I recently went through one of those go-rounds on a Facebook web site run by a natural gas industry astroturf group spreading disinformation to block New York State’s efforts to get off fossil fuels. Part of this involves no future use of natural gas appliances in homes or elsewhere. (And how ironic is it that the natural gas industry is resorting to gaslighting the public?)
One commenter went through every natural gas talking point like a pro. (He might have been for all I know. Gotta love those natural gas stoves, and those things you can cook on them.) I’ve had too much practice swatting them down. My comments seem to mysteriously disappear at times. Imagine that!
One of the talking points he brought up was the environmental devastation wrought by mining for the materials needed to produce batteries for electric vehicles, including the use of diesel-burning monster dump trucks. (Never mind about the decades of devastation from fossil fuel extraction.)
Funny thing about that last talking point. Shortly thereafter a news story turned up in my Facebook feed, via Autoblog:
Will make green hydrogen via solar-powered electrolysis
Anglo American Plc on Friday unveiled the world’s biggest green-hydrogen powered truck at a platinum mine in northeast South Africa where it aims to replace a fleet of 40 diesel-fueled vehicles that each use about a million liters (264,000 gallons) of the fossil fuel a year.
The NuGen project at the Mogalakwena mine, owned by Anglo American subsidiary Anglo American Platinum Ltd., will use power from a 140 megawatt solar plant to supply hydrogen electrolyzers to split water and provide the trucks, which can carry up 315 tons of ore each, with hydrogen fuel. Engie SA has helped Anglo establish the system.
The project, expected to be fully implemented by 2026, is a first step in making eight of the company’s mines carbon neutral by 2030, according to Julian Soles, head of Technology Development, Mining & Sustainability at Anglo American. The company, which mines metals around the world ranging from iron ore and platinum to copper, has set a target of getting all of its operations to that status by 2040.
It’s not as hard as it might seem to do this. These monster dump trucks are effectively hybrid vehicles. Their wheels are driven by electric motors, powered by a diesel generator. This truck replaces the diesel generator with a hydrogen fuel cell to supply the electricity.
The trucks are equipped with fuel cells that include platinum in their components. Mogalakwena is the world’s biggest open-pit platinum group metals mine.
“It’s a smart step for Anglo American, but it’s a giant leap for South Africa’ s hydrogen economy,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech at the mine to launch the NuGen program. “The hydrogen economy is beckoning us.”
Anglo and its global mining peers are under increasing pressure to cut greenhouse-gas emissions and improve their environmental performance. The company last year spun off its South African thermal coal assets, while rivals such as Glencore Plc have pledged to reduce their emissions.
In a related development, Business Insider reports on another monster dump truck that’s entirely battery-powered — and under certain circumstances it can actually produce more power than it uses.
...Fully loaded, it can transport 65 tons of mined rock downhill from the mountain. As it descends, its regenerative braking generates electricity.
Because it's unloaded at the bottom, and then drives back up the hill weighing less than the downhill run, the eDumper uses less electricity than it produces, according to the researchers behind the project...
...The eDumper is expected to move some 300,000 tons of rock every year for the next decade. The researchers estimate that will save "up to 1,300 tons of CO2 and 500,000 liters of diesel " over 10 years.
The emphasis on zero-emission vehicles is all about battery-powered vehicles it seems, but hydrogen is a contender as well. The big problem with hydrogen power is A) producing it by means that don’t involve the release of greenhouse gases, and B) the infrastructure needed to distribute it.
Putting up electrical outlets everywhere to charge batteries seems so much easier — until you factor in things like beefing up the grid to handle the demand for power, the environmental costs of extracting the minerals needed for batteries, the weight penalty carrying a battery around imposes, and the range/time needed to recharge issue.
The Department of Energy announced $52.5 million in hydrogen projects back in July 2021 to advance the technology. It’s quite a list. More recently via Bloomberg, the US has committed up to $504.4 million in debt financing for a hydrogen hub in Utah.
The U.S. is backing a project to create the world’s largest hydrogen production and storage facility in Utah in a push to bring the clean-burning fuel into the mainstream.
The Energy Department issued a conditional commitment for up to $504.4 million in debt financing for a hydrogen hub planned for Delta, Utah that is designed to convert renewable energy into hydrogen, according to a statement Tuesday. Developers of the Advanced Clean Energy Storage Project, which is expected to start operating in 2025, include Mitsubishi Power Americas Inc. and Magnum Development LLC.
...The project is expected to feature 220 megawatts of electrolyzers -- machines that split hydrogen from water -- powered by wind and solar energy and storage caverns that will initially be able to hold 9 million barrels of hydrogen, Michael Ducker, Mitsubishi Power’s head of hydrogen infrastructure, said in a phone interview. That will add to the global storage capacity of 11 million to 13 million barrels, he said.
The project will initially provide more than 300 gigawatt-hours of clean energy to the region each year. That means excess solar and wind power produced in spring could be stored to help meet the peak daily demand of a typical summer week, when supply tends to be constrained.
That last point is rather pertinent, as one of the standard talking points being tossed out by fossil fuel fanatics was that wind and solar are intermittent and can’t be relied on to meet demand. This addresses it directly — and doesn’t have to use resource-intensive battery farms to do so.
Just for fun, here’s a CGI concept video from Hyundai showing off some potential hydrogen powered vehicles, from all-terrain H2 delivery trucks to personal cars to autonomous long-haul trucks.
Hyundai said on Tuesday it plans to offer hydrogen fuel cell versions for all its commercial vehicles by 2028 and will cut the price of fuel cell vehicles to battery electric levels two years later. The group, which comprises Hyundai Motor Co and Kia Corp, currently has one fuel cell bus and one fuel cell truck, the Xcient Hyundai, on the market. There are 115 of the buses on the road in South Korea and 45 of the trucks in operation after they were rolled out in Switzerland last year. "The goal is to make hydrogen readily used for everyone, everything, and everywhere. We want to offer practical solutions for the sustainable development of humanity and with these breakthroughs, we aim to help foster a worldwide Hydrogen Society by 2040.” Said Hyundai Group Chairman Euisun Chung.
https://youtu.be/9kCKyzfn8j8 (This link should go right to the video — it’s not embedding for some reason.