hydrogen is positioned as a solution particularly suitable for heavy vehicles, beyond 3.5 t, whether buses or trucks”. In fact, it is in this type of transport that projects are the most numerous and especially the most promising.
Rail is also interested in hydrogen. On April 27, 2016, the first hydrogen hybrid tramway came out of the assembly line of the Chinese Tangshan Railway Vehicle Company. This tram, made up of two engines, a trailer and three cars, has the advantage of not requiring catenaries or soil food. Its propulsion and heating systems are powered by fuel cells. Electricity is stored in on -board supercapacitors which allow the battery to be reloaded in just fifteen minutes. The tram can thus travel 40 km at a speed of around 70 km/h.
The “heavy” aspect is not limited to the land framework, however, since maritime and river transport is also interested in hydrogen solutions. Nantes launched the Navhybus this summer, a river shuttle powered by a fuel cell. Fishing is also interested. Since 2014, Filhypyne, a 12 -meter fishing boat powered by an electric motor powered by a fuel cell and batteries, has been in testing.
In the end, the great interest of hydrogen for these “heavy” solutions lies in the reduced recharge time that it requires. A few minutes are enough to recharge a heavy goods vehicle, where it would take several hours on an electrical charging station with medium or low power. It is therefore on the bus fleets that the future could be the most interesting and constitute an appropriate trigger, because, in this context, the autonomy permitted by hydrogen constitutes an asset of size. China is not mistaken since it has set up several bus lines powered by fuel cells.
Pascal Mauberger conceives him himself, the main limit for hydrogen as a solution for transport is due to the cost of the infrastructure and their too low attendance. According to him, it is necessary to initiate a positive approach in this sense, which can go through the simultaneous deployment of vehicles and infrastructure through fleets (companies, taxis, utilities, technical services). All these vehicles needing to circulate in dense areas, the infrastructure costs of a charging station can be shared.
Hydrogen mobility sweet in question
The fuel cell can be very small and the energy value of dihydrogen molecules makes nomadic and miniaturized solutions possible. It is in this way that some manufacturers have embarked. The young French company Pragma Industries has thus developed an electrical assistance bike using hydrogen as an energy source. Called Alpha, this avant-garde bike has an integrated fuel cell and a small hydrogen cylinder which gives it a hundred-kilometer autonomy and can recharge in one minute. The price remains high, however, since each bike currently costs 5,000 euros, to which the investment in the charging infrastructure must be added. For Pascal Mauberger, it is precisely this need for charging infrastructure that seriously limits the potential of this solution to the solutions with battery, even if it considers that in town the problem is less present.
In the neighboring scooter segment, the Swiss company AAQIUs has developed portable cartridges of solid hydrogen. Just insert the recharge into the location provided for this purpose in the two-wheelers to ensure 50 km of autonomy. This technology could ultimately be extended to electric vehicles with batteries to extend their autonomy by 200 km. The interest of this solution also lies in the solid nature of stored hydrogen, which limits the dangers of explosion.
The miniaturizable character of fuel cells is so high that the intelligent British company Energy developed in 2015 an iPhone prototype embedding a hydrogen fuel cell, enough to make it work for a week without recharge. This innovation shows that hydrogen could also fit into unexpected transport solutions, why not, for example, for future delivery drones. The company also launched a first hydrogen drone in March.
The Power-to-Gasan essential complement for the future of hydrogen transport
It is reasonable to think that the future of the hydrogen vector is conditioned by the adoption of Power-to-Gasnamely the fact of storing electricity in the form of hydrogen by electrolysis. This solution, in full development in Europe and elsewhere in the world, is indeed an adequate and efficient way to balance electrical networks, more and more difficult to manage due to the ever larger shares of intermittent production sources – Mainly wind turbines and solar – in the electrical production mixes on a global scale. Concretely, when the supply of electricity production is too large and it is not possible to cut part of these sources of production, production units by electrolysis manufacture hydrogen, thus absorbing electricity in excess excess . Conversely, when demand is too strong and the supply cannot follow, rather than risking the black-outthis hydrogen will be used to produce electricity thanks to fuel cells. This technique can be envisaged, as for solutions with batteries, at the scale of a city, a neighborhood, or even a house, even if this last solution has no profitability on the horizon yet .
Many solutions Power-to-Gas are currently developed in Europe and China. This is the case of the E.on power station in Falkenhagen, in western Germany, where a megawatt is captured on the electrical network to transform it into hydrogen, other projects existing in this country. In China, a 4 MW project is also in development. It concerns a 200 MW wind farm, of which, in the long term, 10 MW will be transformed into hydrogen, among which four have been allocated to the French company McPhy Energy. France is not to be outdone since, in January 2014, a first project was launched in Dunkirk. Called Gryd, it is worn by Crigen, the Research Department of Engie. Its development is accompanied by a demonstrator on transport, with a GNV bus station adapted to the natural hydrogen-Gaz mixture, first at 6 % then 20 % hydrogen. Finally, on March 30, Thierry found, general manager of GRT Gaz, launched a 1 MW project in Fos-sur-Mer. The national company of the Rhône provides electricity transformed into hydrogen with two electrolysers. One part will be directly injected on the gas network and another will be transformed into synthetic methane and injected directly on the network.
Ultimately, Pascal Mauberger explains to us, “hydrogen must be conceived in this holistic approach on all that is stabilization and balancing of networks”. For the president of AFHYPAC, hydrogen has the advantage of offering storage of “long -term” where the batteries have “self -discharge, cost and volume problems”. In view of the issues, a question remains however. France, which has a decarbonated electricity park, with a nuclear production modulated at night, does not use this potential to produce hydrogen during the periods concerned. This production could however reach several terawatt hours annually.
