The project talks about the first carrier of liquid organic hydrogen at a commercial level to supply this element at a global level.
With hydrogen once again gaining importance as an alternative to fossil fuels in sectors such as automotive, maritime and rail transport, there are companies that already have the solution to the great challenges involved in the storage and transport of this delicate element.
One of the most interesting projects in this regard comes from Honeywell Technology and its collaboration with the energy giant Eneos. We are talking about what they call the world’s first liquid organic hydrogen carrier or LOHC on a commercial scale.
It is a solution to transport green hydrogen with all the guarantees and safety it needs over long distances, making use of an existing infrastructure. The idea is to be able to supply this clean energy to all the industries that need it and that currently face the problem that they cannot obtain it in the quantity and quality they require.
What Honeywell proposes is a process of combining hydrogen with methylcyclohexane or MCH, a technique called toluene hydrogenation, which requires an exothermic reaction, that is, the release of heat.
With this technique, they can store hydrogen in large vessels.
A safe manoeuvre without high cost overruns that allows storage, for example, in infrastructures located on large ships, which can travel long distances with a huge amount of this element and reach practically any point on the planet.
After arrival at the destination, the mixture requires a dehydrogenation process, which is achieved through an endothermic reaction or heat absorption. This ensures optimal hydrogen recovery. In addition, new cycles can be completed with toluene, which is the carrier liquid.
We are talking about a solution to the supply shortage of hydrogen, a fuel that car manufacturers such as Honda believe will become especially popular in the automotive industry in about 15 years.
But it will also be useful in other sectors such as aviation, which has been testing hydrogen fuel cell propulsion systems for years, with Spain and Airbus fully involved in this development.
Our country also has in its hands what could be the world’s first high-speed hydrogen train, which could work with this element in areas without catenary, instead of diesel locomotives, and also taking advantage of electrical energy when such a system is available.
In addition, there is a project underway that will allow hydrogen to be refuelled in various ports on the Mediterranean coast. Innovations that, in any case, need a global commercial supply to scale in number and become popular.
And that is where the possibility of storage and transport proposed by this project comes into play, a further step that does nothing more than demonstrate the trend of the transport sector in recent years towards decarbonisation, beyond battery electric propulsion.
SOURCE:Â Hibridos y Electricos
Original article in Spanish:Â Â
https://www.hibridosyelectricos.com/coches/esta-empresa-tiene-claves-superar-retos-transporte-hidrogeno-verde-escala-mundial_72956_102.html
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