“Hard to Decarbonise” Sectors: How Hydrogen Simplifies the Problem
Net-zero policy is often talked about in terms of government policy and technological advances. However, it is worth going back to first principles and seeing what the public thinks – after all they are the ones who choose which products to buy. Helpfully, the UK Government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) publishes a quarterly survey of public attitudes. The results are quite revealing:
89% are aware of net zero
52% think it will have a positive impact on the economy in the long-term, compared to only 18% who think the long-term impact will be negative.
17% are confident that the UK will meet its 2050 net zero target, compared to 71% who are not confident.
So, most people know about it, think it is a good thing, but don’t think we are going to achieve it in the next 25 years or so. Of course, these are results from one country, but similar figures apply to most industrialised nations.
From the perspective of the cleantech industry, this is encouraging. People clearly want a solution, but don’t think we have it yet. This is especially true of transport: according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 14% of global CO2 emissions come from transport. That is less than, say, electricity and heat production (25%), but it is easier to decarbonise a power station than most forms of transport. A coal-fired power station is a single piece of infrastructure that can be replaced with a different piece of infrastructure running on renewable energy. Decarbonising, for example, aircraft is extremely difficult, because whatever propulsion system replaces the kerosene-burning turbofan has to weigh the same, and take up no more space.
Hence, analysts talk about “hard to decarbonise sectors”, of which transport is one of the biggest. Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) work fine for most passenger cars, although in recent months many car manufacturers have announced that they are scaling back investments in BEVs as the rate of growth is slowing. However, BEVs don’t work well for large commercial vehicles (a BEV 44-tonne truck would lose five tonnes of payload), and they don’t work at all for airliners.
That is why Viritech is pioneering solutions for hydrogen powertrains. Hydrogen is far lighter and more power-dense than a battery, and it produces no emissions when used in a fuel cell, and no carbon even when burned. Because hydrogen has to be contained in a high pressure tank, the overall weight of the powertrain is currently heavier than a petrol equivalent, but far lighter than a BEV of similar energy.
The challenge for the hydrogen powertrain industry is to develop a solution that has the same weight and range as an equivalent petrol or diesel, and costs the same as a BEV. That is the challenge that Viritech has accepted, and which we are making huge strides in achieving.
Over the coming months, we will share more information about our progress. This is the most exciting, and important journey facing society. The easy-to-decarbonise sectors are already on their way – we have to enable the difficult sectors to catch up.