2022年10月31日

推动氢革命

4 min read

随着气候变化和全球变暖日益紧迫, the latest episode of the 零压力 podcast discusses how hydrogen as a clean energy could help the world end its damaging dependence on fossil fuels for transport, 供热和工业生产.

“Hydrogen has an absolutely critical part to play in the move of the planet towards net-zero carbon emissions,汽车业高管兼工程师安迪·帕尔默博士说, 海伦·沙曼“零压力”播客的最新嘉宾.

That may be news to those who believe that electric vehicles (EVs) and electric power are the future, 但帕默知道他在说什么, 从电气化和氢的角度来看.

As a leading figure in the automotive industry for more than 40 years, he has been described as “the grandfather of EVs” due to his role in the creation of the Nissan Leaf, perhaps the most prominent example of the first generation of electric cars. 他还领导了日产的氢燃料汽车团队, during which time the company collaborated with Mercedes Benz and Ford on a hydrogen fuel cell project.

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成本和清洁生产的挑战

Andy Palmer tells Helen Sharman that the main barriers at present to hydrogen becoming more widely adopted are the twin challenges of producing hydrogen in a clean enough way, 以及这样做的成本.

“我们需要创造干净, 所谓的不含二氧化碳的“绿色”氢, 不仅仅是石油和天然气的“灰色”副产品,” he says, referring to two of the three types of hydrogen (the other being ‘blue’ hydrogen that has been scrubbed clean of carbon dioxide). 但绿色氢只占氢产量的1%, 这阻碍了氢, 以及燃料电池技术的成本.”

尽管如此, 凭借他在汽车行业的长期经验, Palmer is confident about the place of hydrogen as a pillar of the new, 无化石燃料运输系统, 即使它可能没有电气化那么突出.

“Light vehicles will be EVs but I think the bigger and heavier vehicles such as heavy trucks will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells and hot hydrogen, 由于电池效率低下. We can also use internal combustion engines for the most part to combust hydrogen and oxygen, 这将减少资本支出。.”

Palmer sees the latter as a bridging technology until fuel-cell technology becomes scalable, and thus provides the volume of demand that makes it affordable for the mass market. He mentions how this has been happening with electric vehicles in recent years, especially in countries such as Norway that have offered incentives in the form of subsidies that skew the market in favour of this cleaner technology. 在推广氢能源方面，这能给其他国家一个教训吗?

一个技术网络，而不是单一的解决方案

Heating, 工业能源, new feedstock uses and power generation are all possible areas where hydrogen can replace fossil fuels. However, Palmer says the supportive political and regulatory landscapes are not there yet, not least because regulation tends to follow technological development and hydrogen is still a nascent technology.

如果他有一个整体的信息, though, 无论是交通运输还是氢的广泛使用, 安迪·帕尔默说:“我们不能把所有希望都寄托在一项技术上. 对任何技术来说，总会有无人注意的后果, 所以让科学家和工程师去创新吧, 让‘达尔文主义’发挥作用”, he says, so that they can come up with the best answers through trial and error of a network of different technologies rather than focusing on a single solution.

But, above all, whichever way hydrogen ends up being part of our future energy needs, Palmer says that it’s a problem that we must start solving right away, 而不是留给我们的子孙后代.

“现在这是我们的问题了，”他说. “Maybe that’s good because it’s this generation that needs to do something about it.”

“如果我是世界之王”, 我不会去看遥远的2050年或2070年, 但时间范围是2025/2030年. 重要的是工作, 它的科学家, its politicians and its engineers dedicate their capabilities and intellectual properties towards changing the way we use energy. We’ve got to save the planet because we live here and we don’t have any alternative.”