Scottish utility fleet turns to hydrogen

[Caribbeans]

Scottish utility fleet turns to hydrogen

Fleet Europe | 26 Jun 23

First Hydrogen has announced that the Company's hydrogen-fuel-cell powered vehicle (FCEV) has been delivered to UK utility SSE, which operates one of the UK’s largest fleets.

The FCEV will begin real-world trials at SSE's operational site at Aberdeen, Scotland and surrounding areas, which features some of the UK's best hydrogen infrastructure. This infrastructure will enable SSE to experience easy and fast refuelling within 5-7 minutes, showcasing a significant advantage of the Company's FCEV over battery electric vehicles (BEV), which typically take hours to recharge.

In recognition of the crucial role decarbonisation of transport plays in meeting net zero targets, SSE has already pledged to switch 2,500 of its vehicles to electric. Data will be collected from onboard instruments analysing fuel consumption, usage and efficiency. The information will calculate the Total Cost of Ownership, a key consideration for fleet operators when purchasing vehicles.

Accelerating the adoption of hydrogen transport

SSE is the first utility to trial First Hydrogen’s FCEV, coordinated through the Aggregated Hydrogen Freight Consortium (AHFC). The organization works with large UK fleet operators to accelerate the adoption of hydrogen transport through vehicle deployment and refuelling infrastructure development. The trials will see 16 major fleet operators interested in trialling First Hydrogen's vehicle, including grocery, utilities, parcel delivery and healthcare companies...more
https://www.fleeteurope.com/en/new-energies/united-kingdom/article/scottish-utility-fleet-turns-hydrogen

Fleets: A great way to roll out a hydrogen infrastructure. All vehicles leave from and return to the same place. This is what a coordinated H2 roll out would look like.

RELATED:



Air Liquide and Iveco Group reaffirm their commitment to hydrogen at the inauguration of the first high-pressure hydrogen station for long-haul trucks in Europe

Airliquide.com | Paris, France | June 27, 2023

With the opening of Air Liquide’s high-pressure hydrogen refuelling station in Fos-sur-Mer (Marseille) and Iveco Group’s readiness to deliver hydrogen trucks starting from late 2023, the two companies are paving the way for hydrogen long-haulage mobility in Europe.

This inauguration marks a step forward in the two companies’ commitment to the development of hydrogen mobility in Europe, in line with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in December 2021. The MoU aims to advance hydrogen as a crucial enabler for the energy transition of the transport industry by leveraging the unique expertise of Air Liquide across the entire hydrogen value chain, from production and storage to distribution, and the know-how of IVECO, the commercial vehicle brand of Iveco Group, a pioneer in the manufacturing of vehicles powered by alternative fuels.

Guests at the inauguration that took place on June 26, 2023 had the opportunity to visit the large-capacity high-pressure station (1 ton/day) supplied with low-carbon hydrogen via pipeline, and to see first-hand a prototype of an IVECO heavy-duty fuel cell truck. This transport solution for long haulage features a fast refuelling time at 700-bar pressure.

The Fos-sur-Mer station is part of the HyAMMED (“Hydrogène à Aix-Marseille pour une Mobilité Ecologique et Durable”) project supported by French funding. The new station is also part of H2Haul, the European project co-financed by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. Air Liquide and IVECO were among the first partners of the H2Haul project when it was launched in 2019. A second high-capacity station (700 bar, 2 tons/day) dedicated to heavy vehicles will be installed in Salon-de-Provence to supply a potential fleet of 50 hydrogen IVECO trucks from 2025 in the framework of the R’HySE project...more
https://www.airliquide.com/group/press-releases-news/2023-06-27/air-liquide-and-iveco-group-reaffirm-their-commitment-hydrogen-inauguration-first-high-pressure

In the EU, Hydrogen fueling stations will be required every 200 km. So much for "the infrastructure can't be built" nonsense from the "Can't Do It" brigade

Europe agrees deal to expand charging, hydrogen stations

The agreement wants fast-charge stations for cars and trucks every 60 km and hydrogen stations every 200 km on major European roads...
https://www.petrolplaza.com/news/32399

[brush]

1. Where does the hydrogen fuel come from?

[Caribbeans]

2. "The FCEV will begin real-world trials at SSE's operational site at Aberdeen, Scotland"

Quote from the article.

Another article:

The hydrogen in Aberdeen is created onsite via electrolysis. The electricity used in this process is off a green tariff, so it is green hydrogen - meaning no emissions from well to wheel.
https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/net-zero-aberdeen/h2-aberdeen-hydrogen-here/hydrogen-faq

[brush]

3. Does the electrolysis process burn more energy to get the hydorgen...

than burning it gets? Just curious as on a thread a few days ago I wondered if the hydrogen was gotten from the water, H2O, a process that takes more energy than it yields?

[Think. Again.]

4. Converting any form of energy...

...to another form of energy does cost some of the original energy to do.

For instance... when charging an electric car battery, the charging station will "pump" more energy than the car battery will receive. The same with phone charging, or using radioactive material to heat water into steam for nuclear plant turbines.

When gasoline is burned to create the kinetic energy that moves a gas vehicle, energy is lost too.

So yes, any transfer of energy is gong to include a loss, and those losses will differ by what form of energy is transfered to what other form.

Luckily, the electrolysis can be run using non-CO2 sources of energy so no emissions are created from this "cost of doing business".

[brush]

6. Thanks for all that info. The earlier thread that i mentioned...

was about alleged deep pockets of pure hydrogen buried in the earth and outfits were trying to capture it like the early days of the oil industry in the 1890s...and since it's allegedly pure, there could be more energy gained than what they expended to get it.

Had you heard of anything like that?

[Think. Again.]

7. Yes!

I did hear about that!

I'm curious to see where that leads.

I'm feeling cautious about it because it involves "mining" for the hydrogen, so there will be some ecological damage, and also I read that the oil companies are already sniffing around for it and they're obviously not trustworty.

But apparently there is a LOT of it and the energy that would go into retrieving it would be a lot less than the energy that (currently) has to go into making it.

We have a lot to sort out. Fast.

Here's an article on it:
https://www.science.org/content/article/hidden-hydrogen-earth-may-hold-vast-stores-renewable-carbon-free-fuel

[Think. Again.]

5. What I really like about the Hydrogen model...

...is the versatility of Hydrogen.

H2 can be "burned" within the vehicle (without CO2 emissions) in a hydrogen combustion engine,

Or,

H2 can be converted to electricity within the vehicle to power electric motors.

This gives us the opportunity to develop a variety of vehicles suitable for the variety of conditions and uses they will be used for, while only having to build out one type of fueling infrastructure.

It can also serve in both ways for even more uses such as power equipment, generators, whatever needs an engine or a motor, and can be transported to where it's needed too.