More info on Hydrogen

Hydrogen stations are popping up everywhere in Europe (see our map) and will continue to achieve the goal of having one every 150km. But how does a hydrogen station work exactly? Today, I have a discussion with Simon Keusching, global Key Account Manager for Dover Fueling Solutions® (DFS), focusing on hydrogen solutions. DFS has experience of more than 130 years in the fuel and convenience retail industry and officially launched the DFS Hydrogen dispenser in 2022.

Today, I had an interesting discussion with Nick Swift, Founder of Hydrogen Afloat, a 2-year-old company that is offering hydrogen power solutions for boats.

Maritime transport is a growing source of CO2 emissions over the past 30 years, causing significant concern. This growth is mainly due to a record increase in traffic (number of passengers and freight volume) and the use of older, increasingly large ships.‍Powered by heavy fuel oil, one of the world's dirtiest fuels, merchant ships are also blamed for their role in marine pollution caused by plastic and hydrocarbon discharge.

While overall greenhouse gas emissions in the EU are decreasing, CO2 emissions from heavy-duty vehicles have been increasing every year since 2014, only decreasing in 2020 during the pandemic. The improvement in truck energy efficiency, made possible by the emergence of new fuels and technologies, is not enough to offset the increase in emissions due to the growing demand for freight transport.

Air transport is the second largest source of CO2 emissions in transportation after road transport. Indeed, in the space of 30 years, technical advancements have enabled the sector to halve emissions per passenger per kilometer. However, this is insufficient to counterbalance the increase in emissions due to the rise in air traffic.

The European Union is currently defining the regulatory framework to create a new clean Hydrogen economy in Europe. Since 2020, the European Commission proposed many ambitious measures to support Renewable Hydrogen. Indeed, true renewable hydrogen (produced through electrolysis only with renewable electricity) is identified as one of the key lever to achieve European goals in terms of CO2 reduction. And the challenge is big : the EU even increased the target of renewables in our energy mix from 32% to 43%, because we need to act for climate.