Delving deep into hydrogen storage and its potential in the market; is it enough to make a difference, or is it just another facade?
Here’s an article from energypost.eu that discusses whether Hydrogen is hype or hope. Let us draw some insights before delving deep into its potential, especially in storage:
- According to a report from Precendence Research, the global hydrogen energy storage market was valued at approximately USD 16.56 billion in 2023.
- Hydrogen is a clean and efficient power source with potential applications in transport, heavy industry, and aviation
- Hydrogen is expensive, making it less suitable for sectors with cheaper green alternatives, such as cars, heating, electricity, and energy storage
While the market has huge potential, there are various challenges that need to be mitigated to ensure it grows even further to achieve decarbonization:
The main technical challenges in storing and transporting hydrogen compared to other fuels are:
- Low energy density: Hydrogen has a much lower energy density than other fuels like gasoline or diesel, requiring larger storage volumes to store the same amount of energy. This makes it challenging for transportation applications that require high energy density.
- High pressure storage: To increase the energy density, hydrogen is typically stored as a compressed gas at high pressures of 350-700 bar. This requires specialized high-pressure storage tanks that are heavy and expensive.
- Cryogenic storage: Alternatively, hydrogen can be stored as a liquid by cooling it to extremely low temperatures of -253°C. This requires complex and costly cryogenic storage equipment and results in boil-off losses over time.
- Embrittlement of storage materials: Hydrogen can cause embrittlement and cracking in high-strength steels commonly used for storage tanks. This poses a safety risk and requires using special materials or coatings to mitigate embrittlement.
- Leakage: Hydrogen molecules are very small and can easily leak through materials and seals that would contain other gases. This requires specialized materials and designs to minimize leakage during storage and transportation.
- Compression energy: Compressing hydrogen to high pressures requires significant amounts of energy, adding to the costs and reducing the efficiency of the storage system.
Despite these challenges, many new innovations either come out or are researched upon, thus giving even more hope to the fact that we are making great progress towards decarbonization.
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