ABB not keen on ammonia26 Oct 2024 14:16
And they have trialled a 200kw system.
Hydrogen in gaseous form is three times less energy-dense than methane, making it much costlier to transport. While it requires less energy to transport hydrogen if it is first converted to ammonia, this adds environmental risks, and the ammonia will still need to be converted back to hydrogen at its destination. Although hydrogen can be transferred through existing pipeline infrastructure, these connections must be retrofitted if they are to carry a hydrogen blend that exceeds 20%.
ABB’s transportation technology seeks to address these inefficiencies and technical challenges by incorporating containerised, modular automation infrastructure; tank farm automation; and compressor and pumping stations.
It was ABB technology like this that brought Australia’s HESC pilot into reality. Although pipelines are suitable for inland transport of bulk quantities of hydrogen, the trans-oceanic distances involved in HESC require the gas to be converted into a higher density form, such as liquid.
Significant costs can be involved in both this conversion process and the transportation. It is estimated that the cost of converting and moving hydrogen 1500 km by ship comes to US $0.6/kg for liquid organic hydrogen compounds, US$1.20/kg for ammonia and US$2/kg for liquid hydrogen.5 Managing collecting systems and tanking facilities in a safe way also requires specialised technology and deep expertise.
ABB’s support for HESC incorporated electrification and instrumentation solutions, along with services for production and liquefaction in Australia, as well providing automation for the regasification plant at the Japanese end.
Fuelling up
Once transported, hydrogen needs the right systems and processes in place at the consumption end before it can be used effectively. Existing infrastructure such as gas turbines and household appliances can handle a mixture of methane and varying amounts of methane and hydrogen (5% to 30 %, depending on what is used for), and new designs could increase the viable concentration of hydrogen.
Fuel cells are already available in cars and suitable for other transportation systems, and they’re widely used to provide heat and power for critical infrastructure such as hospitals. There is potential, too, for residential scale use, although current costs in this sector are high. ABB’s domain expertise and understanding is doing much to refine the downstream processes that make hydrogen consumption more viable. Hydrogen is a highly flexible form of energy storage, and ABB initiatives have demonstrated how it can be used in small and large projects on water and on land.
ABB is working with Hydrogene de France to build megawatt-scale fuel cell systems suitable for large ocean-going ships, while a 2021 pilot program had fully hydrogen-powered vessels operating in the Rhone River under the EU’s Flagships initiative. For this, ABB provided fue
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