Trucking with Emissions-free Hydrogen, Made from Waste

AI Quick Summary

We are focused on converting mixed plastic waste into emissions-free hydrogen for truck fuel, reducing carbon emissions, pollution, and reliance on imported hydrogen. Our technology breaks down hydrocarbons to recover contained hydrogen, along with recovered Carbon Black as a by-product. Problem:According to the Swiss Climate Strategy report, Transportation is responsible for ~33% of total CO2 emissions in Switzerland, especially heavy-duty long-haul transportation. In the US, medium to heavy-duty trucks were shown to emit about 409 Million tons CO₂e in 2022 whereas, in EU it was about 244 Million tons CO₂e in 2019, this urgently necessitates alternative solutions for decarbonization. There has been good progress on electrification of cars and some trucking, the majority of trucking especially heavy-duty trucking remains reliant on fossil fuels. Hydrogen Council estimates that it would take USD 2.2-3/kg of H2 production cost in Europe to have trucks move away from diesel fuel.However, we have two problems: (1) the availability of emissions-free hydrogen molecules, and (2) its cost per kg delivered to Switzerland!"The Swiss government sees renewable hydrogen as an important building block in achieving its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 but lacks a detailed vision on how to get there. It is unclear where the hydrogen will come from and in what quantities." - SwissInfo on November 13, 2023.Swiss companies recognize the potential of green hydrogen and are pushing ahead with development. We already see hydrogen-fueled trucks of Migros and Coop on Swiss streets and also refueling stations, with Switzerland looking to deploy over 1000 hydrogen trucks soon (BAFU). However, Swiss H2 production cost is estimated to be around CHF 6/kg by University of St Gallen, which is at par with the costs for imports estimated by Hydrogen Council and McKinsey (production in North Africa or Middle East or South America, conversion to a hydrogen carrier, shipping to a European port, reforming hydrogen, gas transport, etc.) - hence the costs of hydrogen are too high for incentivising the truck operators to move to hydrogen as a fuel without expensive subsidies.Besides battery electric vehicles (BEV), fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV) that run on green hydrogen are a promising alternative to diesel trucks, especially due to the ability to store larger amounts of energy (Rulf, Baum, Zorn, Menzel, & Rehberger, 2020) & (McKinsey & Company & Hydrogen Council, 2021). This has also been recognized by Switzerland which has co-signed a request to the EU to develop a hydrogen strategy with other EU member states (Bühlmann, 2020) and has published a position paper on hydrogen for mobility (Bundesamt für Energie BFE, 2016). However, till today adoption is limited and only Hyundai is operating a serial production line for FCEV trucks (Hyundai Motor Company, 2020). Since 2020, Switzerland is pioneering the field and is maintaining a hydrogen ecosystem for HDTs with “Hyundai” as truck provider, “Hydrospider” as a green hydrogen producer, “H2 Mobilität Schweiz” as fuel station operators and logistics company as truck operators (Schatzmann, 2020). While there are plans to connect Switzerland to the European hydrogen grid allowing for the hydrogen to be imported, there is still uncertainty since the negotiations with EU have stalled – the effects of which we are also feeling in power supply today.Solution:We at Grensol are exactly addressing this. With our solution, we are producing H2 in sufficient quantities - all from waste that would have otherwise been incinerated - with no CO2 emissions, without using crucial and scarce resources like water, and are cheaper than electrolysis.Grensol is building an industrial solution that would use recycling waste rich in plastics as feedstock to produce energy gases like hydrogen but without CO2 emissions. Similar to what sunlight does to plastics over many years, our technology breaks down hydrocarbon materials in seconds using Xenon flash lamp. Since these reactions occur in the absence of atmospheric oxygen, hardly any CO2 or NOx is formed and released. Each of our sites would process 25-30k tons of industrial waste each year and produce enough hydrogen to fuel 150-200 trucks. This solution is the integration of industrial research on waste streams and the research done at EPFL. The core of our solution is "photonic processing" which occurs when high-intensity white light is flashed on this waste. The energy released from this white light breaks the chemical bonds of the waste surface to release the hydrogen leaving behind a residue of carbon black, which is also sold to tire and polymer makers. Any residual metals are also recovered and sold to recyclers, thereby making this a zero-waste solution. The ex-works cost of hydrogen produced would be USD 1.23/kg, which is at par with the lowest quartile costs for green hydrogen production worldwide expected by 2030, and about half of European production costs. Moreover, we produce the hydrogen where it will be consumed thereby avoiding the expensive transportation from far away places like Americas, Middle East or Africa, and the associated inefficiencies and complications. Our strategic plan involves setting up distributed micro-sites to produce hydrogen, cutting transportation costs and boosting distribution efficiency. Lower production costs vs electrolysis are also achieved due to the utilization of waste materials as feedstock for which we get paid to process. Additionally, the sale of by-products offsets our overall costs. Grensol expects hydrogen’s full capacity production, sale, and revenue generation from 2029.Our customers would be the offtakers of the produced hydrogen molecules who are either large-scale direct users like Coop and Migros, hydrogen refueling operators like Hydrospider, Avia, Agrola, etc., or trading arms of companies like Axpo, Trafigura or Varo Energy. In order to achieve this, over the last 15 months we have put together a team of researchers who have been closely involved in the development of this technology and also with industry experience and project execution from large multinationals like BMW, Buehler, Dow, EuroChem, Glencore, Magna and McKinsey. We are also ready for tests and trials with our test bench setup at Yverdon les Bains with HEIG-VD (research partner).Innobooster Plan and Help Needed:As a part of this Innobooster, we now seek partnerships that would help us leverage the existing sales and distribution infrastructure for our hydrogen sales and offtakes with ecosystem partners such as V-Zug, Amag and opportunities for pilot testing with support from technical partners like Empa. This would include an integration of the required gas handling processes into our technology to enable an end-to-end solution for all stakeholders.The Innobooster Funding will support these research costs and enable ongoing trials and process enhancements in collaboration with our research partners at HEIG-VD, ensuring production of industry standard H2 at an acceptable cost. Furthermore, by being a part of such a program will build awareness of the existance of our solution to potential customers within and beyond the ecosystem and open up new use cases for us.Work Packages:Partnership building: Understanding the business and technical requirements of the Swiss trucking industry and finding 1-2 partners to work with on specifications for offtake. Est. CHF 5k (Expert's hours)Pilot tests: Carrying out production tests in the laboratory to optimize the hydrogen product quality and the associated techno-economic parameters to meet the offtaker requirements. Est. CHF 14k (Materials, equipment and research institute's personnel hours).Scaling: Developing a strategy to expand our footprint of our micro recycling sites in relevant locations and for different customer needs (e.g., additional process heating) and the associated project funding. Est. CHF 6k (Expert's hours)In conclusion, we are looking to transforming the Mobility Sector by enabling a hydrogen-powered trucking infrastructure at lower costs for the supply of hydrogen molecules than what can be achieved by existing state of the art of water electrolysis in Switzerland.

