 Hey aloha and aloha Tuesday Stan energy man here Stan Osterman coming to you live and direct from Kailua, Hawaii My background though is off of Waikiki a beautiful sunset in Waikiki So it's a great time to get away from that snow and come to visit Hawaii Today's show is a solo show with just me Because I need to get caught up on a lot of what's been going on around the world in hydrogen But I wanted to start off by talking a little bit about you know What's going on in Europe with with everything in Ukraine and a little bit of the energy implications there So I've got some notes from my friend down going and I've taken a couple of his and I'm just going to comment on a few of them number one when the US started impose sanctions on on Russia for Sitting next to Ukraine and try to keep them from invading we basically applied sanctions except for one major Sanction that just went into effect this week with great pressure. I think from the American community Which was to stop buying oil from Russia? Russia its main export is oil. It produces around 8% of the the world's oil And it sells mostly to Europe, but it also sells oil and natural gas to the European Union and the US and a couple other countries to boot The problem with that is if we stop buying oil from Russia, we have to start producing more here and the problem is that the shale oil and the the pipeline the The pipeline that we shut off last year Keystone pipeline Stopped us from producing gasoline and stuff from our Or what we call organic oil resources in the US and now that we've now sanctioned Russia and we're not buying oil from them We're definitely going to have a shortage of oil and gas for us Because number one shale oil and the other oils and other refinery Can't just ramp up like you turn a switch and it ramps up like you're turning your light switch on it takes a lot to get it going So we've kind of got ourselves in what we call square corner With energy in the United States, but so does Europe Europe actually depends on Russia for so much oil That mean that the NATO and the European Union are essentially Wedded at the hip It makes it it makes it tough to just let sanctions do what they're doing And therefore we got what we kind of expected which was Vladimir Putin to roll into Ukraine because He considers that part of mother Russia So not all oil is created equal either The oil that comes out of Russia is is not the quality that we We expect or we like to use but neither is shale oil Shale oils is not really good for a lot of applications And it's not the best sometimes Russian oil is better than the fracking fracking oil that we get Plus there's a shortage of the sand that we use in the fracking process So there's just a lot going on in the world That we didn't really anticipate With what was going on in russia and what other countries are doing to maneuver politically On the world stage and we need to do a better job of that So anyway One little fact that I think most people don't realize is that OPEC Which is about a dozen different countries mostly Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Iran Control about four fifths of all of the oil produced in the and all the reserves that we have in the world of oil and natural gas And just those three countries around Saudi Arabia and Venezuela control about 80 of that four fifths so You know, they're a big player here and we've managed to tick off Saudi Arabia, Iran And Venezuela all three of them. So good luck trying to get more oil from them Now the good news side the department of energy announced a couple months ago That they're offer they're putting out what we call a rfi request for information On a couple of key topics that have to do with hydrogen So we're leading into the hydrogen news from around the world. We're starting off with something called energy hubs The department of energy has just extended the deadline. It was originally march 8th But they've just extended the deadline to the hydrogen hubs implementation strategy rfi It's going to be extended to march 21st of this year by two in the afternoon pacific time And it basically allows States or regions to put together a conglomerate to Tell the federal government how they would use federal money to help implement hydrogen Energy into their infrastructure and their economy to help the transportation sector and to help the grid Another bundle of money that's part of the same law actually Is a response to the clean hydrogen manufacturing recycling and electrolysis rfi It's still it's still open until march 29th and it's kind of a sister application to go with that at other Hydrogen rfi that the department of energy put out another just tidbit here is Something I picked up from the internet hydrogen generation could become a one trillion dollar a year market according to golden sacks Now that's really important because I don't think people understand that the world And the energy sector is really moving out big time worldwide from australia to europe to to asia In hydrogen and if we don't wake up to that we're going to be behind the power curve The u.s. Is already behind the power curve and it's actually this hydrogen Hub system that's being Put out there by the department of energy is one of the best things that that the biden administration has ever done And I don't think he even mentioned it in his state of the union address So we've got some stories here from the from keith malone my friend in california There's a couple stories from the california fuel cell partnerships Speaking of hydrogen hubs, there's an memorandum of understanding between colorado wyoming utah in new mexico And they're putting together a proposal for hydrogen hub in that region Colorado the headline says colorado joins three other rocky mountain states to push for a regional hydrogen hub And out of sanofenia mexico the governor michelle lawan grissom On thursday joined governors of colorado utah in wyoming and announcing that they will be Competing jointly for a portion of the eight billion dollars allocated by the department of energy in the infrastructure investment and jobs act To for the development of regional