Publications

The aim of the paper is to analyze how regulatory design and its framework’s topics other than macroeconomic factors might impact green innovation by taking into consideration a brand-new renewable source of energy that is becoming more and more important in recent years: hydrogen and fuel cell patenting activities. Such activities have been used as a proxy for green technological change in a panel data of 52 countries over a 6-year period. A series of sectorial energy regulation and macroeconomic variables were tested to assess their impact on that technological frontier of green energy transition policy. As might have been expected the empirical analysis carried out with the model that was prefigured confirms significant evidence of lock-in effects on fossil fuel policies. The model confirms however another evidence: countries already investing in renewables might be willing to invest in hydrogen projects. A sort of reinforcement to the further development of green sustainable strategies seems to derive from having already concretely undertaken this direction. Future research should exploit different approaches to the research question and address the econometric criticalities mentioned in the paper along with exploiting results of the paper with further investigations.

Setting up and operating a hydrogen refueling station is a critical part of current drive for fuel cell vehicles. In setting up a hydrogen refueling station (HRS) the investor concerns of the capacity of HRS the quality of hydrogen the capital requirement of the station and the modes of hydrogen supply; interestingly the supply modes of hydrogen further influences the safety of the station the cost of hydrogen the energy consumption of supply and the area of hydrogen supply section in a station. Hydrogen can be supplied to a HRS by the procurement of the merchant hydrogen from a central source with the central hydrogen supply mode (CHSM) or by an onsite production of hydrogen in the distributed hydrogen supply mode (DHSM). In this presentation the above factors are evaluated with respect to these two supply modes of hydrogen. It is concluded that the lower hydrogen cost and the smaller site area as well as the safer aspect of the public concern of safety can be realized with the choice of the distributed hydrogen supply mode by an onsite hydrogen production from methanol.

Three kinds of carrier materials activated carbon bagasse and brick were used as immobilizing carriers during fermentation by Clostridium acetobutylicum CICC8012. Compared with cell suspended fermentation enhanced fermentation performance was achieved during immobilizing cell fermentation with shorter fermentation time required. During the experiments hydrogen and butanol appear to be competitive events. The best fermentation performance of butanol was obtained in the case of bagasse as immobilizing carrier (5.804g/L of butanol production 0.22g/g of yield and 0.44g/L/h of productivity) while the hydrogen yield was just 1.41 mol/mol. The highest hydrogen productivity (402mL/L/h) and yield (1.808mol/mol glucose) could be obtained in the case of brick as immobilizing carrier while the butanol yield was 0.18 g/g. The highest hydrogen concentration of 66.76 % was obtained in the case of activated carbon as immobilizing carrier.

Hydrogen storage in nanoporous materials has been attracting a great deal of attention in recent years as high gravimetric H2 capacities exceeding 10 wt% in some cases can be achieved at 77 K using materials with particularly high surface areas. However volumetric capacities at low temperatures and both gravimetric and volumetric capacities at ambient temperature need to be improved before such adsorbents become practically viable. This article therefore discusses approaches to increasing the gravimetric and volumetric hydrogen storage capacities of nanoporous materials and maximizing the usable capacity of a material between the upper storage and delivery pressures. In addition recent advances in machine learning and data science provide an opportunity to apply this technology to the search for new materials for hydrogen storage. The large number of possible component combinations and substitutions in various porous materials including Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) is ideally suited to a machine learning approach; so this is also discussed together with some new material types that could prove useful in the future for hydrogen storage applications.

The Covid-19 pandemic has dealt a massive blow to countries around the world choking economies and transforming daily life for billions of people. This extraordinary disruption has significantly impacted the energy sector with worrying implications for clean energy transitions. Some key clean energy technologies have been encouragingly resilient to the effects of the crisis but so far there is little to suggest that the dramatic structural progress needed to achieve long-term climate and energy goals will happen in the current turmoil. Unprecedented action and leadership from governments companies and other real-world decision makers will be required to put the world more firmly on a sustainable long-term pathway. The energy sector must achieve dramatic sustained emissions reductions through policy investment and innovation measures across all energy sectors and technologies.

