Sustainable Aviation—Hydrogen Is the Future

As the global search for new methods to combat global warming and climate change continues, renewable fuels and hydrogen have emerged as saviours for environmentally polluting industries such as aviation. Sustainable aviation is the goal of the aviation industry today. There is increasing interest in achieving carbon-neutral flight to combat global warming. Hydrogen has proven to be a suitable alternative fuel. It is abundant, clean, and produces no carbon emissions, but only water after use, which has the potential to cool the environment. This paper traces the historical growth and future of the aviation and aerospace industry. It examines how hydrogen can be used in the air and on the ground to lower the aviation industry’s impact on the environment. In addition, while aircraft are an essential part of the aviation industry, other support services add to the overall impact on the environment. Hydrogen can be used to fuel the energy needs of these services. However, for hydrogen technology to be accepted and implemented, other issues such as government policy, education, and employability must be addressed. Improvement in the performance and emissions of hydrogen as an alternative energy and fuel has grown in the last decade. However, other issues such as the storage and cost and the entire value chain require significant work for hydrogen to be implemented. The international community’s alternative renewable energy and hydrogen roadmaps can provide a long-term blueprint for developing the alternative energy industry. This will inform the private and public sectors so that the industry can adjust its plan accordingly.

Hydrogen application technologies and environmentally friendly smart energy system

Climate change and fossil fuel depletion are the main reasons for many countries around the world to develop and implement energy transition strategies. Being a very clean burning fuel (generating steam only), hydrogen will play an important role in the transition from fossil energy to CO2-free energy. The paper introduces recent advances of hydrogen technology applied in transportation, industry, and power generation in the world; challenges regarding hydrogen safety and technology; barriers in social perception; and some recommendations for the development of hydrogen technology and environmentally friendly smart energy systems in Vietnam.

Prospects of transition of ferrous metallurgy enterprises of Russia to the use of carbon-free technologies

The intention to preserve a comfort habitat for the mankind finds expression in the attempts to decrease the anthropogenic impact on the environment. A concept “carbon footprint” appeared, which reflects input of some kind of activity to the environment pollution. The desire to influence producers’ behavior and make them decrease their carbon footprint under existing conditions results in elaboration new kinds of taxes and duties, stimulating modernization of technological process and decrease of harmful substances emissions. It is expected that in case of the taxes being implemented by big metal products consumers, such as Western Europe, will result in considerable change of the metal products market. An analysis of various ways of metal producers’ adaptation to operation in conditions of the expected changes presented. It was shown that such organization measures as lobbying of interests and artificial differentiation of business on provisionally “clean” and “dirty” will result in a rather restricted result. Thereupon actuality of a radical modernization of production capacities to decarbonize the technologies of steel production grows. Replacement of the carbon by hydrogen for reducing of iron oxides is the most advanced technological solution. At the same time, the hydrogen metallurgy is not yet implemented anywhere on industrial scale, and the hydrogen application in the production cycle results in a lot of questions, having not yet definite answers. A SWOT-analysis presented, demonstrating advantages and disadvantages of hydrogen technology mastering by metals producers.

Catalyst Distribution Optimization Scheme for Effective Green Hydrogen Production from Biogas Reforming

Green hydrogen technology has recently gained in popularity due to the current economic and ecological trends that aim to remove the fossil fuels share in the energy mix. Among various alternatives, biogas reforming is an attractive choice for hydrogen production. To meet the authorities’ requirements, reforming biogas-enriched natural gas and sole biogas is tempting. Highly effective process conditions of biogas reforming are yet to be designed. The current state of the art lacks proper optimization of the process conditions. The optimization should aim to allow for maximization of the process effectiveness and limitation of the phenomena having an adverse influence on the process itself. One of the issues that should be addressed in optimization is the uniformity of temperature inside a reactor. Here we show an optimization design study that aims to unify temperature distribution by novel arrangements of catalysts segments in the model biogas reforming reactor. The acquired numerical results confirm the possibility of the enhancement of reaction effectiveness, coming from improving the thermal conditions. The used amount of catalytic material is remarkably reduced as a side effect of the presented optimization. To ensure an unhindered perception of the reaction improvement, the authors proposed a ratio of the hydrogen output and the amount of used catalyst as a measure.

Hydrogen Technology towards the Solution of Environment-Friendly New Energy Vehicles

The popularity of climate neutral new energy vehicles for reduced emissions and improved air quality has been raising great attention for many years. World-wide, a strong commitment continues to drive the demand for zero-emission through alternative energy sources and propulsion systems. Despite the fact that 71.27% of hydrogen is produced from natural gas, green hydrogen is a promising clean way to contribute to and maintain a climate neutral ecosystem. Thereby, reaching CO2 targets for 2030 and beyond requires cross-sectoral changes. However, the strong motivation of governments for climate neutrality is challenging many sectors. One of them is the transport sector, as it is challenged to find viable all-in solutions that satisfy social, economic, and sustainable requirements. Currently, the use of new energy vehicles operating on green sustainable hydrogen technologies, such as batteries or fuel cells, has been the focus for reducing the mobility induced emissions. In Europe, 50% of the total emissions result from mobility. The following article reviews the background, ongoing challenges and potentials of new energy vehicles towards the development of an environmentally friendly hydrogen economy. A change management process mindset has been adapted to discuss the key scientific and commercial challenges for a successful transition.

DEVELOPMENT METHOD FOR REQUIREMENT COLLECTIVES OF HYDROGEN REFUELLING STATIONS

In addition to the development and research of battery-driven vehicles, a high research effort in the field of hydrogen technology can currently be observed. Various research and strategy initiatives relating to hydrogen are being initiated and pursued with considerable commitment worldwide. A significant expansion of the hydrogen filling station network is also being sought in Germany. In the course of designing a hydrogen refuelling station, the paradigms of thermal management must be taken into account in addition to a large number of different environmental and life phase-induced influencing factors. The interactions between influencing factors, requirements and the system architecture result in a multitude of possible refuelling station concepts, which can hardly be surveyed or managed from an organisational point of view. This publication introduces a method for the development of descriptive requirement collectives, which is applied to hydrogen refuelling stations in the framework of THEWA, but can also be adapted for other technical systems. The requirement collective is the first core element of the THEWA tool chain that enables a requirement-oriented and fast design of hydrogen refuelling stations.

Progress in practical hydrogen production and utilisation in East Asia

Development of hydrogen utilisation for energy applications has seen promising innovation towards the future prospect of clean and sustainable energy, benefitting various aspects of environmental, social, industrial and energy security. In the APEC region, several economies, such as the USA, China, Australia, Japan and South Korea, have shown interest in the development of hydrogen technology for energy applications. These economies have been devoting effort towards research and development programmes, pilot projects and, up to a certain point, implementing it in their communities. In addition, these economies each have their own tailored hydrogen roadmap or strategy, ensuring a smoother path towards hydrogen development. In this mini-review, we analysed the approaches of three selected economies in the East Asia region towards hydrogen technology, namely China, Japan and South Korea. Each of these economies have their own strategies and priorities towards the application, production and future development of hydrogen technology. This review also analyses the future possibilities for the integration of hydrogen technology into various sectors, as well as various constraints faced by each economy. Therefore, the review might serve as a valuable reference towards the feasibility of future hydrogen technology development in the East Asia and APEC region.

Hydrogen technology and economy: adoption challenges under the shadow of COVID-19

No Abstract.