Utilization of Hydrogen for Sustainable Energy and Fuels

Abstract

Hydrogen and fuel cell technologies have shown that they can play an important role in the transition of energy supply from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. In addition to electricity generation from wind, water, and solar energy, other challenges such as the distribution of energy among the different industrial sectors and the interim storage of energy have to be considered. Fuel cells using hydrogen as an environmentally friendly source of energy can be a key technology and the market maturity is progressing steadily. For special applications and in individual markets, the market launch has already been successful. The sales figures of fuel cell–powered μCHP units for domestic energy supply are rising rapidly, especially in Japan and Germany. The use of fuel cells in material handling with forklifts and in powering factories and shopping malls is becoming increasingly prevalent in the United States, especially in California. By contrast, the use of fuel cells in the transport sector is just initiated. But due to the small series production of FCEVs and the increased refueling infrastructure, the elements for further deployment are available now. It is notable that the introduction of this hydrogen mobility is less a matter of private users, but rather of vehicle fleet operators. In addition to cars and buses, it is becoming increasingly clear that heavyduty applications are of great interest. Trains, ships, and trucks using fuel cells have been evaluated in real operation. It was shown that new transport applications for fuel cells are currently focusing on areas with high energy demand and with high range requirements. Although first vehicles are commercially available throughout the transport sector, the maturity of this technology needs to be further increased. The implementation of mass production for compact, robust, durable, and cost- and application-oriented systems is the main task of the coming years. It can already be observed that the production of fuel cell systems is becoming closer to production and a rapid cost decrease due to economies of scale is expected. As the US central government is currently promoting fossil fuels, Asia has become the strongest center of hydrogen technology. In addition to Japan and South Korea, China is massively increasing its efforts to be a major player in the electromobility and hydrogen technologies sectors. In Europe, significant efforts continue to develop fuel cell technology toward market maturity. In some applications, such as the μCHPs, the implementation in the market seems to be achievable in a timely manner.