China’s Hydrogen Economy Is Coming

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The world's electric-vehicle king is seeking leadership in fuel cells, too. Investors are probably right to be excited. ... Among the revisions was a proposal to promote the development and construction of fueling stations for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.

Fuel cells, like batteries, generate electricity that can drive a motor and vehicle. The similarities mostly stop there. Batteries are large, heavy and require charging by electricity that may or may not be generated from renewable resources. By contrast, fuel cells generate electricity (and, as a byproduct, heat and water) when hydrogen interacts with oxygen. They don't need charging; instead, they require onboard hydrogen tanks, which are both lighter and capable of holding far more energy than a battery (allowing them to travel further). And unlike batteries, which can require hours to charge, vehicles powered in this way can be refueled in minutes, similar to traditional internal combustion engines.

Of course, if it were so easy, hydrogen vehicles would already dominate battery-powered cars (and internal combustion engines, too). Several crucial bottlenecks have inhibited their growth. First, fuel cells are the most expensive components in the car, and for years they've made the technology uncompetitive with battery electrics. For example, the Toyota Mirai – the Japanese company's signature fuel-cell vehicle – sells for around $70,000 (unsubsidized). Meanwhile, Chinese battery-electric vehicles can sell for less than $10,000.

Second, fuel cells might be clean-burning but hydrogen is often generated from fossil fuels, including coal. That's problematic if the goal is carbon reduction. And third, hydrogen infrastructure – everything from pipelines to fueling stations – is both expensive and rare. In China, the cost of a hydrogen station is around $1.5 million. That's a tough investment to make, especially when there are fewer than 5,000 fuel-cell vehicles operating in the country.

In the late 2000s, China's aspirations to become a battery-electric superpower faced equally steep hurdles. At the time, electric vehicles were all but nonexistent in the country, there was no charging infrastructure, and almost no indigenous technology or companies. In 2009, the government launched “Ten Cities, Thousand Vehicles,” a program to stimulate electric-vehicle sales through large-scale pilots. A decade later, after tens of billions of dollars in subsidies and extensive policy support, China is the world's battery-electric king.

Can the nation repeat that feat with fuel cells? It's certainly going to try. As far back as 2015, the government targeted 1 million such vehicles on its roads by 2030. The ambition and momentum for fuel cells has picked up over the last year, as companies and cities commit to vehicles, technology and infrastructure. The first indication that something had changed came in January, when the state-backed Securities Journal reported that the government was preparing to re-launch the “Ten Cities” program for fuel-cell cars.

While it won't be easy, China has several advantages over competitors. First, it has policy stability (South Korea's hydrogen drive faltered in the mid-2000s due to a change in political leadership). Second, its world-beating renewable energy industry generates vast volumes of wasted energy that could be stored for other uses; that electricity can be used to create hydrogen, which can be stored and transported. Finally, China's deep pockets and willingness to spend on infrastructure with no immediate market bodes well for its commitment to (for now) unnecessary hydrogen fueling stations and associated installations.

Ultimately, success will require overcoming significant technical and market hurdles. China's success in building a battery-electric industry guarantees that it'll be in the race, if not the eventual leader, in this next stage in decarbonizing transport. For Chinese investors, that's a bet worth making.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/ar...gen-fuel-cells

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Where's Runeatic?

[dukkha]

Ultimately, success will require overcoming significant technical and market hurdles. China's success in building a battery-electric industry guarantees that it'll be in the race, if not the eventual leader, in this next stage in decarbonizing transport. For Chinese investors, that's a bet worth making.

[cancel2 2022]

Ultimately, success will require overcoming significant technical and market hurdles. China's success in building a battery-electric industry guarantees that it'll be in the race, if not the eventual leader, in this next stage in decarbonizing transport. For Chinese investors, that's a bet worth making.

There is a filling station near me, it uses a wind turbine to electrolyse water to produce hydrogen.

http://www.itm-power.com/project/win...pment-platform

[Jack]

The US, under the Leadership of Trump, will begin making coal-burning cars, with a large infrastructure of coaling stations for refueling.

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The US, under the Leadership of Trump, will begin making coal-burning cars, with a large infrastructure of coaling stations for refueling.

I think you are Russian to conclusions, stop Putin the cart before the horse!!

[Bill]

There is a filling station near me, it uses a wind turbine to electrolyse water to produce hydrogen.

http://www.itm-power.com/project/win...pment-platform

Do you own one?? Considering??


Japan Is Betting Big On The Future Of Hydrogen Cars
By Susan Phillips, NPR News Mar 18, 2019

It may feel like the electric car has been crowned the future of transportation.
Auto companies have plans to make more electric car models, and sales — still only a tiny fraction of the overall market — are expected to get a boost as more countries pass regulations to reduce carbon emissions. But Japan isn't sure that the battery electric car is the only future, and it's betting big on something it says makes more sense in big cities: hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

At the LFA Works factory in the city of Toyota, Aichi prefecture, workers install carbon-fiber hydrogen tanks on Toyota's new hydrogen powered fuel cell car. It's called the Mirai, which means "future" in Japanese.