Project Idea Metadata

Project Idea Name: Trucking with Emissions-free Hydrogen, Made from Waste
Date: 4/3/2024 9:20:07 AM
Administrators:
- Rajiv Singhal

Project Idea Description

Problem:

According to the Swiss Climate Strategy report, Transportation is responsible for ~33% of total CO2 emissions in Switzerland, especially heavy-duty long-haul transportation. In the US, medium to heavy-duty trucks were shown to emit about 409 Million tons CO₂e in 2022 whereas, in EU it was about 244 Million tons CO₂e in 2019, this urgently necessitates alternative solutions for decarbonization. There has been good progress on electrification of cars and some trucking, the majority of trucking especially heavy-duty trucking remains reliant on fossil fuels. Hydrogen Council estimates that it would take USD 2.2-3/kg of H2 production cost in Europe to have trucks move away from diesel fuel.

However, we have two problems: (1) the availability of emissions-free hydrogen molecules, and (2) its cost per kg delivered to Switzerland!

"The Swiss government sees renewable hydrogen as an important building block in achieving its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 but lacks a detailed vision on how to get there. It is unclear where the hydrogen will come from and in what quantities." - SwissInfo on November 13, 2023.

Swiss companies recognize the potential of green hydrogen and are pushing ahead with development. We already see hydrogen-fueled trucks of Migros and Coop on Swiss streets and also refueling stations, with Switzerland looking to deploy over 1000 hydrogen trucks soon (BAFU). However, Swiss H2 production cost is estimated to be around CHF 6/kg by University of St Gallen, which is at par with the costs for imports estimated by Hydrogen Council and McKinsey (production in North Africa or Middle East or South America, conversion to a hydrogen carrier, shipping to a European port, reforming hydrogen, gas transport, etc.) - hence the costs of hydrogen are too high for incentivising the truck operators to move to hydrogen as a fuel without expensive subsidies.

