Press Release
Hydrogen (H2) - providing the energy to power
- Highest levels of efficiency and zero emissions achieved with hydrogen gas in fuel cell drives
- Establishment of H2 infrastructure among the most important factors for successful commercialization of fuel cell technology
- Hydrogen already being produced in large amounts
Hydrogen has been produced on a broad scale for decades. It has been used as an energy source and process gas in the food and electronics industries, for example, as well as in a variety of refinery processes. Hydrogen is also a byproduct of chemical processes: It is created in chlorine production, for example, by means of chlorine-alkali electrolysis — and here it is frequently burned off for lack of any economically viable applications. About 45 million tons of hydrogen are produced every year, with 95 percent originating from primary energy sources such as natural gas and crude oil.
Why hydrogen?
Use of hydrogen per se isn’t new. What’s new is its application as a secondary energy source in a consumer market — something automakers such as DaimlerChrysler are pursuing, and with good reason. DaimlerChrysler’s top priority is develop concepts for sustainable mobility.
“Sustainable” in this context means:
- Maximum efficiency and thus minimal energy consumption by vehicle drive systems;
- Diversification of primary energy sources used for transport applications and a greater share of fuels from renewable sources in the energy mix;
- Further emission reductions (in view of the effect of greenhouse gases as well), leading to the long-term goals of zero emissions and complete CO2 neutrality.
Hydrogen has proved to be the ideal secondary energy source for achieving the above-mentioned objectives. That’s because when hydrogen is used as fuel for fuel cell vehicles, it leads to energy efficiency in the resulting drive system that is nearly twice as high as that achieved by the most modern gasoline and diesel engines. Such fuel cell powertrains therefore offer tremendous gains in efficiency that cannot be achieved even with improved concepts for combustion engines, which DaimlerChrysler is also working on.
Even if the primary energy source and the process used to produce the hydrogen are taken into consideration, fuel cell drives are still superior to all combustion engine concepts when it comes to emissions as well. Fuel cell vehicles that run on pressurized hydrogen are by their very nature always zero-emission when in motion. If the hydrogen is obtained from a renewable energy source, the entire utilization chain is also free of emissions.
Petroleum’s nearly complete dominance as the primary energy source for today’s motor-vehicle fuels cannot be maintained over the long term. There are several reasons for this, including the finite nature of this fossil resource, its very high price at present (which is not expected to decrease significantly), and the fact that much of the world’s crude oil reserves are in politically unstable regions. In light of this situation, most oil-consuming countries have made it their goal to break dependence on petroleum, which is why they are increasingly demanding and supporting alternative primary energy sources for use in the production of fuels. Such sources include natural gas, wind power, and biomass.
Hydrogen opens up new possibilities for producing a motor-vehicle fuel from a wide range of primary energy sources. For example, it can be obtained by steam reforming of natural gas. Hydrogen can also be produced in a CO2-neutral manner using biomass. What’s more, it is conceivable that hydrogen could be produced from coal, provided economically sound concepts can be developed to capture the carbon dioxide created through the coal gasification process (CO2 sequestration). Electricity produced by power plants makes it possible to create hydrogen through electrolysis — and the concept of using electrolysis to produce hydrogen from all available renewable energy sources (wind power, solar energy, geo-thermal energy) is particularly forward looking and appealing. This is because renewable energy sources are nearly inexhaustible, and they also open the door to a system of mobility completely free of CO2. Each region of the world will likely implement its own individual concepts based on customer acceptance and the direction energy-policy discussions take.
Availability and costs
Independent experts believe that the globally available amount of “free” hydrogen (i.e. that currently not being used) is sufficient to provide fuel for more than one million fuel cell vehicles. This level of capacity will certainly be enough for the period leading up to mass commercialization of this drive concept. Depending on the production technique used and the capacity of production facilities, it currently costs anywhere between two and five euros to produce one kilogram of hydrogen (whose energy yield corresponds to approximately three liters of diesel fuel). One goal for the period between now and 2015 is to get the cost per kilogram down to a more or less uniform level of two to three euros, which would make hydrogen production costs comparable to the current pre-tax price of gasoline. Another goal involves increasing the worldwide fleet of fuel cell vehicles, which would increase the share of hydrogen produced from renewable sources. This makes it possible to fully exploit the great potential fuel cell powertrain systems offer with regard to reducing primary energy consumption and eliminating CO2 emissions.
