 Hey, aloha and welcome back to another exciting stand the energy man show on think tech Hawaii where community matters Clean energy is king and hydrogen is a gas Today shows all about catching you up on the latest and greatest in hydrogen news from around the world And a good part of today's news comes to us courtesy of the California fuel cell partnership And mr. Keith Malone over there who does all their public outreach And the first story Keith sent me was out of North Africa Where obviously solar and wind resources are very sufficient and could provide? The continents and all the continents need by themselves Apparently, there's a robust natural gas pipeline also between Africa and Europe and rather than using all that solar power to send Electricity through a wire they're exploring the possibility of turning the solar power into hydrogen and Introducing it into the natural gas pipelines to go and put that energy through their pipelines to get to Europe this would certainly make for a much cleaner grid and A much easier project than trying to force that energy through a wire But before I move to the second story this first story brings up an important point I've gotten a question or two recently from YouTube viewers and one asked about embrittlement Is it's it is a serious problem with hydrogen? So let me just give you a short explanation of embrittlement Most existing natural gas pipelines have been in use for many many decades and are made of some kind of iron or steel Unfortunately under high pressure or high temperature or both Hydrogen tends to cause iron alloys like steel and even some cases of stainless steel That's not a high grade to become brittle and crack and that's not good when you're the atom You're dealing with this the tiniest one on the planet So most gas pipelines hesitate to put more than about 15% of their hydrogen into natural gas pipelines So embrittlement can be a problem in aging infrastructure However, the new fiber reinforced tubing that's available can actually be pressurized up to 2500 psi Which is the same as a scuba tank by the way and has no problems handling the hydrogen or causing any embrittlement at all The high quality stainless steel pipe is also reliable for handling hydrogen But few existing pipelines are made exclusively of high-grade stainless steel So retrofitting gas lines to carry high amounts of hydrogen is unlikely in the near term But just remember in places where there are no Telephones those societies never strung landlines across their territory. They went straight to cell phones and skip the line live line technology This could be the solution for Africa. Just go to fiber-reinforced pipelines So the next story that came to us from California is out of Europe and the hydrogen industry in Europe has realized that the Chinese have become leaders in low-cost manufacturing of a lot of things Including alcohol and electrolyzer technology and the Europeans in response to China are planning on establishing a clean hydrogen coalition To maintain their current dominance in this growing field Particularly against China As public utilities struggle to deal with the growing amount of intermittent renewable power The use of electrolyzers to make use of curtailed power and to be a load on their grid and Turn it into storable energy is gaining popularity The use of existing natural gas pipelines and even constructing dedicated hydrogen pipelines along with the same easements is seen as a solution for many Utilities as trying to balance an increased amount of intermittent renewable power from solar and wind in their systems Compared to batteries alone Hydrogen takes up much less space and costs about 25 percent of an equivalent battery storage capacity I think I'll probably do a separate show just on that subject alone From the Pacific area both Australia and Japan have aggressively stepped out and Adopted clean hydrogen as a major component across their energy sectors in 2017 Japan introduced Hydrogens a hydrogen strategy and the result is that it's growing into the most advanced hydrogen economy in the world today overall They're developing a high number of hydrogen fueling state highest number of hydrogen fueling stations in the world probably with California being second And their aim is to reach one gigawatt of power capacity on their grid with hydrogen Based on hydrogen might and they look in 2030 for a timeline They plan to showcase hydrogen technology also in the upcoming Olympic Games, which will be I'll be looking forward to Last year in 2019 Australia announced that they were migrating to a hydrogen economy and they took aggressive steps to produce clean hydrogen and Which means off of an electrolyzer and convert it to ammonia and Guess what they're shipping the ammonia to Japan to help them meet their demands because the demands for hydrogen is growing so rapidly So between China South Korea Japan and Australia the Pacific a nation community lead the way in hydrogen technology in both transportation and grid applications and Stand the energy man would personally throw Hawaii into that same Pacific mix of leadership in hydrogen technology Because we're actually stepping out especially with the military Close to the home with still a long ways from Hawaii, California has introduced SB 1122 at the California Public Utilities Commission formally recognizing that hydrogen made with electrolysis is Free from carbon and when you make it from solar wind or hydroelectric power your carbon free from beginning to end So electrolysis should be one of the premier ways of moving forward in California to meet their zero carbon goals a little farther east I'm not sure