8 June 2019 | New Scientist | 21“We are hoping to make liquid
hydrogen and ship it to Japan,”
says Øivind Wilhelmsen, who is
researching the process at the
Norwegian University of Science
and Technology. Norway already
gets 96 per cent of its electricity
from hydroelectric power, which
could be used to produce clean
hydrogen on a large scale.
Norway is also looking at
producing hydrogen from natural
gas, Wilhelmsen says. Mixing
natural gas and steam producesa mixture of hydrogen and
carbon dioxide, in an established
industrial process called the
water-gas shift reaction. Once
the hydrogen is separated out,
it leaves a high-pressure stream
of pure carbon dioxide ready for
underground sequestration.
“This is clean hydrogen,
and the benefit is it is easier
to go to large scale,” Wilhelmsen
says. It could be a good way to
kick-start Norway’s hydrogen
export economy.Norway’s hydrogen plans
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be far behind.Saudi Arabia and Norway are
all among the countries eyeing
hydrogen exports (see “Norway’s
hydrogen plans”, below left).
The European Union would
be a ready customer for these
countries, but Australia’s trading
partners in the Asia-Pacific would
also happily take their hydrogen
if Australia doesn’t step up. “If we
don’t embrace the opportunity,
the consequence is very simple:
we miss out,” Finkel says.
For Australia, the shifting
energy landscape is an
opportunity and a threat. “We
have a key risk to our fossil fuel
exports on the one hand,” says
Miller. “On the other hand, we
have this opportunity to produce
hydrogen and replace that lost
demand.” The former is out
of Australia’s control, he says.
“But it is in our control if we
want to participate in a new
market like hydrogen.”
Ultimately, the result of the
so-called climate change election
won’t affect Australia’s hydrogen
future. “All the Australian
government is supporting
hydrogen exports, so I don’t
think the result of the election
will change anything,” Aguey-
Zinsou says. “This is a business
opportunity and, Liberal or Labor,
everybody is in support of trying
to catch it.” ❚fossil-fuel-derived hydrogen for
industrial processes, for example.
An immediate application could
be to use electrolytic hydrogen to
make ammonia, already produced
at vast scale to make fertiliser.
And small proportions of
hydrogen can be injected into
the domestic gas system. “That
is a really easy way to build up
volume, handling experience
and a safety record,” says Finkel.
Australia’s combination of
renewable resources, the space to
exploit them on a huge scale and
existing trading relationships with
potential hydrogen importers are
key advantages in the hydrogen
race. But they aren’t unique. Qatar,exports. But whereas natural
gas liquefies at -161°C, hydrogen
remains a gas down to -253°C,
which makes liquefying it
more expensive – so improving
efficiency of this is one area of
research. Other ideas being
explored include transporting
hydrogen by converting it into
molecules that can contain large
numbers of hydrogen atoms, such
as metal hydrides, and storing it
in materials that soak up and
release hydrogen like a sponge.
But the key challenge, says
Miller, is to drive down the cost
of the machines that split water
into oxygen and hydrogen.
Making these electrolysers in
production-line quantities would
slash the cost per unit. “But it’s a
chicken and egg situation,” says
Finkel. Until there is big demand
for hydrogen, electrolyser
production won’t ramp up.
But that won’t happen until the
cost of hydrogen comes down,
which requires big electrolysers.
Advancing in little steps is
the way forward, Finkel says, by
identifying local uses for hydrogen
to begin the scaling-up process
towards export-level production.
Clean hydrogen could replace
Working
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http://www.newscientist.com/insightAustralian^
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