Rolling out the hydrogen highway

Friday, 21 February 2020

Build it and we will come – that's the new car industry's message to an enterprise proposing a national hydrogen refuelling network.

Motor Industry Association chief executive David Crawford says ambition to divest from fossil fuels is being taken seriously by the world's car makers.

The industry is now intensifying international effort to bring to build vehicles running with zero emission hydrogen fuel cells and that will also ultimately inspire more local activity.

A quick refresher: fuel cell vehicles are the next step up from the electric vehicles which are currently achieving increasing interest, but still accounting for a fraction of yearly new registrations.

Unike BEVs, hydrogen fuel cell cars take about as long as petrol cars to refuel.

* First drive road test review: Hyundai Nexo

* Sizeable hydrogen transport fleet needed to ensure refueling and distribution network economic

* Govt backs new Hydrogen Association as boost for alternative energy, and exports

* Taranaki company gets $950k from Government for hydrogen fuel project**

Ballance Agri-Nutrients (CEO Mark Wynne, left) thas previously teamed up with with Hiringa Energy (CEO Andrew Clennett, right, at Ballance's Kapuni plant) to produce hyrdogen locally.

Three brands – Honda with the Clarity, Hyundai with Nexo and Toyota with Mirai – have hydrogen cars in series production and in public use globally.

Hyundai's local distributor has several Nexo SUVs operating locally as demonstration units and Toyota New Zealand also has at least one example of the Mirai sedan here, which though yet to be seen on the road was displayed at a recent national dealer gathering.

Hyundai NZ has had to build its own hydrogen refuelling rig, sited near its Auckland headquarters, to fuel the Nexo. It buys bottled gas from a provider then feeds that into the car: an expensive process, but the only way to get the Nexo's wheels turning.

More showroom-ready cars from other makers will be hitting the road over the next few years and New Zealanders will have an opportunity to enjoy them, Crawford believes, providing a proper commercial refuelling infrastructure is first created.

If a network of hydrogen fuelling stations is established, there will be no need for range anxiety.

A partnership between Taranaki's Hiringa Energy, which describes itself as the first national company to dedicated to supply of 'green' hydrogen, and King Country-based independent fuel retailer Waitomo Group proposing a nationwide hydrogen refuelling network is just what the car industry wants to hear, he says.

Crawford says this is an exciting prospect with potential to provide an important step in the journey towards a low emissions transport sector.

'We need to reduce emissions from our vehicle fleet and hydrogen can play an important role.'

New car distributors are very supportive of the prospect of a clean green transport future and though NZ is not a big enough car market to influence manufacturers' technology rollouts, our status as a particularly well-sorted producer of Green energy is being noted.

Catherine Clennett (Hiringa Executive Director and Co-Founder), Jimmy Ormsby (Waitomo Managing Director), Dan Kahn (Hiringa CTO and Co-Founder) Simon Parham (Waitomo COO) and Andrew Clennett (Hiringa CEO and Co-Founder).

'There are good business opportunities. Hydrogen vehicles are currently already in use in the UK, USA, Japan, Korea and Europe.

'We cannot necessarily be a technology leader, but what we can be is a fast follower because we are a fast technology taker.

'Every step we can take now (toward hydrogen) increases our ability to achieve that technology in vehicles when it becomes readily available.

'And we expect it to increasingly become readily available through this next decade.'

Toyota is said to have a hydrogen-powered Mirai sedan here in New Zealand for evaluation.

This isn't the industry suggesting that EVs or even hybrids are second-rate.

'Having electric vehicles is a key part of decarbonising transport.

'But we are going to need a range of solutions. Of those we see hydrogen as being particularly useful for heavy vehicles as well as cars,' Crawford says.

'We need to be prepared to use all forms of low emission fuels, and not just focus on electricity.'

Hydrogen is a clean fuel that, when consumed in a fuel cell, produces only water. Hydrogen can be produced from a variety of domestic resources – in New Zealand that could span from reformation from natural gas, a fossil fuel but still a healthy resource here, to creating it from renewable power like solar, wind, hydro and geothermal.

Fuel cell vehicles are more expensive than like-sized EVs, which themselves are often criticised for being too pricey for general use.

They have the advantage of a superior range than EVs often have and also appeal when refuelling, as filling the hydrogen tank takes around the same time required to fill up a conventional fossil-fuelled vehicle.

The full extent of the Hiringa-Waitomo Group idea is not yet clear. Hydrogen presents unique challenges for shipment and storage. Also, any national ambition would require expansion of the Waitomo network, which spans no further north than Pahia and no further south than Christchurch. Waitomo has recently indicated intention to increase its site count, in new and existing territories.

Crawford suggests New Zealand has a lot of scope to produce clean hydrogen. The MIA favours making better use of wind turbines for creating the fuel during off-peak power generation periods. It is also intrigued by a pilot plant working a geothermal field near Taupo. Conjecture about the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter being second-lifed as a hydrogen plant is also noted, but it has no thoughts to share about that one.

Producing hydrogen from renewable electricity backed up by Taranaki's still abundant gas resources would have a big impact on transport emissions and help to lower the national carbon footprint is okay with the MIA, regardless that it jars with the ideal of breaking from fossil fuels.

Even though Hiringa is located in the country's gas production epicentre, chief executive Andrew Clennett doesn't intend to tap into this resource. Hiringa and partners are undertaking research and development into lower emission alternatives such as methane cracking, where carbon is converted to a solid, usable product. But the primary aim is is to create hydrogen through the cleanest method of production, electrolysis.

This works by passing electricity through water to separate hydrogen from oxygen, without any carbon offset.

Another Hiringa ambition is target the heavy vehicle sector ahead of tending to smaller vehicles, though they certainly won't be ignored. Another step in the infrastructure plan is to set up 'hubs'; the first will almost be centred in Palmerston North and might be operational next year.

Says Crawford: 'There are good business opportunities for hydrogen development and distribution (and) a comprehensive hydrogen production and a refuelling network would provide an important new source of fuel.'