what MTD is because it wasn't explained, but it's a a mass transit in Illinois Will be the first in the nation to commercially order 60 zero emission hydrogen fuel cell buses for their routes using the Excelsior charge h2 bus in a battery electric component It uses compressed hydrogen as a range extender For the energy and an energy source with ballard fuel cells powering the system Their fuel cell technology is built in the new flyer Excelsior platform alongside their existing battery electric technology Thus extending the range and reducing the weight of their buses 60 buses is a lot of buses by the way And last I heard it was about a two-year waiting list to get bus a hydrogen fuel cell buses made an Exciting bit of business and economic news is that the industry experts report that shipments of hydrogen fuel cells grew by More than 40 percent in 2019 think about that worldwide the whole market grew by 40 percent That's huge and the proponents of the technology are working to establish it alongside lithium batteries as a way to remove pollution from the Transportation sector and to provide long-term energy storage in the grid Over in Europe the French supplier of automotive components, and I'm not sure how you pronounce their names, so I should probably skip it, but it's SF fall British yeah, I don't know something like that is pushing ahead with the development of a fuel cell technology They can be adapted to existing vehicles as well as cars and trucks of the future They report that their fuel cell technology is still a little expensive But the price of fuel cell stacks is dropping steadily and it an indication that the technology is growing more flexible as the development Continues they also report that fuel cells have a potential to increase battery electric vehicle range and make options to recharge More plentiful they're quicker to recharge the batteries. That's for sure Back in California. There's a clean vehicle initiative that would ban the sale lease or transfer of Of or any potential use of vehicles valued at over $50,000 pre-tax While exempting full electric fuel cell vehicles and any vehicles primarily used for commercial purposes Government vehicles and some specialty vehicles may also be excluded from the law It would also only apply to vehicles manufactured after 2021 San Diego already has one of the higher EV adoption rates in the country According to the city council there their focus on really creating a clean transportation sector and they're pushing that bill a Company called KRRI is recognized as one of the biggest proponents of leading-edge technology For the railway operations and they have developed a fuel cell train that they plan to put Through three or four years of extensive testing in South Korea Their objective is to thoroughly validate the potential for a hydrogen propulsion system in South Korea's national rail system Over in Europe ammonia is has become part of Norway's hydrogen strategy The Norwegian oil and energy minister says that ammonia will be the best Be set on equal footing as an energy source in the country's new strategies to develop hydrogen This is important as I mentioned earlier because Australia supplies your panel hydrogen Oftentimes shipped in the form of ammonia, which is NH3 one nitrogen atom and three hydrogen atoms Because it's high in hydrogen energy energy density But it's also well established as a liquid commodity in the agricultural sector with long-standing safety protocols and One of the most efficient ways to ship bulk hydrogen rather than as a gas or as liquid hydrogen and a frozen commodity One of my favorite companies in the world company called plug power announced recently that they've developed a partnership With Colorado based lightning systems a global developer of zero emission drive trains And this collaboration enables both companies to offer the world's first Electric fuel cell power class six trucks, which are trucks that are 12 and up to 12 and a half tons So that's like I would say the second biggest truck. She usually see on the road the class Seven and eight trucks are your really really big trucks And they'll be capable of supporting the middle delivery logistics between warehouses and distribution centers so plug power is already a big player in the material handling equipment and hydrogen and The lightning systems will deliver both standard and long range Classic trucks through their partnership taking full advantage of the value that fuel cells offer in commercial fleets for high utilization long range fast fueling and maximization of cargo volume and payload which are really important plug powers progen engines provide 90 kilowatts of fuel cell electric power and Utilize the latest generation of the company's proprietary MDA and metal plate stack technology Which delivers industry leading power density? The standard vehicle offerings include an impressive 20 kilograms of on-board hydrogen storage Delivering and delivering an average range of 200 miles and an extended range option that goes to 400 miles doubling the range back in Europe To air lequid initiatives will be underway shortly They awarded contracts to develop fleets of taxis and medium-haul trucks predominantly in France This is so new. I don't have a lot of the company's names But the company's involved in the French government plan to use these these projects to validate the maturity and reliability of innovative logistics transportation solutions using hydrogen technology the model will reduce emissions by more than 2,000 metric tons of CO2 a year the equivalent of the annual emissions of more than 700 sedans and by the way, most of those vehicles