Building on Tracking Clean Energy Progress 2020  and other COVID-19 analysis this article takes stock of how the crisis has affected energy sectors and technologies thus far and explores the potential implications for clean energy transitions over the medium and longer term.

Link to Document on IEA Website

In this review we primarily analyze the hydrogen production technologies based on water and biomass including the economic technological and environmental impacts of different types of hydrogen production technologies based on these materials and comprehensively compare them. Our analyses indicate that all renewable energy-based approaches for hydrogen production are more environmentally friendly than fossil-based hydrogen generation approaches. However the technical ease and economic efficiency of hydrogen production from renewable sources of energy needs to be further improved in order to be applied on a large scale. Compared with other renewable energy-based methods hydrogen production via biomass electrolysis has several advantages including the ease of directly using raw biomass. Furthermore its environmental impact is smaller than other approaches. Moreover using a noble metal catalyst-free anode for this approach can ensure a considerably low power consumption which makes it a promising candidate for clean and efficient hydrogen production in the future.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are expected to play a significant part in the global climate response. Following the ratification of the Paris Agreement the ability of CCS to reduce emissions from fossil fuel use in power generation and industrial processes – including from existing facilities – will be crucial to limiting future temperature increases to ""well below 2°C"" as laid out in the Agreement. CCS technology will also be needed to deliver ""negative emissions"" in the second half of the century if these ambitious goals are to be achieved.

CCS technologies are not new. This year is the 20th year of operation of the Sleipner CCS Project in Norway which has captured almost 17 million tonnes of CO2 from an offshore natural gas production facility and permanently stored them in a sandstone formation deep under the seabed. Individual applications of CCS have been used in industrial processes for decades and projects injecting CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) have been operating in the United States since the early 1970s.

This publication reviews progress with CCS technologies over the past 20 years and examines their role in achieving 2°C and well below 2°C targets. Based on the International Energy Agency’s 2°C scenario it also considers the implications for climate change if CCS was not a part of the response. And it examines opportunities to accelerate future deployment of CCS to meet the climate goals set in the Paris Agreement.

Link to Document on IEA Website

The potential of catalytic pyrolysis of biomass for hydrogen and bio‐oil production has drawn great attention due to the concern of clean energy utilization and decarbonization. In this paper the catalytic pyrolysis of pine sawdust with calcined dolomite was carried out in a novel moving bed reactor with a two‐stage screw feeder. The effects of pyrolysis temperature (700–900 °C) and catalytic temperature (500–800 °C) on pyrolysis performance were investigated in product distribution gas composition and gas properties. The results showed that with the temperature increased pyrolysis gas yield in‐ creased but the yield of solid and liquid products decreased. With the increase in temperature the CO and H2 content increased significantly while the CO2 and CH4 decreased correspondingly. The calcined dolomite can remove the tar by 44% and increased syngas yield by 52.9%. With the increasing catalytic temperature the catalytic effect of calcined dolomite was also enhanced.

This paper provides a detailed technical description of the United Nations Global Technical Regulation No. 13 (UN GTR #13) 1998 Agreement and contracting party obligations phase 2 activity and safety provisions being discussed and developed for heavy duty hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

High-strength steels with yield strength of 960 MPa are susceptible to hydrogen-assisted cracking (HAC) during welding processing. In the present paper the implant test is used to study HAC in a quenched and tempered steel S960QL and a high-strength steel produced by thermo-mechanical controlled process S960MC. Welding is performed using the gas-metal arc welding process. Furthermore diffusible hydrogen concentration (H_D) in arc weld metal is determined. Based on the implant test results lower critical stress (LCS) for complete fracture critical implant stress (σ_krit) for crack initiation and embrittlement index (EI) are determined. At HD of 1.66 ml/100 g LCS is 605 MPa and 817 MPa for S960QL and S960MC respectively. EI is 0.30 and 0.46 for S960QL and S960MC respectively. Fracture surfaces of S960QL show higher degradation with reduced deformation. Both higher EI of S960MC and fractography show better resistance to HAC in the HAZ of S960MC compared to S960QL.