clean hydrogen hubs These states are uniquely situated to become a clean hydrogen hub given The presence of high quality wind solar biomass natural gas and other natural energy resources So that's the main part of the story, but I have to ask the questions How many airlines international airlines get refueled in those states? And not as many as that come through hawaii So i'll start the question now. Why isn't hawaii being considered an energy hub? And to show this isn't a surprise in the end of january. I asked andy march to add a plug power If he thought hawaii would be a good hydrogen hub And he advised me that he's already talking to our congressional delegation about becoming a hydrogen hub So we're going to spend a little bit more time talking about that You're the end of the program Some other news from around the world. Um, I reported the airbus announced that last year We'll be selling hydrogen powered commercial aircraft by 2035 that means they'll be selling them that means they'll be producing them Probably by the end of this decade This year they announced that they are actually dedicating one of their 300 series wide wide body jets Just to do testing on hydrogen power plants with a number of different hydrogen companies that are putting out aviation Engines whether they be electric engines or or engines that burn hydrogen in some form or another whether it be liquid hydrogen or ammonia And so they've dedicated an entire airframe a big A big airframe that they could sell for some big bucks to develop these These systems and it's actually an extra engine mount that goes on the fuselage And so it's it's a regular airplane, but they can put all their data Collecting equipment inside the body of the airplane and the engine is actually sitting outside on the top Left side of the airplane off of its own little nacelle There's also a study that was released by the advanced power and energy program and computational environmental sciences lab out of uc Irvine which i'm not going to go through the whole thing, but i'm just going to talk about a couple of the highlights It was made to to do an assessment of the greenhouse gases That are episodic air quality and public health benefits regarding fuel cell electrification At major port complexes. So basically if you're not familiar with port operations, especially in la and long beach They service as you've probably heard in the news hundreds and hundreds of ships every year And they have thousands and thousands of containers coming off of those ships that are moved by diesel trucks And they have a huge air quality issue in la in that area because of these operations So there's been quite a bit of work done To introduce hydrogen fuel cell uh bus or not buses, but transport trucks They call them drage trucks to move containers around at the ports There's also a lot of studies going on um on maritime hydrogen because one of the largest greenhouse gas producers Of carbon carbon dioxide and and other um knocks and other particulates are ocean going vessels They they count for about eight percent of all of the pollution that's out there from transportation just by themselves And of course everything moves On the ocean pretty much even including other oil So fuel cell electrification at a port helps uh attain air quality improvements, which we already knew And then ocean going vessels and diesel trucks they say should be targeted first For transition to hydrogen fuel cells and that makes a lot of sense because like I say You could do a lot better efficiency wise and to clean up the environment If these ocean going vessels switch the hydrogen power Because they require an awful lot of energy to move those huge ships through the water water's not a compressible Uh gas like air is so it's really tough to get a ship going that's heavy weight through that water And the trucks if you try to make electric trucks Um using batteries and try and haul heavy cargo You can only go maybe a couple hundred miles before you have to stop and recharge your batteries So if you put enough batteries in a truck to give it any kind of range Then all of a sudden you can't carry any cargo because you're carrying batteries And it offsets the cargo that you're allowed to carry on highways So it's quite a balancing act that we have to do and that's why this this This uh study show that we need to work on heavy diesel trucks and ocean going vessels first. That's a priority Um chevron iwatani announces agreement to build 30 hydrogen fueling stations in california There's already about 50 stations there the target is 100 stations and this is another 30 That's just being done by chevron and this japanese company iwatani corporation of america Um, they announced the agree in their agreement to build 30 fueling stations by 2026 in california And as part of the agreement chevron plans to fund the construction of the sites Which are expected to be located at chevron branded retail locations across the state Which makes it kind of convenient whether you need gas or whether you need um Hydrogen so the stations will initially fuel light duty vehicles while also returning retaining the flexibility To service heavy duty vehicles. Like I said those heavy trucks over the long term Iwatani will operate maintain the hydrogen fueling sites and provide hydrogen supply And transportation logistic services chevron plans to supply a portion of the fueling sites with excess hydrogen reduction capacity Um at its richman's richman refinery and future hydrogen production from its pilot projects in northern california Um, there's a bunch of news from the count the uh, ohio fuel cell coalition the um, there is an interview with gen cell Which is an israeli company that targets remote power applications with ammonia fuel cells um, most people don't realize that ammonia is is a really good way to to store hydrogen because It's very hydrogen rich Um, ammonia can be used also for fertilizer. So it's it's real popular in agriculture In fact, it's required in agriculture But it's also a good way to have a liquid fuel that's really stable and not super cold like liquid hydrogen with just about