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The global green hydrogen industry has left a trail of slowed, stalled and abandoned ventures in its wake, but new ones keep popping up as the quest for alternatives to fossil-sourced hydrogen continues. The latest development concerns the Trina Green Hydrogen branch of the leading Chinese solar manufacturer, Trinasolar, which has just set a record for its new electrolyzer.
Trinasolar Launches Self Into Green Hydrogen Market
Trinasolar has already been putting its ONE series electrolyzers to use in China, and last fall it showcased them in Australia for the first time, at the All Energy 2024 clean energy event in Melbourne.
“Trina Green Hydrogen’s electrolyzers are key to the company’s integrated “PV-Storage-Hydrogen” solution, which aligns photovoltaic power generation and energy storage systems with hydrogen production to ensure optimal performance and reduce the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE),” Trinasolar explained.
“This full-suite approach ensures that hydrogen production is not only green but also economically competitive in industrial applications,” they added, with the emphasis on “industrial.” Although green hydrogen has gotten plenty of buzz as an input for fuel cell electric vehicles, the US clean energy think tank RMI is among the industry analysts that have been urging stakeholders to focus on high-impact industrial applications instead.
Trump Swings, Whiffs On Global Business Opportunity
In its most recent report on the topic, RMI indicated that the EU could meet its near-term clean hydrogen goals by de-prioritizing low-impact projects including heat for buildings as well as fuel for fuel cell vehicles, and focus investor dollars on industries like fertilizer. Even so, RMI indicated that the EU will fall short unless it supplements EU-produced green hydrogen with imported supplies.
That could be a ripe opportunity for US exporters, if they can figure out how to make a go of it despite the abrupt shift in US energy policy under President Trump. Among other federal clean energy programs damaged, ditched, or destroyed entirely since January 20 is the $7 billion Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program, funded by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Meanwhile, other stakeholders around the world are eager to take advantage of the growing demand for green hydrogen, and Trinasolar is one of them. Trina Green Hydrogen has already scaled up one electrolyzer production facility in China to 1 gigawatt, and that’s just for starters. “The company will soon commission a second production base in Yangzhou, China, which will increase its manufacturing capacity to 2.5GW, enabling it to produce up to 500 electrolyzers per year, reinforcing Trinasolar’s ability to meet growing global demand for clean hydrogen,” Trinasolar noted.
Trina Green Hydrogen Banks On Alkaline Electrolyzers To Cut Costs
Despite a downward trend in costs as the market matures, green hydrogen is still a new industry, and it is more expensive than hydrogen is extracted from natural gas or coal. One factor is the cost of electrolyzers, which push hydrogen gas from water with an electrical current and assist from a catalyst.
Reducing electrolyzer costs while improving efficiency has been a tough nut to crack. PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) electrolyzers are highly efficient but expensive. Alkaline electrolyzers are less expensive but also less efficient.
Trina Green Hydrogen is among the stakeholders focusing on improving alkaline electrolyzer efficiency while keeping costs down. The news organization Hydrogen Insight got the latest scoop on that effort. “Chinese manufacturer Trina Green Hydrogen is claiming a new record for Chinese alkaline electrolyser stack efficiency with its new second-generation machine — as the company prepares for international expansion,” reported HI editor Leigh Collins on April 11.
“Third-party testing showed that the electrolyser is able to generate one normal cubic metre (Nm3) of hydrogen from just 3.898kWh — the equivalent to 43.34kWh/kg of H2,” Collins wrote. “By way of comparison, its first-generation machine had an efficiency of 4.2-4.3kWh/Nm3 or 46.7-47.8kWh/kgH2.”
The Alkaline Difference
If you know what that means in plain language, drop a note in the comment thread. The point is that alkaline stakeholders are on track to continue improving the technology. Here in the US, for example, the startup Avium has been working on an advanced system aimed at meeting — or beating — the 2 A/cm2 at ≤1.7 V performance goal for alkaline electrolysis systems established by the Department of Energy.
Last year the Energy Department awarded $5 million to Avium, which spun out of research at the University of Kansas and continues an ongoing collaboration with the school.
“The DOE funding will accelerate the commercialization of robust and reliable alkaline electrolyzers by combining Avium’s proven low-cost, high-efficiency catalysts with stacks designed to handle Avium’s higher hydrogen production rates,” Avium explained.
“Avium’s catalysts and coatings allow alkaline water electrolyzers to outperform other hydrogen production technologies over the long run by regenerating catalysts in the field to maintain high performance over an extended stack lifetime and by enabling direct connection to variable renewable resources,” they elaborated.
In addition to the University of Kansas, Avium’s collaborators on the project areTeledyne Energy Systems, Urban TEC, and the apprenticeship and technical facility Dwayne Peaslee Technical Training Center, and Urban TEC, and the energy infrastructure firm Tallgrass.
As further evidence of the “takes a village” approach to supporting innovative energy technologies, Avium received early funding through the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Defense, and the Energy Department.
More Green Hydrogen Is Coming For Your Fossil Fuels
The village-taking has been cut down to the bone under the Trump administration, but that won’t stop investors from putting up stakes elsewhere.
France and Egypt, for example, have just greenlighted a new $7.6 billion hydrogen project, aimed at deploying green hydrogen to produce green ammonia beginning with an initial output of 300,000 tonnes (about 330,693 US tons) annually. Power to run the electrolyzers will come from nearby wind and solar farms. When fully built out, the complex will produce up to 1 million tonnes yearly.
“It will be financed and built by a private sector consortium led by French utility EDF and UAE-based Zero Waste, in partnership with the General Authority for the Red Sea Ports and the New and Renewable Energy Authority,” Arab News reported last week.
As for who’s gonna pay for all that stuff, the global shipping industry is already eyeballing green ammonia fuel to reduce its carbon footprint.
In fact, the International Maritime Organization met just last week to nail down an agreement that involves all United Nations members in a fee schedule to enforce a net zero shipping goal. The fees will help fund R&D work on clean shipping fuels.
Oh, wait, hold the phone. Not all members. In a move that shocked no-one, the US reportedly pulled itself out of the IMO emissions talks before the agreement was reached. Well, reached it was, US or not.
It’s possible that US cargo fleet owners can reduce or avoid their fees altogether by opting to abide by the IMO emissions threshhold, but it would be nice if their efforts were recognized and supported by their own government.
Image (cropped): The leading Chinese solar manufacturer Trinasolar is expanding into the green hydrogen field with a focus on low cost alkaline electrolyzer technology (courtesy of Trinasolar).
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