This is a transcript of the discussion session on the effects of hydrogen in the non-ferrous alloys of zirconium and titanium which are anisotropic hydride-forming metals. The four talks focus on the hydrogen embrittlement mechanisms that affect zirconium and titanium components which are respectively used in the nuclear and aerospace industries. Two specific mechanisms are delayed hydride cracking and stress corrosion cracking.

This article is a transcription of the recorded discussion of the session ‘Hydrogen in non-ferrous alloys’ at the Royal Society Discussion Meeting Challenges of Hydrogen in Metals 16–18 January 2017. The text is approved by the contributors. M.P. transcribed the session. M.A.S. assisted in the preparation of the manuscript.

Link to document download on Royal Society Website 

A method of risk identification is developed by comparing existing and advanced technologies from the viewpoint of comprehensive social risk. First to analyze these values from a multifaceted perspective we constructed a questionnaire based on 24 individual values and 26 infrastructural values determined in a previous study. Seven engineering experts and six social science experts were then asked to complete the questionnaire to compare and analyze a hydrogen energy system (HES) and a gasoline energy system (GES). Finally the responses were weighted using the analytic hierarchy process. Three important points were identified and focused upon: the distinct disadvantages of the HES compared to the GES judgments that were divided between experts in the engineering and social sciences fields and judgments that were divided among experts in the same field. These are important risks that should be evaluated when making decisions related to the implementation of advanced science and technology.

Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC) systems offer a very attractive way for storing and distributing hydrogen from electrolysis using excess energies from solar or wind power plants. In this contribution an alternative high-value utilization of such hydrogen is proposed namely its use in steady-state chemical hydrogenation processes. We here demonstrate that the hydrogen-rich form of the LOHC system dibenzyltoluene/perhydro-dibenzyltoluene can be directly applied as sole source of hydrogen in the hydrogenation of toluene a model reaction for large-scale technical hydrogenations. Equilibrium experiments using perhydro-dibenzyltoluene and toluene in a ratio of 1:3 (thus in a stoichiometric ratio with respect to H2) yield conversions above 60% corresponding to an equilibrium constant significantly higher than 1 under the applied conditions (270 °C).

China has promised to reach the peak carbon dioxide emission (ca. 10 billion tons) by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. To realize these goals it is necessary to develop hydrogen energy and fuel cell techniques. However the high cost and low intrinsic safety of high-pressure hydrogen storage limit their commercialization. NH3 is high in hydrogen content easily liquefied at low pressure and free of carbon and the technology of NH3 synthesis has been commercialized nationwide. It is worth noting that the production of NH3 in China is about 56 million tons per year accounting for 35% of worldwide production. Hence with the well established infrastructure for NH3 synthesis and transportation and the demand for clean energy in China it is feasible to develop a green and economical energy roadmap viz. “Clean low-pressure NH3 synthesis → Safe and economical NH3 storage and transportation → Carbon-free efficient NH3-H2 utilization” for low-carbon or even carbon-free energy production.<br/>Currently the academic and industrial communities in China are striving to make technological breakthroughs in areas such as photocatalytic water splitting electrocatalytic water splitting mild-condition NH3 synthesis low-temperature NH3 catalytic decomposition and indirect or direct NH3 fuel cells with significant progress.<br/>Taking full advantage of the NH3 synthesis industry and readjusting the industrial structure it is viable to achieve energy saving and emission reduction in NH3 synthesis industry (440 million tons CO2 per year) as well as promote a new energy industry and ensure national energy security. Therefore relevant academic and industrial communities should put effort on mastering the key technologies of “Ammonia-Hydrogen” energy conversion and utilization with complete self-dependent intellectual property. It is envisioned that through the establishment of “Renewable Energy-Ammonia-Hydrogen” circular economy a green technology chain for hydrogen energy industry would pose as a promising pathway to achieve the 2030 and 2060 goals.