About a quarter less than the energy by by weight But it gives you an awful lot. So ammonia is used in fuel cells Could spur the energy Development of low carbon distributed power generation as hydrogen infrastructure develops. That's like for grids and stuff So gen cell ceo rammy reshiffs has told standards and pours global plots In an interview on february 8th of the israeli based Company is manufacturing alkaline fuel cells that run on ammonia Using a catalyst to strip the hydrogen from the ammonia for off grid and backup power generation That's kind of their specialty at grid at gen cell This approach means customers can tap a ready supply of fuel for low carbon distribution And generation that already competes with diesel On a total cost of ownership basis Now that's saying diesels at four something a gallon I can tell you right now diesel is going to be way above Four dollars and something a gallon this year Based on the what's going on in the world. So That's telling you that already hydrogen is cheaper without a bunch of subsidies than diesel fuel is with subsidies The next story comes to us from money control and it's the adani group Is in a pact with ballard. They're a fuel cell manufacturing company to manufacture hydrogen fuel cells in india billionaire glottem on adani led ani group has signed a non binding pact with Ballard power systems to evaluate the joint venture for investment commercial Production of hydrogen fuel cells for various mobility and industrial applications in india As per the memorandum of understanding both parties will examine various options to cooperate including the potential collaboration for fuel cell manufacturing in india Adani enterprises newly formed arm. The adani new industry is limited um anil will be uh housing the group's green hydrogen initiatives Our ability to build the world-class green hydrogen value chain will be critical In facilitating the energy transitions We are excited to be partnering with ballard the global leader in the fuel cell technology to create a share of the fuel cell ecosystem in india We will be deploying innovative uses use cases across our hydrogen businesses with fuel cell trucks mining equipment marine vessels off-road vehicles and critical industrial power said The neat s gion director of adani's new industrial limited um next story is consortium developing Flat hydrogen storage solutions for fuel cell vehicles Flat high store. This comes from green car congress bmw ag robert bosch From test tinny key engineering and hexagon purists are working together in a research and advanced development of an innovative hydrogen storage system solution for fuel cell passenger vehicles The project called flat high store functional design and testing for an innovative hydrogen tank system With a total projected budget of six million euros has been granted funding by the german b bmw i federal ministry for economic affairs and energy The aim of the project is to develop an advanced hydrogen storage system solution For the flat space of light duty car underbodies that are usually intended for integration of battery modules In battery electric vehicles So in case you're not aware battery electric vehicles Generally have like a big flat Space underneath the seats that runs almost the full length of the passenger cab With nothing but batteries and they're looking to put all that into hydrogen storage Which actually if they can pull it off will probably give your hydrogen vehicle You know a thousand mile range with a single fill up of hydrogen. I'm sure they're not advertising that yet, but I know that's their goal Okay, next story is fueling a hydrogen revolution from science daily scientists from a graduate school of systems of an information engineering at the university of Sikuba in japan are introducing a new technique for Detecting when a hydrogen fuel cells experiencing reduced efficiency Through the periods of excess insufficient water So they're developing new sensors for the for the fuel cells again to make them more efficient Next story is will hydrogen trucks power the supply chain of the future by energy monitor? And like I said before I would say yes the world supply chains are in crisis plummeting demand in 2020 With lockdowns followed by booming demand after the economic recovery of 2021 has blown up our just in time supply system And the news is filled with vessels queuing up in the ports in on the east coast But with empty freight containers stacking up on the shore and nobody to take them away It's not just the maritime sector Road and freight supply chains have also been in a perfect storm of covet 19 restrictions driver shortages and drastic fuel prices increased Worn the international labor organization at the end of the year So their point being that if we could get these trucks on hydrogen fuel They would be moving keeping the ports cleaner And we wouldn't they wouldn't have all the restrictions That the current diesel trucks have in the ports when they're operating and that would help alleviate the supply problems that we have um the next story Kind of reeks of critical analysis To me, you know, that's one of my my my key Peeves when I look at different projects this one is a a story But I kind of take exception that it's a good news story But i'm going to read it anyway a new sustainable way to make hydrogen for fuel cells and fertilizers Is uh is has been discovered and this is out of Uh fizz org ph ys org A new sustainable and practical method for producing hydrogen from water has been discovered by a team of researchers At the rikin center for sustainable resources in japan Um, I won't mention any names. But anyway I was really interested in this until I got to the point where It says that the new system uses um can be can make fertilizers and hydrogen producing Using cobalt and manganese and it says two fairly common metals Well, they're fairly common except that cobalt is one of the key elements and a good number of lithium batteries And the world supply is is literally limited to less than two decades So I don't see how you can Make batteries for all the cars and trucks and buses and