USA will probably get its first nationwide hydrogen network by 2021

I have written on this subject before. The reason being I own stock in the company that produces the equipment to make it happen. It's called NEL hydrogen and I'm extremely excited about the development in this matter. Putting hydrogen to work as a energy carrier is difficult because the demand has to go hand in hand with availability. That demand is materializing in the shape of Nikola motors.

Meet Nikola

Nikola has been around for some time. Their flagship products are long-haul trucks. They also have a day-cab in the pipeline as well as a beach buggy type of vehicle. All of them have a electrical drivetrain, the trucks with hydrogen as energy carrier instead of batteries.

Photo: Nikola motors

The challenges around an industrial development like this are phenomenal. Covering a continent the size of North America with new infrastructure is huge. But there are a few things that coincide;

• renewable energy has become affordable
• weight- and efficiency gains in fuel cell stacks
• Nikolas successful presale of some 9 000 vehicles
• and of course the worlds most experienced and most efficient producer of alkaline electrolyzers. So efficient, it's cheaper than steam reformed natural gas, which has been the mainstream source of hydrogen until now

Who would have thought emission free long haul transport would be a reality in our lifetime? Trains excluded, that is... Well. They are about to roll out hydrogen powered trains as well. And ships. But that is for another article.

Meet NEL hydrogen

Formed in 1927, it is one of the children of Norsk Hydro (today, Yara), that pioneered the production of fertilizer using ammonia. Hydrogen of course a crucial component in industrial scale ammonia production.

Image: hydro.com

NEL has delivered electrolyzers around the world ever since. They are considered best in class and tailored for durability and flexibility. This type is mostly used in industrial scale production.

They also make smaller, containerized solutions and after a series of acquisitions after the public listing 2015, fueling stations (H2 logic, Denmark) and PEM type electrolyzers (Proton onsite, USA).

Building for robustness

The US network has scale in mind. Just imagine hundreds of trucks requiring up to 100 Kg at the same day at the same truck stop.

• Nel ASA to provide engineering, electrolysis, and fueling equipment. Nikola will provide the balance of plant, construction, dispensers and other station equipment.
• Hydrogen stations will initially produce up to eight tons daily, but can also be expanded up to 32 tons per day
• Each Nikola truck is anticipated to consume around 50-75 kgs per day
• Each Nikola truck will store between two and three megawatt hours (MWh) of energy
• Each station will have around 4,000 kgs of backup storage for redundancy
• Each station is anticipated to produce hydrogen at 700 bar (10,000 psi) and 350 bar (5,000 psi)
• Nikola will allow all hydrogen vehicles to fill at their stations

Recent developments

This week, the Americans visit Oslo to iron out the first order of stations. The first two are already ordered. These are smaller ones, primarily for testing. The first order seems to be larger than first anticipated. 28 as opposed to 14 that was the original plan. And the total number could be as much as 700 as opposed to 350 originally planned. All according to preliminary announcements.

Watching from the sidelines has never been more nerve wrecking.

The perspective

Putting it in the right perspective can be difficult. But I'll try:

H2 has 39 kWh/kg

32 tones then carries 1 248 mwh of energy per day

Roughly 4-5 times more watt-hours than the tesla gigafactory by my calculations. According to news articles, it is said to produce 75 gwh per year. Or approx 200 mwh/day

That's how large the largest hydrogen fueling station is designed.

https://steemit.com/finance/@funkit/real-world-investments-today-hydrogen

https://steemit.com/economy/@funkit/hydrogen

Sources includes:

https://www.gasworld.com/nel-asa-receives-additional-purchase-order-/2014463.article