A hydrogen fuel cell doesn't burn anything. It uses a chemical reaction between the hydrogen and the oxygen from the air to produce electricity. Hydrogen fuel cell cars are quiet, like battery electric ones, and they emit only water.

At this tiny factory, located inside Toyota's larger Motomachi plant, only about 10 cars are made each day, assembled by hand.

"I love Mirai," says plant manager Matsuo Yoshiyuki, who owns one. "I believe in the future of hydrogen. It's very important for the [environment]."

Only about 11,000 fuel cell vehicles are on the road worldwide. Nearly half of them are in California, which has stringent vehicle emission regulations and tax credits that incentivize electric and fuel cell vehicles.

In Japan, the Mirai is expensive even with a generous government subsidy that brings it down from the equivalent of about $70,000 to $50,000. The largest cost is the fuel cell production, but Toyota says that will drop as production ramps up.

Japan has embraced the technology and aims to create the first "hydrogen society," which also includes the use of hydrogen for power generation. The energy ministry has ambitious targets in the lead-up to the 2020 Olympics. The city of Tokyo plans to deploy 100 hydrogen fuel cell buses during the games, and it wants to have 40,000 fuel cell electric vehicles on the road, with a longer-term goal of 200,000 such vehicles in the next six years.

More convenient than plug-in electric

Today there are far more battery electric vehicles on the road than hydrogen cars, with more than 5 million plug-in cars worldwide, according to José Pontes, an analyst at EV-Volume.com, a Web site that tracks the industry. But in countries like Japan, where much of the population lives in dense urban areas, many people live in apartment buildings without a place to easily charge a car. It's here where companies like Toyota are banking on the convenience of hydrogen fuel cell.

"There's just no behavior change as long as you have [hydrogen] infrastructure in place," says Matthew Klippenstein, co-author of the online publication Fuel Cell Industry Review. "We go to the same gas station and fuel up in the same few minutes and just keep on tootling on."

In South Korea, where the majority of residents also live in urban areas, automaker Hyundai just announced that it plans to produce 700,000 fuel cell cars a year by 2030.

Klippenstein likens the divide between hydrogen fuel cells and battery electric plug-ins to the gasoline and diesel split familiar to American consumers. "We will see a similar split where batteries will, for decades at least, dominate the light duty vehicle passenger cars," he says, "whereas fuel cells will ultimately win out in the heavier applications."

Meanwhile, Japan is investing heavily to create the infrastructure needed to promote hydrogen vehicles. It is tough to sell a hydrogen car without a lot of places to fill it up. But without more cars on the road, such fueling stations are not a smart investment for private companies.

So the Japanese government has stepped in with subsidies. The country, along with private companies like Toyota, has helped build and operate 100 hydrogen fueling stations so far. Japan has a target of 900 by 2030. By then, Toyota hopes there will be enough hydrogen vehicles to make the stations profitable.

Not necessarily carbon-free

Another advantage of hydrogen could be reducing Japan's heavy reliance on Middle East oil. Hydrogen is abundant, and the fuel could be produced anywhere. But producing hydrogen fuel is itself energy intensive, and — just as with battery electric vehicles — it might be produced using natural gas or coal.

"So it's not really clean if that is the case," says Kimiko Haraka of the Kiko Network, a Japanese environmental group.

Haraka is critical of a plan by a number of Japanese companies, including Kawasaki Heavy Industries, J-Power, Iwatani Corporation and Marubeni, to build a plant in Australia that would use lignite coal to produce hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles. She also worries that the many subsidies for hydrogen come at the expense of promoting renewable energy.

Still, Bertel Schmitt, a former car industry advertising executive who lives in Tokyo, says it makes sense for Japan and its automakers to include hydrogen vehicles in their long game plan.

"They pretty much realize that the exhaust regulations will get tougher and tougher," he says. "What is being enacted right now, in 2020 in Europe, is nothing compared to what will come five years later, 10 years later."

For now, though, Schmitt says the internal combustion engine remains the cheapest and most convenient car on the market. Despite massive investment, he says Toyota knows hydrogen won't be taking over the roads anytime soon.

"They know that the guy sitting in the hydrogen fueling station will be very, very lonely for quite a while."

[dukkha]

looks like it requires subsidies for now; but China and Japan are backing future commercial fleets

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Do you own one?? Considering??


