Some recent news:
- World’s first green hydrogen AI data centre to be built in Canterbury, NZ with an intended $2bn first-phase investment. Check out an article here (transporttalk 7 Oct 2024) and a press release from the NZ energy company North Rakaia Ltd here (Scoop 6 October 2024)
- Rewiring Aotearoa has released their ‘Electric Homes‘ report on the potential benefits, financial and otherwise, of electrifying New Zealand vehicles and homes. You can read the report here and the related recent Newsroom article here (28 August 2024)
- EY have an interesting article about ‘Six ways that governments can drive the green transition’ that you can read here (13 May 2022)
- The EU has approved up to €1.4 billion in public funding specifically for mobility and transport applications of hydrogen through a new project “IPCEI Hy2Move” (Press release 28 May 2024)
- The NZ Climate Change Commission has released the 2023 advice for the Government’s second emission reduction plan covering 2026 – 2030 (12 December 2023)
- “Channel Infrastructure (CHI) and Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) have announced that they will progress further investigation into the development of a green hydrogen manufacturing facility at Marsden Point to produce synthetic Sustainable Aviation Fuel (eSAF) that could supply c.60 million litres of eSAF per year – equivalent to more than 3 per cent of the pre-Covid annual jet fuel requirements for the aviation sector in New Zealand.” (Fortescue 7 July 2023), emphasis added.
eSAF can be produced from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide; BP have a helpful article here. - IEA has released their Global Hydrogen Review 2023 (September 2023)
- The New Zealand Hydrogen Aviation Consortium has released a report (available from their website) ‘Launching Green Hydrogen Powered Aviation in Aotearoa New Zealand’ which includes a foreword from Prof Sally Brooker (and notes one of her affiliations as He Honoka Hauwai – German-NZ Green Hydrogen Centre) (September 2023)
- New Zealand’s Interim Hydrogen Roadmap has been released for consultation, you can find the roadmap document and provide feedback here (9 August 2023).
- CNBC have produced an excellent video with an overview of and update on hydrogen powered aviation and some of the companies leading the charge (CNBC 11 May 2023)
- Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand has published an article about HWR‘s new dual-fuel hydrogen truck, the first of its kind in Australasia, which can combust hydrogen along with the diesel for up to a 40% reduction in emissions. Sally (who was invited to the launch by HWR) contributed talking about the production and use of green hydrogen in NZ. Check out the article and all the nice pics (Transporting News May 2023), and have a read of the other articles (Stuff 31 March, ODT 1 April 2023)
- Dr Linda Wright, CE of the NZ H2 Council and a team member on the H2 storage materials grant, contributed to a recent article about the role hydrogen may play in decarbonisation (Newsroom 17 April 2023)
- Bspkl, GNS Science’s first spin-out company, has raised $2.5m in seed funding to develop and scale up their Catalyst Coated Membrane (CCM) technology. CCM significantly reduces the amount of catalyst (eg Platinum) required for electrolysers to generate hydrogen, and Bspkl have plans to expand this tech to related systems such as fuel cells (NBR and GNS 3 April 2023)
- Fabrum has received an order from Obayashi Corporation for a 1 MW MFE220 electrolyser, Fabrum’s first order under their manufacturing agreement with CPH2, with delivery expected in a bit over a year (CPH2 27 Mar 2023)
Follow one of the links below for more information on that subject:
Green hydrogen production – electrolysers
Green hydrogen use as an industrial chemical
Green hydrogen use for heating/cooking
Green hydrogen use for transport
Government policy & international reports
Renewable electricity in New Zealand
CO2 reduction efforts
- IPCC released their ‘AR6 Synthesis report: Climate Change 2023’ (March 2023). A few of the key statements in this report include:
“B.6 All global modelled pathways that limit warming to 1.5°C (>50%) with no or limited overshoot, and those that limit warming to 2°C (>67%), involve rapid and deep and, in most cases, immediate greenhouse gas emissions reductions in all sectors this decade. Global net zero CO2 emissions are reached for these pathway categories, in the early 2050s and around the early 2070s, respectively. (high confidence)
C.1 Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health (very high confidence). There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all (very high confidence). Climate resilient development integrates adaptation and mitigation to advance sustainable development for all, and is enabled by increased international cooperation including improved access to adequate financial resources, particularly for vulnerable regions, sectors and groups, and inclusive governance and coordinated policies (high confidence). The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years (high confidence).
C.3 Rapid and far-reaching transitions across all sectors and systems are necessary to achieve deep and sustained emissions reductions and secure a liveable and sustainable future for all. These system transitions involve a significant upscaling of a wide portfolio of mitigation and adaptation options. Feasible, effective, and low-cost options for mitigation and adaptation are already available, with differences across systems and regions. (high confidence)”
- IPCC 6th report on climate change mitigation (4Apr2022)
Direct air capture (DAC) of CO2
- examples of plants and potential for e-fuels (Reuters 22Mar2022)
CO2 removal (CDR)
- current CDR plants (the Conversation, 6Apr2022)
- researchers focused on developing CDR materials (SydneyUni 18Mar2022)
E-fuel / synfuel production
- Porsche investing USD75 million in HIF Global LLC, initiated the e-fuels Hau Oni pilot plant in Chile, with implementation with partners Siemens Energy and ExxonMobil, which will make e-fuels from CO2 and H2 driven by wind energy, with production starting mid-2022 (6Apr2022)
- ExxonMobil has a website on Methanol to Gasoline, with some interesting information about the process. It’s likely that we’ll need synthetic fuels for those niche cases where high volumetric and gravimetric energy density is a requirement, like long-haul flights. If we can produce these fuels using green methanol (bio-sourced, or from reacting green hydrogen with captured CO2) then we can get closer to net-zero carbon transport.