It is very difficult to forecast the course fuel prices will take. Only two or three years ago, for example, practically no expert would have predicted that the price of crude oil would be more than $75 per barrel in 2006 — at that time a barrel of crude was selling for just $25. Nevertheless, over the next few years we can expect further increases in the prices of fuels obtained from fossil energy sources; the only thing not certain is how large the increases will be. Supplies of crude oil will also continue to dwindle, and the need to exploit lower-yielding sources of crude oil, such as oil shale and oil sand (considered too costly in the past), will by itself lead to higher prices. Then of course there is the factor of politics in oil-producing regions, which has a major impact on prices. At the same time, there are several factors in favor of techniques for producing fuels from renewable sources. For one thing, solar energy and wind power, at least, are essentially inexhaustible resources, which means scarcity can never play a role in their prices. And the technological advancements that will be achieved in the future with today’s emerging techniques for producing energy from renewable sources will mean greater efficiency, which in turn will reduce production costs. This development can be clearly seen in techniques for generating electricity from wind power. In general, fuels obtained from fossil energy sources will become more expensive in the future, while prices for fuels from renewable sources will tend to fall. And the greater efficiency of fuel cell drives will help to reduce overall vehicle operating costs.
Customer acceptance and political will
The current cost disadvantage for fuels produced from renewable sources will likely remain a problem for many years, which is why governments must create political conditions conducive to the production and use of such fuels. Lawmakers around the world must summon the political will to initiate a paradigm shift with regard to energy supply that will help prevent supply bottlenecks and dependency on supplier countries, while also leading to further reductions of CO2 and other emissions. This paradigm shift must be marked by use of various primary energy sources to replace the current overwhelming dominance of just a few energy sources. The number of distributed power systems must also be increased by means of regionally optimized supply structures.
DaimlerChrysler supports such a paradigm change, and as part of its strategy “Our Way to Sustainable Mobility”, it has developed a concept for the short, medium, and long terms that points the way to a sustainable energy supply for individual mobility. This concept focuses on hydrogen produced from renewable sources as a vehicle fuel, with the ultimate goal of establishing a system of mobility that is sustainable because it is emission-free and optimized to achieve the highest levels of efficiency. DaimlerChrysler believes that when this excellent secondary energy source is used with fuel cell vehicles, it offers the greatest potential for achieving the ultimate goal, particularly in view of its clear benefits with regard to the complete energy chain.
DaimlerChrysler and its partners in worldwide testing programs for fuel cell vehicles are also paying close attention to customer acceptance of the new technology. After all, it’s very important for motorists to be able to fill up with pressurized hydrogen as quickly and conveniently as they can with gasoline or diesel. Experience gained with the best filling stations from the current testing projects shows that this is already possible: Test motorists who have never used a hydrogen pump before have been able to fill their pressurized tanks in less than three minutes without any problems. Filling pump manufacturers have thus proven they can come up with viable solutions in this area.
A filling station infrastructure also has to be put into place on a broad basis, and here automakers will have to work together with energy companies to develop a hydrogen filling station network. Individual filling stations have already been built in the areas where fuel cell vehicles are currently being tested. The goal now is to establish clusters or mini-networks in the testing regions between 2010 and 2015, and then link them along highways in the years that follow. It will be important not only to achieve a sufficient density of filling stations but also to ensure that all of them have the required technical performance capabilities. That means, for example, being able to fill up tanks with hydrogen pressurized to 700 bars rather than the currently common 350 bars, in order to actually double the vehicle range that is already technically possible. In other words, filling station technology must keep pace and be kept in line with the technical improvements made to fuel cell vehicles.
