[ storage & transport ]
It also enables the transportation of hydrogen through water pipelines , which are 3 – 5 times cheaper than gas pipelines usually used to transport gaseous hydrogen ( compressed at 40 – 100 bar ). Such pipelines do not require complex maintenance and monitoring as a leakage does not pose any environmental risks as seen in other technologies .
Last but not least , formate and bicarbonate salts and aqueous solutions offer a much cheaper and safer alternative to ammonia for long-distance ship transportation .
Ammonia involves huge energy waste throughout the entire process , from the conversion ( Huber- Bosch process for converting hydrogen to ammonia ), through the transportation itself , which is done in a liquified form at -33 ° C , down to the cracking ( from ammonia back to hydrogen ). All in all , this results in an energy waste of at least 34 %, and up to 60 % as mentioned in a recent report by the International Renewable Energy Agency ( IRENA ).
Ammonia requires special and expensive ships with specific equipment . The typical ammonia ship has a capacity of 20,000 – 30,000 m 3 . The largest
ships are planned to be 80,000 m 3 , much smaller than typical 300,000 m 3 oil tankers .
Ammonia is inherently extremely dangerous . To mitigate the risk and make ammonia relatively safe , huge CapEx investments are necessary , including very expensive and special tanks , as well as heavy and complex equipment . Some phases of the process ( especially the cracking part ) are relatively young and not yet mature technologies .
Hydro X liquid ( based on formate and bicarbonate solution ) allows the use of completely standard ships ( including oil tankers , very large dedicated ships , or a small space on a large ship ), very cheap tanks , and affordable equipment to store and transport hydrogen by oceans , at unparalleled energy efficiency .
Despite a weight density resulting in the transportation of significantly more weight than ammonia for the same quantity of hydrogen , formate salt ( e . g ., potassium ) is almost four times cheaper OpEx-wise ( including ship transportation costs ) and more than four times cheaper CapEx-wise compared to ammonia , which is currently considered the leading technology for
22 Hydrogen Tech World | Issue 11 | August 2023