The purpose of this guide is to provide basic background information on hydrogen technologies. It is not intended to be a comprehensive collection of hydrogen technologies safety information. It is intended to provide project developers code officials and other interested parties the background information to be able to put hydrogen safety in context. For example code officials reviewing permit applications for hydrogen projects will get an understanding of the industrial history of hydrogen basic safety concerns and safety requirements.

Guidance on Sensor Placement was identified as the top research priority for hydrogen sensors at the 2018 HySafe Research Priority Workshop on hydrogen safety in the category Mitigation Sensors Hazard Prevention and Risk Reduction. This paper discusses the initial steps (Phase 1) to develop such guidance for mechanically ventilated enclosures. This work was initiated as an international collaborative effort to respond to emerging market needs related to the design and deployment equipment for hydrogen infrastructure that is often installed in individual equipment cabinets or ventilated enclosures. The ultimate objective of this effort is to develop guidance for an optimal sensor placement such that when integrated into a facility design and operation will allow earlier detection at lower levels of incipient leaks leading to significant hazard reduction. Reliable and consistent early warning of hydrogen leaks will allow for the risk mitigation by reducing or even eliminating the probability of escalation of small leaks into large and uncontrolled events. To address this issue a study of a real-world mechanically ventilated enclosure containing GH2 equipment was conducted where CFD modelling of the hydrogen dispersion (performed by AVT and UQTR and independently by the JRC) was validated by the NREL Sensor laboratory using a Hydrogen Wide Area Monitor (HyWAM) consisting of a 10-point gas and temperature measurement analyzer. In the release test helium was used as a hydrogen surrogate. Expansion of indoor releases to other larger facilities (including parking structures vehicle maintenance facilities and potentially tunnels) and incorporation into QRA tools such as HyRAM is planned for Phase 2. It is anticipated that results of this work will be used to inform national and international standards such as NFPA 2 Hydrogen Technologies Code Canadian Hydrogen Installation Code (CHIC) and relevant ISO/TC 197 and CEN documents.

The development of new infrastructure is often a consideration in the introduction of new innovations. Currently there is some confusion around how to develop a hydrogen infrastructure to support the introduction of FCVs. Lessons can be learned from similar technology introduction in the past and therefore this paper investigates how mobile phone infrastructure was developed allowing the mass-market penetration of mobile phones. Based on this successful infrastructural development suggestions can be made on the development of a hydrogen infrastructure. It is suggested that a hydrogen infrastructure needs to be pre-developed 3–5 years before the market introduction of FCVs can successfully occur. A lack of infrastructural pre-development will cause to the market introduction of FCVs to fail.

Hydrogen fuelling in the US is unattended activity although this precedent is not without several challenges that have been addressed in the past decade. This paper provides the recent history and the generic safety case which has established this precedent for hydrogen. The paper also explores the longer history of unattended gasoline fuelling and attempts to help place hydrogen fuelling into the longer history of fuelling personal vehicles.

The Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan has set out the measures that will help ensure the UK is at the forefront of this revolution just as we led the first over two centuries ago. As nations move out of the shadow of coronavirus and confront the challenge of climate change with renewed vigour markets for new green products and services will spring up round the world. Taking action now will help ensure not just that we end our contribution to climate change by achieving our target of net zero emissions. It will help position UK companies and our world class research base to seize the business opportunities which flow from it creating jobs and wealth for our country.

