New tech clears the way for bulk hydrogen transport

A strategic business alliance has formed to promote and develop a new method of transporting hydrogen. And it's a method that could bring to fruition the long-held hope for a cleaner, hydrogen-powered society, including the wide-spread adoption of fuel-cell vehicles.

A German company named Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies plans to commercialise its Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC) technology for hydrogen logistics. And the new business partners have announced they will collectively invest €17 million in the company.

The LOHC concept involves binding hydrogen to an oil 'carrier' for safe and easy handling during transport. This catalytic reaction, hydrogenation, demands 8kWh of electricity for each kilogram of hydrogen bonded to the carrier. That's roughly the same power usage as four large fridges. One kilogram of hydrogen (120-142MJ/kg) contains around as much energy as 3kg of petrol (45MJ/kg).

LOHC – known also by its chemical name dibenzyltoluene – can be stored in a liquid state for months on end without the hydrogen atoms sneaking off into the atmosphere. Every cubic metre of LOHC contains 57kg of hydrogen. At the end of the supply chain an endothermic (heat absorption) process liberates the hydrogen from the LOHC. This dehydrogenation process costs 11kWh in power.

The company anticipates that the LOHC can be produced in regions with ready access to renewable energy sources – which would include countries like Australia – for transport to other parts of the world where clean energy is in demand.

Until now, hydrogen has been the enfant terrible of fluids. It leaks readily from containers and is highly flammable. A further logistical concern is the energy expenditure to produce it in the first place. Yet the benefits hydrogen promises are not outweighed by the technical difficulties, as numerous projects to bring fuel-cell vehicles to market have revealed.

The work done by Hydrogenious LOHC since 2013 at least addresses the transport issue, and reliable transport addresses half the production challenge if the gas is transported in a liquid state from an area with the abundant renewable resources to trap the hydrogen in the LOHC.

"Asian countries have recognised hydrogen as a valuable energy carrier and the LOHC technology is expected to provide an economical viable solution that is ideal for storing large volumes of hydrogen in densely populated urban areas as well as distributing it over long distances. We expect that LOHC will play an important role in Asian energy market in the future," said Junya Nagase, GM for Precious Metals, Mineral Resources Trading Division, Mitsubishi Corporation.

Along with Mitsubishi Corporation, the other companies investing in Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies are: Royal Vopak, Covestro and AP Ventures. Each of the investors brings something more to the table than just money. Royal Vopak promotes itself as "the world's leading independent tank storage company" and operates right throughout the world, including a terminal in Sydney's Botany Bay.

Covestro supplies "premium polymers" to industry and foresees clean-energy gains from hydrogen... gains that can be applied to the chemical industry.

AP Ventures, a UK-based company that began investing in Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies as long ago as 2014, is a venture capital firm specialising in new technologies dependent on platinum group metals (PGMs). PGMs have a role to play in renewable energy, electronics, healthcare and, of course, fuel-cell stacks for vehicles.

“We warmly welcome our new investors and are very excited to work with them as strategic partners who share our vision of a LOHC-based worldwide hydrogen infrastructure," said Daniel Teichmann, CEO of Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies.

“With these investments, our company will be strengthening our international industrial base, using the funding to bring additional projects to market.”

Australia's own CSIRO has already invented its own process, which is intended for use throughout Australia in remote locations. So the race to achieve a breakthrough in hydrogen transport and logistics is on – but who will be the winner?

Pictures show Hydrogenious LOHC 'ReleaseBOX' in operation at Erlangen, Germany and in transit to the USA, plus the Toyota Mirai fuel-cell vehicle.