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- 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.
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