Following on from the Ten Point Plan and the National Infrastructure Strategy the Energy White Paper provides further clarity on the Prime Minister’s measures and puts in place a strategy for the wider energy system that:

• Transforms energy building a cleaner greener future for our country our people and our planet 
• Supports a green recovery growing our economy supporting thousands of green jobs across the country in new green industries and leveraging new green export opportunities
• Creates a fair deal for consumers protecting the fuel poor providing opportunities to save money on bills giving us warmer more comfortable homes and balancing investment against bill impacts.

The 30 integrated steel plants operating in the European Union (EU) are among the largest single-point CO₂ emitters in the region. The deployment of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (bio-CCS) could significantly reduce their emission intensities. In detail the results demonstrate that CO₂ emission reduction targets of up to 20% can be met entirely by biomass deployment. A slow CCS technology introduction on top of biomass deployment is expected as the requirement for emission reduction increases further. Bio-CCS could then be a key technology particularly in terms of meeting targets above 50% with CO₂ avoidance costs ranging between €60 and €100 tCO2−1 at full-scale deployment. The future of bio-CCS and its utilisation on a larger scale would therefore only be viable if such CO₂ avoidance cost were to become economically appealing. Small and medium plants in particular would economically benefit from sharing CO₂ pipeline networks. CO₂ transport however makes a relatively small contribution to the total CO₂ avoidance cost. In the future the role of bio-CCS in the European iron and steelmaking industry will also be influenced by non-economic conditions such as regulations public acceptance realistic CO₂ storage capacity and the progress of other mitigation technologies.

Liquefaction of hydrogen is a promising technology for transporting large quantities of hydrogen across long distances. A key challenge is the high power consumption. In this work we discuss refrigeration strategies that give minimum entropy production/exergy destruction in a plate-fin heat exchanger that cools the hydrogen from 47.8 K to 29.3 K. Two reference cases are studied; one where the feed stream enters at 20 bar and one where it enters at 80 bar. Catalyst in the hot layers speeds up the conversion of ortho-to para-hydrogen. Optimal control theory is used to formulate a minimization problem where the objective function is the total entropy production the control variable is the temperature of the refrigerant and the constrains are the balance equations for energy mass and momentum in the hot layers. The optimal refrigeration strategies give a reduction of the total entropy production of 8.7% in the 20-bar case and 4.3% in the 80-bar case. The overall heat transfer coefficient and duty is higher in the 20 bar case which compensates for the increase in entropy production due to a thermal mismatch that is avoided in the 80 bar case. This leads the second law efficiency of the 20 bar case (91%) to be similar to the 80 bar case (89%). We demonstrate that equipartition of the entropy production and equipartition of the thermal driving force are both excellent design principles for the process unit considered with total entropy productions deviating only 0.2% and 0.5% from the state of minimum entropy production. Equipartition of the thermal driving force i.e. a constant difference between the inverse temperatures of the hot and cold layers represents a particularly simple guideline that works remarkably well. We find that both heat transfer and the spin-isomer reaction contribute significantly to the entropy production throughout the length of the process unit. Unlike previous examples in the literature the process unit considered in this work is not characterized by a “reaction mode” at the inlet followed by a “heat transfer mode”. Therefore it does not follow a highway in state space i.e. a band that is particularly dense with energy efficient solutions. By artificially increasing the spin-isomer conversion rate the highway appears when the conversion rate becomes sufficiently high.

One of the topics for the revision deliberation of GTR13 on hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles is the study of an appropriate initial burst pressure of the containers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the hydraulic sequential tests on the residual burst pressure in order to examine the appropriate initial burst pressure correlated with the provisions for the residual burst pressure at the Endof-Life (EOL). Specifically we evaluated any deterioration and variations of burst pressure due to hydraulic sequential tests on 70MPa compressed-hydrogen containers. When the burst pressure after the hydraulic sequential testing (EOL) was compared with the initial burst pressure at the beginning of life (BOL) the pressure proved to have decreased by a few percent while the variation increased. In the burst test it was observed that the rupture originated in the cylindrical part in all the BOL containers while in some of the EOL containers the rupture originated in the dome part. Since the dome part is a section that suffers an impact of vertical drop test it is conceivable that some sort of damage occurred in the CFRP. Therefore it was assumed that this damage was the main causal factor for the decrease in the burst pressure and the increase of the burst pressure variation at the dome part.