will be Toyota Marais and they'll be used as taxi cabs The story that made me to the top of my wish list this Sunday is South Korea auto manufacturers that are already producing two production hydrogen fuel cell cars has announced that they'll be launching production of a hydrogen fuel cell pickup truck in 2023 Under the agreement with Hyundai Motors, they'll develop two hydrogen-powered trucks for logistics purposes by 2023 and 10 more trucks of the fall the following year GPA will provide support. I'm not sure who GPA is they'll provide support to building the recharging stations On site so the company will also offer 2,000 square meters of land to build the stations on and they're scheduled to be built by 2022 a Hydrogen fuel cell truck will be capable of driving about 320 kilometers Well, we're gonna take a quick break here and we'll be back in 60 seconds with more stand-energy man news from around the world Lines on think tech Hawaii I was the head coach for the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships My show is based on my book also titled Beyond the Lines and it's about leadership Creating a superior culture of excellence and finding greatness I feature a wide range of amazing guests who share valuable insights about how going beyond the lines leads to success in Everything you do in life. I'm looking forward to you joining me every Monday at 11 a.m. Aloha Hey, welcome back to stand the energy man here on think tech Hawaii so the folks That beat stand the energy man to trademarking the name first element fuels They're really they really upset me because that's a really good name, but they got it first and I was gonna steal it They're getting ready to build a large capacity hydrogen and fueling station in California or a bunch of them The company reports that scaling to a large capacity helps drive down the cost greatly And the company says they'll be making sure that they're opening more and more of the large capacity stations and All of their stations going forward will have for refueling positions meaning four cars can refuel their hydrogen at the same time The station should be able to price their hydrogen around ten dollars a kilogram With stations that are heavily utilized and this translates into in practical terms They're they're basically getting hydrogen sold on par with the cost of today's gasoline prices Which is a real milestone for the hydrogen industry Another story from Germany the research minister for Germany reports that they're building a partnership with West African countries to import clean hydrogen Many European see Africa as a continent of opportunity and see green and clean hydrogen made from electrolysis as the oil of tomorrow Germany's research minister is excited that Germany has laid down the cornerstone for hydrogen partnership with West Africa The minister predicts that hydrogen will be a great replacement for oil or gas in the transportation and Industrial use and cannot be generated sufficiently within the the territorial limits of Germany so the nations of Africa with a process the abundant wind and solar that they have It's a perfect partnership between Germany and West Africa for clean hydrogen Hyundai Motors Corporation is also demonstrating the also demonstrated their clean air power of its fuel cell car the nexio By collecting the gases in a transparent balloon from their vehicle alongside an internal combustion engine vehicle It soon became apparent that the trapped air being produced by their nexio is scrubbed on board Being purified through three separate air purification systems was a clear solution to cleaning any cities or states air pollution problems How much diesel a diesel engine company that they're pretty big has recently purchased Hydrogenics out of Canada. They're a fuel cell manufacturing company and they announced that their first full electric bus Manufactured in partnership with Gilly another big bus manufacturer went into service in Santa Monica, California late last year Cummins also showed a fuel cell power truck at the North American commercial vehicle show and the company is seeing significant interest in fuel cell technology on both on and off highway markets Cummins recognizes that including hydrogen Infrastructure and hydrogen production technology as part of an acquisition process will position Cummins Well in the markets to support customers because they Realize that the lack of access to hydrogen is a significant pacing factor in adopting fuel cell technology That's why we call that this the cycle is we call us the chicken and the egg tobacco without the stations You can't get cars without the cars no one wants to build stations So Cummins is going to do what Nicola motors is doing and bring both and Finally, I think the biggest hydrogen news is really the smallest of scale a company called white X energy cell Has designed and built and is going to market a rechargeable hearing aid operated using a fuel cell This fuel cell runs on methanol for the fuel which is high in hydrogen Just think of the potential if cell phones and computers could operate off of the same hydrogen rather than The unsustainable lithium cobalt batteries that they have that tend to catch fire when you don't want to and if you can make it Small enough to go into a hearing aid Wow, I should have no trouble developing fuel cells for today's computer industry and this is far as I'm concerned Is the biggest little news of today? It's just awesome just think you could make fuel cells that could run your cell phone And when you wanted to recharge them instead of plugging in into something at the airport I guess I was at the airport there are people