(tranquil music)
- It's just crazy that we are
now sat in a fuel cell car
that you can buy and you can go fill it up
with green hydrogen and the only thing
that comes out of the back's water.
- So I think hydrogen has great potential
as a fuel for automobiles
in the very near future.
- For the past decades,
everyone's been saying
oh, it's just around the
corner, they're nearly there.
- I believe that today's children
will one day take their driver's tests
in a hydrogen-powered pollution-free car.
- I genuinely believe that this technology
is gonna be beneficial for us all.
And because we are only on this rock
for a very small amount of time,
I want to make a difference
and I think the main
way that I can do that
is trying to get the electrification
of the transport industry complete.
(building electronic music)
- I'm an energy reporter for the Journal
and I've been hearing a lot
about the promise of hydrogen
as the energy source for the future.
As the global population
and economy expand,
the world's demand for energy is expected
to grow dramatically in the next 30 years,
so some are asking could hydrogen,
the most abundant element in the universe,
help reduce the use of fossil fuels
and boost the adoption
of renewable energy?
Some of the world's
biggest companies believe
in hydrogen's potential
and have invested heavily.
They're betting they can build
a $2.5 trillion market around it,
but there's also skepticism around it.
Will people embrace
the Hydrogen Revolution
or is it over-hyped?
This isn't the first time
scientists have been captivated
by hydrogen's potential
as a clean fuel source.
In 1874, science fiction
writer Jules Verne
dreamed of a world where we
could create fuel from water.
- [Newscaster] A roar
and a burst of flame!
- [Salvaterra] In the 1930s,
we saw the promise and peril
of the Hindenburg, the
hydrogen-filled blimp
that flew across the
Atlantic and exploded,
killing many on board.
In the late '60s, hydrogen fuel cells
helped power NASA's Apollo
missions to the moon,
while liquid hydrogen
was uses as a rocket fuel
in other space ventures.
And after the oil strikes of the '70s,
some wondered if hydrogen
could replace oil.
Since then, technology
has made great strides,
so I wanted to understand
how exactly do we go
from water to fuel?
Dr. Whitley took me to his lab
to show me how the process starts.
Step one, create or capture the hydrogen.
(eerie theremin music)
- The interesting thing about hydrogen
is it's the most abundant
element in the universe,
which is great, but it's not
naturally-occurring on Earth,
so it's always, as you say,
it's tied up in other chemicals.
- [Salvaterra] So how do we get it?
How do you do it here?
- The process in electrolysis,
using the system that
we're developing here,
you put water in, apply some
electricity to the system,
and then you get hydrogen
coming out and oxygen.
We discard the oxygen into the atmosphere
and then we store the hydrogen.
- [Salvaterra] Once that
hydrogen is created,
it can be used in three main ways,
to store energy, generate heat,
or, in the case of
hydrogen-powered cars, electricity.
Look at this diagram created by Toyota.
Hydrogen gas is stored in this tank,
it flows through a stack of
fuel cells, like this one,
where it meets oxygen
and creates electricity
that powers the car.
Hydrogen fuel cell cars are available
in more than 20 countries,
with brands like Toyota
and Hyundai selling models
for between $50,000-60,000
before government incentives.
- So this is a representative example
of what is in a car now.
So Toyota systems, Honda systems,
or any automotive manufacturer system uses
around 200 square centimeter membranes.
So whereas the R&D that we
do is on quite small ones,
'cause we don't want to waste materials,
the real-world application
stuff is a lot bigger.
- [Salvaterra] Over the
last five to ten years,
fuel cells have gotten smaller,
more efficient, and cheaper to make,
partly due to a reduction
in the use of costly metals,
such as platinum.
Now they pack a big punch.
Hydrogen fuel cells could
be especially useful
for heavy trucks that need
to travel long distances
and require more energy
than batteries are
currently able to provide.
They're already being
used to power everything,
from cars, drones, and trains.
Some entrepreneurs think
there's money to be made.
- My name's Adam Bond.
I'm the Chief Executive at AFC Energy.
We're a UK-listed company
over the last 13 or so years
and our business is
really in the development
of hydrogen fuel cells.
So through here, we have
the fuel cell system.
At it's core are around
two fuel cell stacks,
which are both hidden behind
those blue end plates.
- [Salvaterra] His idea is
that hydrogen can be used
to charge electric vehicles.
The number of hydrogen-powered
passenger cars
on the road doesn't even come close
to battery-electric vehicles
and plug-in hybrids,
and all those batteries
need to be charged.
- What we've done is basically said, well,
if you're not gonna have a hydrogen car,
you're probably gonna have an electric car
and so that needs to be charged
from a decarbonized source as well
and that's where our fuel
cell comes into play.
- How much would I pay
for something like that?
- Something like that,
you're probably looking
at somewhere around the $100,000 mark.
- When we went to AFC,
Adam said they were in
talks with potential buyers
like carpark owners and shopping centers,
but hadn't made any sales yet.
So how are they able to do their work?
Well, AFC has received
government funding in the past
and in the 2019 financial year,
they raised roughly $7,000,000
in equity and bonds.
UCL currently relies on a
mix of government funding
and private investment and
interest from businesses
around the world is on the rise.
More than 80 companies so far
have joined an initiative
called the Hydrogen Council,
which aims to make hydrogen a key part
of the energy transition.
In 2017, its members
invested about $1.5 billion
in hydrogen and fuel cells
and the group says it
expects the number to rise
in coming years.
But here's the thing.
For many of those companies,
hydrogen is still just gonna
be a sliver of their business.
More importantly, there's
some pretty big obstacles
to taking hydrogen mainstream.
Producing the gas is still expensive
because it's not manufactured at-scale.
And while hydrogen fuel cell
technology works in labs,
cars, and refueling
stations being deployed
primarily in Japan and Asia,
the infrastructure isn't there
in the rest of the world yet.
Here in London, the nearest
hydrogen refueling station
is about 45 minutes away.
- This is what they were
saying about it freezing.
So as you can see, there's a lot of frost
on the outside of the nozzle
and that's because the
gas has chilled so much
inside the machine that it can
temporarily freeze to the car
but it just comes off with a yank.
(playful electronic music)
Yeah.
- Though the price is expected to go down,
hydrogen fuel is comparable
to the cost per mile
for gasoline in the UK,
but more expensive than
charging an electric vehicle
and history shows that major
energy transitions like this
take a long time.
It took more than 100 years
for countries like the US,
Germany, or China to move
away from burning wood
and primarily rely on coal
and other fossil fuels,
according to some experts.
Not to mention that most of the hydrogen
that we produce today is not produced
through a clean process.
Hydrogen is used in many
industrial processes,
like the production of steel,
special metals, and fertilizers.
In those cases,
hydrogen is typically
made using fossil fuels,
but scientists say that
hydrogen can be created
without releasing carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere
by using renewable energy
through the electrolysis process.
Despite all the obstacles,
the International Energy Agency says
hydrogen projects span a
growing number of industries,
more countries are involved,
and it's seen something that
can accelerate the adoption
of renewable energy.
And some scientists
think hydrogen might be
about to change the
way we power the world.
- There's this running joke
within the fuel cell community
that we're always a couple years away
from mass commercialization,
and I heard that when I started my PhD
and now a few years later,
we're still saying that.
But I think now the
state of the technology
we're at right now and
the way the industry is,
I think we are now definitely on the verge
of the mass commercialization
of this kind of technology.
(tranquil electronic music)