Although the UK has done a great job of decarbonising electricity generation to get to net zero we need to tackle harder-to-decarbonise sectors like heat transport and industry. Decarbonised gas – biogases hydrogen and the deployment of carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS) – can make our manufacturing more sustainable minimise disruption to families and deliver negative emissions.

The main purpose of this report is to specify the minimum standards of control which should be in place at all establishments storing large volumes of gasoline.<br/>The PSLG also considered other substances capable of giving rise to a large flammable vapour cloud in the event of a loss of primary containment. However to ensure priority was given to improving standards of control to tanks storing gasoline PSLG has yet to determine the scale and application of this guidance to such substances. It is possible that a limited number of other substances (with specific physical properties and storage arrangements) will be addressed in the future.<br/>This report also provides guidance on good practice in relation to secondary and tertiary containment for facilities covered by the CA Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) Parts of this guidance may also be relevant to other major hazard establishments.

Hydrogen is essential to the UK meeting its net zero emissions target. We must act now to scale hydrogen solutions and achieve cost effective deep decarbonisation. With the support of Government UK industry is ready to deliver.

The potential to deploy hydrogen at scale as an energy vector has risen rapidly in the political and industrial consciousness in recent years as the benefits and opportunities have become better understood. Early stage projects across the globe have demonstrated the potential of hydrogen to deliver deep decarbonisation reduce the cost of renewable power and balance energy supply and demand. Governments and major industrial and commercial organisations across the world have set out their ambition to deploy hydrogen technologies at scale. This has created a growing confidence that hydrogen will present both a viable decarbonisation pathway and a global market opportunity. Hydrogen will have an important role to play in meeting the global climate goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement and due to be discussed later this year at COP26.

The UK’s commitment to a net zero greenhouse gas emissions target has sharpened the conversation around hydrogen. Most experts agree that net zero by 2050 cannot be achieved through electrification alone and as such there is a need for a clean molecule to complement the electron. Hydrogen has properties which lend themselves to the decarbonisation of parts of the energy system which are less well suited to electrification such as industrial processes heating and heavy and highly utilised vehicles. Hydrogen solutions can be scaled meaning that the contribution of hydrogen to meeting net zero could be substantial.

A steady start has been made to exploring the hydrogen opportunity. Partnerships between policymakers and industry exist on several projects which are spread out right across the country from London to many industrial areas in the north east and north west. Existing projects include the early stage roll out of transport infrastructure and vehicles feasibility studies focused on large scale hydrogen production technologies projects exploring the decarbonisation of the gas grid and the development of hydrogen appliances.

The Government recently announced new funding for hydrogen through the Hydrogen Supply Programme and Industrial Fuel Switching Competition. These programmes are excellent examples of collaboration between Government and industry in driving UK leadership in hydrogen and developing solutions that will be critical for meeting net zero.

If the UK is going to meet net zero and capitalise on the economic growth opportunities presented by domestic and global markets for hydrogen solutions and expertise it is critical that the 2020s deliver a step change in hydrogen activity building on the unique strengths and expertise developed during early stage technology development.

The Hydrogen Taskforce brings together leading companies pushing hydrogen into the mainstream in the UK to offer a shared view of the opportunity and a collective position on the next steps that must be taken to ensure that the UK capitalises on this opportunity. There are questions to be answered and challenges that must be overcome as hydrogen technologies develop yet by focusing on what can be done today the benefits of hydrogen can be immediately realised whilst industry expertise and knowledge is built.

You can download the whole document from the Hydrogen Taskforce website here