check plugging their cell phones into every outlet they could find Fuel cells you just you could carry a little spare thing to score hydrogen in your phone And you're back up and running it in seconds So I do get some questions from time to time from viewers Especially on YouTube and one of them was a guy who said Santa. Yeah, hydrogen is great, but I'm still sold on batteries Well, you know a lot of things that we look at today are marketed really well including batteries And I have to have to tell you that as a hydrogen guy I have to like batteries too because I always have batteries mixed with hydrogen the batteries perform a really important role in smoothing and Reacting quickly to power change requirements So anytime you're using hydrogen fuel cells in your in your system you're also probably pairing it up with a well-matched battery for whatever you're going to be doing whether it's a residential house or an industrial application or a vehicle and You know the balance there is important That's why it takes a really good designer or a good electric engineer to help you design that system properly But I'm here to tell you not all batteries are created equal I spent last weekend on the big island and spend some more time with Paul Pontiou at Blue Planet Research and And I can tell you that you know every time I see the lithium-iron phosphate batteries I just wonder why we're bothering with lithium cobalt at this point in time If the lithium-iron phosphate is a little bit more expensive a little bit heavier So it's a little bit more limited in the transportation use But it's so much more stable and so much safer and so much more reliable and has such a longer Cycle life than the other technologies and gives you great performance So for those of you that Think that Elon Musk and his wall and his Tesla are the cats meow You're really ought to try and look at the Sony technology Which I think has been bought out by a company called Marata in Japan, which is lithium iron phosphate I think there's probably some other companies that are pushing the same kind of technology and you should check them out, but Google something called the nail test and watch a lithium-iron phosphate Cell compete against a lithium cobalt cell and it will scare the bejeebies out of you When you see the cobalt technology burst into flames almost explode When the other battery when it gets punctured by a nail just kind of fizzles and Gurgles and then nothing happens. So not all batteries are created equal I did a whole show on that and I really think if you're going to be a battery fan You really probably ought to be a little bit more specific So one of the the stats I always keep in my head that ought to impress any Battery person is yeah, you can get energy into energy out pretty well with a lithium battery But when it comes to storing energy and I especially relate this to transportation, I'm a former aviator Weight matters and there is no element on earth that gives you the energy density that hydrogen does That's why they use it to launch rockets to outer space as liquid hydrogen Because you just can't get any more energy density. So for example The typical lead-acid battery in your car will give you 55 amp hours for every kilogram of battery that you have The typical lithium battery will give you in the neighborhood of four to six hundred amp hours per kilogram Hazardous material that we use in the Air Force Force called hydrazine We use an NF-16s for their backup power generation. It gives you about 2,200 amp hours per kilogram of weight hydrogen fuel cells give you 66,000 amp hours per kilogram of weight. So you just cannot get Better energy density out of anything battery or anything else than hydrogen And when you put it on a big scale like when we start to have grids that have gigawatts scale energy storage requirements You won't be using batteries because you can't dig up enough cobalt and of lithium to put that many batteries in all the cars And all the grids you're gonna end up using hydrogen because whether it's an ammonia whether it's in liquid hydrogen or whether it's just pressurized gas Hydrogen gives more energy density than any other storage medium that you can think of and oh by the way Yes, it is safe, and I've done several shows on hydrogen safety And let's just say that when you don't have any oxygen mixed with the hydrogen. It just plain isn't flammable I would at most of the people that deal with gases and in the industrial world or laboratories Will say they are much more comfortable working with hydrogen gas than with pure oxygen gas And that's a fact a little tidbit from my aviation background if you ever go up to an airplane and you see where their oxygen system vents to the outside to stabilize its pressure You'll see a red circle painted around it and it says do not touch and the reason for that is if you have Oxygen coming out of that vent and you have any oil on your gloves. It will spontaneously combust Just oil mixing with pure oxygen will spontaneously ignite and that's why on airplanes. You just don't see people Handling oxygen kind of frivolously. It's it's pretty dangerous. So hydrogen From everyone I've talked to and all my own experience Much much much safer than most of the fuels we use today including gasoline and propane Probably diesel gives hydrogen a good run for the money because diesel. That's why they use it in boats in particular It's much safer to use than gasoline in terms of safety but hydrogen beats them all So anyway, that's going to do it for this week stand energy man Thanks for joining us here and think take away and we'll join you next week here from beautiful downtown