Full Speed Ahead
Outlook for Hydrogen Transport
The adoption of hydrogen solutions in transport is opening new horizons for the global economy — and Russia has something to offer the world on this path.
Hydrogen on Wheels
In 1806, French engineer François Isaac de Rivaz created the first internal combustion engine powered by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen. A year later, he installed his invention in a car and even drove it for some distance.
Attempts to use hydrogen as a fuel in transport continued throughout the 20th century. In 1966, General Motors unveiled the Electrovan, the first hydrogen fuel cell car in history. It was equipped with hydrogen storage tanks and could travel up to 193 km on a single tank. However, it never progressed beyond the demonstration stage.
The first practical steps towards the mass distribution of hydrogen power plants were only taken at the end of the 20th century, when the global community became finally concerned about the environmental aspects of industrial production and everyday human life.
Scientists and engineers pursued two approaches. The first involved vehicles powered by hydrogen-fuelled internal combustion engines (ICE). These engines used special injectors, improved ignition systems (due to the wide ignition range of hydrogen itself) and other technical modifications. Still, the design was similar to a petrol or gas engine: the same cylinders, pistons, crankshaft, etc. The advantage was the relative ease of embedding based on existing technologies.
The second path was a fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV). Hydrogen from the fuel tank is fed into the fuel cell, where it undergoes an electrochemical reaction with oxygen from the air. This reaction releases free electrons, which generate an electric current. Electricity from the fuel cell goes directly to the electric motor and also charges a buffer battery, which provides a stable power supply and stores energy generated during braking. The only exhaust gas from such a car is water vapour. Another benefit of FCEVs is their efficiency, which exceeds 55%: even the best turbocharged diesel engines rarely reach 50%.
Multiple design and other limitations inherent in internal combustion engines have been inherited by hydrogen ICEs. That is why FCEV technology has become much more common today. As for traditional electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles require smaller and less powerful batteries than the former, moreover, FCEVs do not need to be charged from a power outlet. With the appropriate infrastructure in place, refueling for FCEVs is as quick as for petrol cars.
Business Vector
The further development of hydrogen technologies has led to their appropriation by other types of transport. For instance, hydrogen powers:
- passenger cars: Toyota Mirai, Hyundai Nexo, Honda Clarity, BMW iX5 Hydrogen;
- buses: Solaris Urbino, Neoplan Cityliner, Busico (Russia);
- trucks: Hyundai Xcient Fuel Cell, Nikola Tre, KamAZ hydrogen truck;
- trains: Alstom Coradia iLint (Germany), Strela Kedr project (Transmashholding, Russia);
- marine vessels: boats and ferries tested in Norway, Denmark, China;
- aircraft: HyFlyer prototype, ZEROe program from Airbus.
Hydrogen power plant technologies vary slightly depending on the type of transport, but most of them mainly use PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell, i.e. polymer electrolyte membranes).
The greatest prospects for the use of hydrogen technologies are observed in the commercial transport sector. According to statista.com data for 2022, buses and trucks emit approximately a quarter of all transport-related CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. The transition to hydrogen could significantly reduce this share. The introduction of electric vehicles in this sector would have the same effect, but hydrogen is more economical: the range figures without refuelling for hydrogen-powered trucks and buses are significantly higher than those for electric cars. The same applies to charging speed, which is a critical parameter in the commercial traffic, as long downtimes lead to lower transport margins.
The introduction of hydrogen technologies in commercial transport could spur the development of the transport industry as a whole. Large-scale hydrogen production infrastructure is becoming economically viable precisely because of demand from the commercial sector. This entails the construction of distribution infrastructure. Fortunately, this will require less investment than the building of conventional petrol stations: the network of hydrogen refuelling stations for commercial transport does not need to be as dense as for passenger cars. Buses, trucks and lorries tend to travel along the same routes, and there is simply no need to build filling stations on every local road. This makes infrastructure construction much less expensive and investments more quickly recouped.
Efficiecy Made in Russia
In addition to a noticeable reduction in harmful emissions, the widespread introduction of hydrogen transport also has other positive consequences. A whole new industry comes into being, i.e. the production and maintenance of hydrogen vehicles: the manufacture of membranes, fuel cells, cryogenic equipment, and so on. This is particularly important for Russia, as the country has the largest reserves of natural gas and is capable of producing hydrogen through steam reforming of methane, creating a new high-value export product. There are some achievements in this area so far, for example, a hydrogen power plant from Astra (part of the H2 Invest group) is already in operation.
One of the key advantages of this plant is its modularity. 100 kW devices can be combined for specific tasks, allowing Astra to be used not only in the passenger transport, but also in trucks, trains, watercraft and even aircraft.
Astra is manufactured primarily from Russian materials. Therefore, the target cost of the power plant when scaling up production is significantly lower than that of its counterparts, which use foreign components extensively.
Astra also takes into account the climatic realities of Russia. The plant operates stably at low temperatures, and its estimated service life exceeds 20,000 hours without major repairs. Not all (not even many) of the competitors of the Russian system can boast such a performance.
Overall, Astra demonstrates serious potential, giving Russia a chance to take a leading position in the area of environmentally friendly solutions for hydrogen transport. The gradual spread of such technologies will lead to an improvement in the country’s environmental situation and economic stability by increasing its logistical capabilities, energy and technological independence.
