Transportation Review

Streamlining Hydrogen Transportation

Transportation Review | Wednesday, May 03, 2023

A functioning and affordable hydrogen economy require efficient transportation from producers to consumers.

FREMONT, CA: It is not always possible to move the universe's lightest and most energy-dense element by weight at an affordable and efficient cost, and the future of hydrogen will depend on how well it is transported from electrolyzers to consumers, whether they are across international borders or local wind farms. Hydrogen loses a lot of energy efficiency when converted to and from compounds such as liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) or ammonia, embrittled metal casings. It is difficult to contain and expensive to liquefy. Hydrogen transportation can be improved by increasing domestic production and minimizing distances between producers and consumers.

Approximately 80 percent of the world's population lives in countries that import fuel on a net basis. Such a dynamic would revolutionize current international energy trade systems.

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Efficiency: Hydrogen transportation will become more cost-effective as the scale of projects increases and technology develops to reduce transportation costs. It is only possible to achieve a cost differential if the hydrogen production costs in the exporting region are considerably lower than those in the importing region. Economies of scale have the greatest impact on reducing costs. It is also possible to reduce costs by optimizing global supply chains and increasing global scale through learning-by-doing, which improves technology performance, energy efficiency, and energy losses. If we use economies of scale and follow these steps, we can achieve a price below USD 1/kilo for production and transportation over the long run. Reaching the largest possible scale for each part of the value chain can result in significant cost reductions of up to 80 percent. By 2050, if all three levers are in place, hydrogen transport costs could fall to USD 0.7-1.2/kg (for 10,000 km), which is relatively competitive. According to the most optimistic scenarios, hydrogen can be delivered for USD 2/kilo, which is relatively competitive." The cost-effectiveness of a transportation solution depends on the scope, distance, and available options, such as pipelines, land transportation, or maritime transportation.

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Transportation: A wind or solar-powered electrolyzer will be built and operated locally, bypassing transportation for some hydrogen applications, such as steel feedstock. In the future, one of the main ways hydrogen will be moved will be green ammonia made from clean hydrogen as distances increase and alternative options become more viable. Hydrating hydrogen in its final form, like ammonia, steel, and synthetic fuel, makes more sense since pure hydrogen is difficult to transport. Two of these materials cannot be converted into hydrogen. Pure hydrogen can only be transported by liquid hydrogen and LOHC; however, the conversion process consumes too much energy, and all the associated equipment, particularly liquid hydrogen, is expensive. In addition, these are only pilot scales, so demonstrations and scale-ups could easily take a decade. In contrast to the costs of converting ammonia into and from it or storing it, shipping ammonia is relatively cheap, so long distances have limited effects. Ammonia is already transported as a renewable energy carrier through more than 120 ports, so it is an excellent starting point for a trade.

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