ships and planes And cell phones and computers and everything else And still use this in their technology to somehow make hydrogen cheaper So i'm not even going to finish the rest of the story. It was a good idea Um, unfortunately, you got to look at your source of materials And unless they don't use hardly any cobalt, it's probably not going to work too well Uh, it says light could boost performance of fuel cells lithium batteries and other devices out of mit news Engineers from mit and q shu university in japan have demonstrated for the first time How light can be used to improve the performance of lithium batteries fuel cells and other devices So we've got to keep our eye on that Extreme e the fuel cell electric vehicle charging station of the future is here From clean technica extreme e is a brainchild of formula e founder Alejandro agog formula e launched an FIA a sanction showcase for a new cutting-edge battery electric Vehicle technology an extreme version is intended to demonstrate the ability Of an electric SUV to have on any conditions that mother nature can throw at it The inhibiting factor would be how to stage e b charging stations in remote locations with grid connections not available Or on site wind and solar generation With with battery type energy storage is one option and the military is among those exploring Exploring that avenue extreme e went another route and settled on a hydrogen fuel cell and clean technica caught wind of extreme e's fuel cell energy e v Charging metric time and is looking at it for a series. They're going to produce in 2021 So back to hydrogen hubs do we issue two RFIs as I mentioned earlier with the with the law the The the law that they're putting out for 9.5 billion dollars total in clean energy This is from Ohio fuel cell consortium again U.S. Department of Energy released two requests for information To collect feedback from stakeholders to inform the Implementation and design of regional hydrogen hubs and electrolysis and clean hydrogen manufacturing and recycling programs across the united states for the infrastructure investment and jobs act by ij a representing A combined 9.5 billion dollar investment so The government's got the money The bills are out there. So what's hawaii doing? So hawaii has been a fueling stop for ocean going transportation For over a century and hawaii is in a remarkable position to boost its own economy From an energy Importing economy to an energy exporting economy like never before If our leadership could just get their heads around hydrogens clean energy potential Like so much the rest of the world is You can't wait just like you can't Do something tomorrow and expect it to happen instantly Ocean shipping is one of the major greenhouse gas offenders major studies tell us that hawaii could be a serious producer of green hydrogen And it's been a lead leading the way in clean transportation ground ocean and air forever If we were a hydrogen hub, we could make this a reality an economic boost to our economy We can't keep kicking this issue down the road I've personally briefed both of hawaii senators and a lot of our legislators and governors But neither our state nor our congressional leadership seems to be able to connect the dots Why are we competing? Competing for a hydrogen hub. Why aren't we competing for hydrogen hub? Like i mentioned i when i interviewed andy marsh in january on this show He was all for it and said he he actually encouraged hawaii to become a hydrogen hub another thing One of our very own think tech hosts cali yakinah and the grassroot institute pleaded once again With our federal government to get relief from the jones act Which hobbles hawaii's economy are forcing us to use u.s. Build ships and crews going between us ports hawaii buys russian oil or at least it did until this week Because of the jones act because it's too expensive To to bring in u.s. Oil because we have to wait and stage with american-owned ships and crews But the jones act stifles more than importing energy It also stifles exporting energy like hydrogens in the mainland Why do we continue to do this ourselves? Our business is struggle our tourism takes hits From covet as our costs increase across the board with inflation Our leaders refuse to look at important issues holding us back economically and socially Hawaii can make all the green hydrogen we need for our ground transportation our grid storage And then supply cargo ships airliners and even export hydrogen That all that they want But true to form our leadership will wait until it's too late And then try and find the most expensive solution and claim it's not their fault Why why why it's always been this way in my home state? Please for goodness sakes wake up It's time for hawaii to get serious about hydrogen It's time for hawaii to become a hydrogen hub And our leadership needs to get on this right now And that's my point for this week stand energy man and I hope that everyone can really understand the kind of difference that Not importing all of our energy for transportation and for our electric grid How much of a huge difference I'll make for our state? It will be a game changer. You can't even begin to comprehend The money that we spend sent out of our state and just basically throw away When that could be jobs in hawaii it could be careers for our kids when they come out of college It's mind boggling and yet we keep refusing to do it because we're looking for short-term gains And short-term profits and short-term solutions and we need to be taking the long-term look The critical thinking analysis that I keep talking about and we need to put hawaii on the map as a hydrogen hub So please governor, please legislature, please congressional delegation Let's get going on hawaii as a hydrogen hub And that'll do it for stan energy man this week until next week tuesday stan osherman signing off claw Thank you so much for watching think tech hawaii If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on youtube and the follow button on vimeo You can also follow us on facebook instagram twitter and linkedin and donate to us at thinktech hawaii dot com Mahalo