May 13, 2024, By: Bill Zielke – When we first started working on hydrogen, not many people were talking about it. Today, using hydrogen to increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions is one of the hottest topics out there right alongside AI. Before I get into some of the specifics of why hydrogen is hard, I’d like to offer our perspective on why this is such a hot topic today. Increased fuel efficiency can save some companies billions of dollars a year, and reduced emissions accomplishes a long list of things that also impact the corporate balance sheet – that’s the more obvious aspect.
The less obvious point is that while electric is the future for many things, we are at least ten years away from battery technology that will help people more fully realize the promise of electric. Because of that – hydrogen becomes a key bridge to the transition from fossil fuel to electric.
So, what’s so hard about this? Put another way, why hasn’t anyone until now, emerged as the true leader in this bridge technology. It’s hard because so many different things matter in successfully delivering on value:
- Dosage. Adding just a little too much or too little hydrogen into the engine can have a substantial impact on results. Getting it right requires extensive experimentation and testing.
- Hydrogen tanks are a bad idea. A hydrogen fueled engine was developed by GM Research, Daimler Benz Research, Ballard Fuel Cells, and AC Delco Advanced Engineering. It worked great. The problem was lack of infrastructure to refill cars with hydrogen. We support an on-board device to produce micro-doses of Hydrogen from an easily refill-able water reservoir, thus not requiring refueling a hydrogen tank.
- Pressure. At the highest level, people often talk about high pressure and low-pressure hydrogen as it relates to adding value in this arena. We utilize low pressure, by the specific pressure is also crucial and very much intertwined with several of these other aspects.
- Temperature. Operating a large, fixed location engine in an oil field that’s in sub-freezing temperatures is very different from a big rig truck engine operating in area of very high heat. Understanding just how impactful this can be on results is key to not only understanding performance, but also for setting expectations when talking with a prospective customer.
- Load. For many different types of on road and off-road vehicles, the weight the engine is moving can be highly variable. A mining truck fully loaded with rocks or coal, will operate differently than when it is empty, and this is crucial again for both testing, as well as expectation setting.
- Engine size (this is not the same as dosage). A CAT 13 engine is much larger than D11R tractor, which is very different from a Peterbilt MX-13. Just like engines, a hydrogen solution is not one size-fits-all, so to have offerings in any engine type, be it on road, off road, fixed location, or other, requires extensive testing across all of these disciplines.
- How the hydrogen is injected. Many companies just blow hydrogen into the air intake. We have found this does not ensure accurate mixture in the cylinder. Some of our patents highlight how our approach is different, and we believe how hydrogen is injected is a critical differentiator for us.
- Timing. If the hydrogen is injected too soon, it can quickly dissipate and have little or no impact on efficiency or emissions. Injection at precisely the right time is also an aspect covered in our patent portfolio.
- Regulations. There is a vast array of regulations related to emissions, and those can vary significantly by geography. For instance, in some locations, an engine has to be retired as “end of useful life” because it is known that at that time, emissions have worsened such that it is no longer compliant and must be retired. By adding our technology, a retired engine can return to service in what some call “zombie” engines which can have a substantial impact on a balance sheet – but you need to know what the rule is and where benefit can be realized.
- Warranties. Certain modifications to engines, such as attaching a hydrolyzer to the outside of a Peterbilt MX-13, if done incorrectly can invalidate the engine’s warranty whereas doing it correctly benefits from federal protection of warranty if the device has proven to do no harm. Doing this incorrectly could be a large risk for anyone unfamiliar with the topic.
- Measurement of results. While exhaustive testing of a solution prior to go-to-market is key, there has to be a regular, real-time measurement of results in the field for a customer to know exactly which benefits they are receiving relative to what they purchased, and there should be a service level agreement in place for this.
- Nozzle. Over the years we have learned that in addition to the dosage, the nozzle that actually delivers the hydrogen can vary widely, and we have experimented with a wide range of nozzles over the years and landed on what we have found to be best of breed.
- The type of emissions (Nitrous Oxides, Hydrocarbons, Carbon Dioxide, etc.). Different industries pay different fees and fines related to different emissions. Being very specific in a service level about the specific emissions and volume/impact makes a very big difference in being clear about the value delivered. Some of our Board members are involved with Aviation Partners, the company that commercialized the curved airplane wingtips known as Winglets. As of a few years ago, they had already saved over 10 billion gallons of fuel and eliminated over 105 million tons of carbon dioxide because they know carbon dioxide is a critical emission in commercial aviation. It varies by industry, and we will work with customers to focus on what matters most to them.
That’s a quick overview of the subject, but at the end of the day, this is a very complicated arena, and we are very excited to have successfully navigated it to be in a position to deliver great value to customers.
The title of this post is “Why Hydrogen is/was hard” because it was hard for us before we got through it, and it is and will be hard for people who are working on anything similar.