Besides battery electric vehicles (BEV), fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV) that run on green hydrogen are a promising alternative to diesel trucks, especially due to the ability to store larger amounts of energy (Rulf, Baum, Zorn, Menzel, & Rehberger, 2020) & (McKinsey & Company & Hydrogen Council, 2021). This has also been recognized by Switzerland which has co-signed a request to the EU to develop a hydrogen strategy with other EU member states (Bühlmann, 2020) and has published a position paper on hydrogen for mobility (Bundesamt für Energie BFE, 2016). However, till today adoption is limited and only Hyundai is operating a serial production line for FCEV trucks (Hyundai Motor Company, 2020). Since 2020, Switzerland is pioneering the field and is maintaining a hydrogen ecosystem for HDTs with “Hyundai” as truck provider, “Hydrospider” as a green hydrogen producer, “H2 Mobilität Schweiz” as fuel station operators and logistics company as truck operators (Schatzmann, 2020).

While there are plans to connect Switzerland to the European hydrogen grid allowing for the hydrogen to be imported, there is still uncertainty since the negotiations with EU have stalled – the effects of which we are also feeling in power supply today.

Solution:

We at Grensol are exactly addressing this. With our solution, we are producing H₂ in sufficient quantities - all from waste that would have otherwise been incinerated - with no CO₂ emissions, without using crucial and scarce resources like water, and are cheaper than electrolysis.

Grensol is building an industrial solution that would use recycling waste rich in plastics as feedstock to produce energy gases like hydrogen but without CO₂ emissions. Similar to what sunlight does to plastics over many years, our technology breaks down hydrocarbon materials in seconds using Xenon flash lamp. Since these reactions occur in the absence of atmospheric oxygen, hardly any CO₂ or NOx is formed and released. Each of our sites would process 25-30k tons of industrial waste each year and produce enough hydrogen to fuel 150-200 trucks.

This solution is the integration of industrial research on waste streams and the research done at EPFL. The core of our solution is "photonic processing" which occurs when high-intensity white light is flashed on this waste. The energy released from this white light breaks the chemical bonds of the waste surface to release the hydrogen leaving behind a residue of carbon black, which is also sold to tire and polymer makers. Any residual metals are also recovered and sold to recyclers, thereby making this a zero-waste solution.

The ex-works cost of hydrogen produced would be USD 1.23/kg, which is at par with the lowest quartile costs for green hydrogen production worldwide expected by 2030, and about half of European production costs. Moreover, we produce the hydrogen where it will be consumed thereby avoiding the expensive transportation from far away places like Americas, Middle East or Africa, and the associated inefficiencies and complications. Our strategic plan involves setting up distributed micro-sites to produce hydrogen, cutting transportation costs and boosting distribution efficiency. Lower production costs vs electrolysis are also achieved due to the utilization of waste materials as feedstock for which we get paid to process. Additionally, the sale of by-products offsets our overall costs. Grensol expects hydrogen’s full capacity production, sale, and revenue generation from 2029.

Our customers would be the offtakers of the produced hydrogen molecules who are either large-scale direct users like Coop and Migros, hydrogen refueling operators like Hydrospider, Avia, Agrola, etc., or trading arms of companies like Axpo, Trafigura or Varo Energy.

In order to achieve this, over the last 15 months we have put together a team of researchers who have been closely involved in the development of this technology and also with industry experience and project execution from large multinationals like BMW, Buehler, Dow, EuroChem, Glencore, Magna and McKinsey. We are also ready for tests and trials with our test bench setup at Yverdon les Bains with HEIG-VD (research partner).

Innobooster Plan and Help Needed:

As a part of this Innobooster, we now seek partnerships that would help us leverage the existing sales and distribution infrastructure for our hydrogen sales and offtakes with ecosystem partners such as V-Zug, Amag and opportunities for pilot testing with support from technical partners like Empa. This would include an integration of the required gas handling processes into our technology to enable an end-to-end solution for all stakeholders.

The Innobooster Funding will support these research costs and enable ongoing trials and process enhancements in collaboration with our research partners at HEIG-VD, ensuring production of industry standard H₂ at an acceptable cost. Furthermore, by being a part of such a program will build awareness of the existance of our solution to potential customers within and beyond the ecosystem and open up new use cases for us.

Work Packages:

Partnership building: Understanding the business and technical requirements of the Swiss trucking industry and finding 1-2 partners to work with on specifications for offtake. Est. CHF 5k (Expert's hours)
Pilot tests: Carrying out production tests in the laboratory to optimize the hydrogen product quality and the associated techno-economic parameters to meet the offtaker requirements. Est. CHF 14k (Materials, equipment and research institute's personnel hours).
Scaling: Developing a strategy to expand our footprint of our micro recycling sites in relevant locations and for different customer needs (e.g., additional process heating) and the associated project funding. Est. CHF 6k (Expert's hours)

In conclusion, we are looking to transforming the Mobility Sector by enabling a hydrogen-powered trucking infrastructure at lower costs for the supply of hydrogen molecules than what can be achieved by existing state of the art of water electrolysis in Switzerland.