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Electrolysers
The race towards cheaper green hydrogen crosses borders Reliance, an Indian energy giant, has partnered up with a Danish cleantech veteran to lower the cost of green hydrogen. Experts estimate that it is not unlikely that the collaboration will manage to bring down the cost of hydrogen to one dollar per kilogramme. BY JASON DEIGN
Green hydrogen is the molecule of the moment, with potential applications in everything from heavy industry to road transportation. But the electrolysers needed to make the gas are still expensive, which is why technology developers are on a quest for new and improved designs. Henrik Stiesdal is an iconic figure in renewables. In the late 1970s, the Danish inventor pioneered some of the earliest commercial wind turbine designs. His work was pivotal in the evolution of industry leaders such as Danish wind giant Vestas and led the industry to adopt a turbine design – upwind, with three blades and a horizontal axis – that still dominates the market today. Now in his sixties, Stiesdal – through his identically named company – is turning his attention to another major clean energy challenge. There are many industries that cannot reduce their carbon emissions by relying on renewable electricity alone – think of ocean-going vessels, which will never be able to traverse the sea on battery power, or the plastics sector, which relies on fossil fuels as a feedstock. These industries require a fuel and feedstock that can replace traditional oil and gas, without the carbon emissions. Today, the 64 |
Issue 04 |
August 2022
best bet is green hydrogen, a power-packing molecule that can be created with zero emissions from water, using renewable electricity. This electricity separates the oxygen and hydrogen in water through a process called electrolysis. If scaled up, electrolysis could potentially guarantee almost unlimited amounts of energy with no emissions. But there is a catch. Electrolysers, the machines that carry out electrolysis, have never been built on the scale needed to replace large amounts of fossil fuel. Today’s designs are expensive, so the green hydrogen they produce still has a hard time competing with oil or gas. Cutting electrolyser costs is the challenge that Stiesdal is looking to overcome with his HydroGen concept. “We have taken up the challenge to accelerate the development of affordable green hydrogen,” says the brochure for HydroGen. A KEY TO ELECTROLYSER COST REDUCTION “Our integrated electrolyser unit, the HydroGen Electrolyser, represents an innovative step forward, capable of delivering on both cost and volume. Technologically based on classic alkaline electrolysis, the HydroGen Electrolyser offers unprecedented low cost and fast ramp-up of supplies.”