Japan Is Betting Big On The Future Of Hydrogen Cars
By Susan Phillips, NPR News Mar 18, 2019

It may feel like the electric car has been crowned the future of transportation.
Auto companies have plans to make more electric car models, and sales — still only a tiny fraction of the overall market — are expected to get a boost as more countries pass regulations to reduce carbon emissions. But Japan isn't sure that the battery electric car is the only future, and it's betting big on something it says makes more sense in big cities: hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

At the LFA Works factory in the city of Toyota, Aichi prefecture, workers install carbon-fiber hydrogen tanks on Toyota's new hydrogen powered fuel cell car. It's called the Mirai, which means "future" in Japanese.

A hydrogen fuel cell doesn't burn anything. It uses a chemical reaction between the hydrogen and the oxygen from the air to produce electricity. Hydrogen fuel cell cars are quiet, like battery electric ones, and they emit only water.

At this tiny factory, located inside Toyota's larger Motomachi plant, only about 10 cars are made each day, assembled by hand.

"I love Mirai," says plant manager Matsuo Yoshiyuki, who owns one. "I believe in the future of hydrogen. It's very important for the [environment]."

Only about 11,000 fuel cell vehicles are on the road worldwide. Nearly half of them are in California, which has stringent vehicle emission regulations and tax credits that incentivize electric and fuel cell vehicles.

In Japan, the Mirai is expensive even with a generous government subsidy that brings it down from the equivalent of about $70,000 to $50,000. The largest cost is the fuel cell production, but Toyota says that will drop as production ramps up.

Japan has embraced the technology and aims to create the first "hydrogen society," which also includes the use of hydrogen for power generation. The energy ministry has ambitious targets in the lead-up to the 2020 Olympics. The city of Tokyo plans to deploy 100 hydrogen fuel cell buses during the games, and it wants to have 40,000 fuel cell electric vehicles on the road, with a longer-term goal of 200,000 such vehicles in the next six years.

More convenient than plug-in electric

Today there are far more battery electric vehicles on the road than hydrogen cars, with more than 5 million plug-in cars worldwide, according to José Pontes, an analyst at EV-Volume.com, a Web site that tracks the industry. But in countries like Japan, where much of the population lives in dense urban areas, many people live in apartment buildings without a place to easily charge a car. It's here where companies like Toyota are banking on the convenience of hydrogen fuel cell.

"There's just no behavior change as long as you have [hydrogen] infrastructure in place," says Matthew Klippenstein, co-author of the online publication Fuel Cell Industry Review. "We go to the same gas station and fuel up in the same few minutes and just keep on tootling on."

In South Korea, where the majority of residents also live in urban areas, automaker Hyundai just announced that it plans to produce 700,000 fuel cell cars a year by 2030.

Klippenstein likens the divide between hydrogen fuel cells and battery electric plug-ins to the gasoline and diesel split familiar to American consumers. "We will see a similar split where batteries will, for decades at least, dominate the light duty vehicle passenger cars," he says, "whereas fuel cells will ultimately win out in the heavier applications."

Meanwhile, Japan is investing heavily to create the infrastructure needed to promote hydrogen vehicles. It is tough to sell a hydrogen car without a lot of places to fill it up. But without more cars on the road, such fueling stations are not a smart investment for private companies.

So the Japanese government has stepped in with subsidies. The country, along with private companies like Toyota, has helped build and operate 100 hydrogen fueling stations so far. Japan has a target of 900 by 2030. By then, Toyota hopes there will be enough hydrogen vehicles to make the stations profitable.

Not necessarily carbon-free

Another advantage of hydrogen could be reducing Japan's heavy reliance on Middle East oil. Hydrogen is abundant, and the fuel could be produced anywhere. But producing hydrogen fuel is itself energy intensive, and — just as with battery electric vehicles — it might be produced using natural gas or coal.

"So it's not really clean if that is the case," says Kimiko Haraka of the Kiko Network, a Japanese environmental group.

Haraka is critical of a plan by a number of Japanese companies, including Kawasaki Heavy Industries, J-Power, Iwatani Corporation and Marubeni, to build a plant in Australia that would use lignite coal to produce hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles. She also worries that the many subsidies for hydrogen come at the expense of promoting renewable energy.

Still, Bertel Schmitt, a former car industry advertising executive who lives in Tokyo, says it makes sense for Japan and its automakers to include hydrogen vehicles in their long game plan.

"They pretty much realize that the exhaust regulations will get tougher and tougher," he says. "What is being enacted right now, in 2020 in Europe, is nothing compared to what will come five years later, 10 years later."

For now, though, Schmitt says the internal combustion engine remains the cheapest and most convenient car on the market. Despite massive investment, he says Toyota knows hydrogen won't be taking over the roads anytime soon.

"They know that the guy sitting in the hydrogen fueling station will be very, very lonely for quite a while."

I think that hydrogen will be used mostly for lorries, buses and trains in the immediate future, cars will take off later when fuel cell costs come down.

No, I don't own one, still drive a ten year old Honda Accord. It's cheap to run and very reliable.