Who are we, here at Hiringa?
Who are we, here at Hiringa?
Who are we, here at Hiringa?
Who are we, here at Hiringa?
WHY
HYDROGEN?
OUR WORLD NEEDS SUSTAINABLE, ZERO EMISSION ENERGY SOLUTIONS.
Pollution, global warming, growing population, widespread energy poverty, finite fossil fuels and the list goes on... harnessing clean and renewable energy is arguably the greatest challenge of our time.
Hydrogen is part of the solution.
We need to produce, transport and use sustainable energy at scale.
We need mass-market, clean energy solutions for transport, industry, energy storage, heat and power.
Hydrogen's abundance and unique properties make it a key piece in the puzzle of our world's energy solutions. It is an excellent source of renewable energy - ideally suited to power buses, trucks, and other heavy vehicles and it can produced and used cleanly.
Hydrogen is a store of energy, playing the role of a battery. Hydrogen can be produced when the natural resource is available and stored for when it is needed. It can also support the electricity grid, providing demand control during peak times, and enabling more efficient use of our electrical infrastructure.
Hydrogen will redefine the world's energy future.
HYDROGEN IS THE EVERYWHERE ENERGY
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe
Plentiful
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and every region in the world can create it.
Energy Rich
One kilogram of hydrogen holds three times the energy of one kilogram of crude oil.
Life-Giving
The sun is powered by hydrogen and it's in our water.
HYDROGEN IS KIND TO THE PLANET
Hydrogen gives off no carbon and its only emission is water
Zero Emissions
When using hydrogen for power or heat it gives off water vapour with no carbon emissions.
Clean
Hydrogen has no colour or odour and is non-toxic and environmentally benign.
Diffuses Quickly
Being 14 times lighter than air, when outside it's container, it dissipates quickly.
HYDROGEN HAS MANY USES
Hydrogen can be used to power vehicles, appliances and cities
Energy Storage
Storing excess electricity from sustainable sources like wind and solar is one of today's biggest challenges; hydrogen lets us capture that energy and use it when we need.
Makes Electricity
Fuel cells generate electricity by combining hydrogen with oxygen (from the air) thereby allowing hydrogen to power anything from electric vehicles to laptops, and even a city.
Tried & Tested
Hydrogen has been manufactured and used for over a hundred years.
Countries and companies all over the world are increasingly adopting hydrogen as a fuel.
HYDROGEN SAVES TIME AND MONEY
Hydrogen will be more cost effective than petrol
Will Be Cheaper
Given the sustainable abundance of hydrogen, in the long run it will be a cheaper source of fuel than finite fossil fuels.
Time Saving
Hydrogen vehicles are refuelled in a similar time to petrol and diesel vehicles, and travel similar distance on a single refuel.
Safe
Technological advances in the transportation, storage and use of hydrogen make it just as safe to use as any other combustible fuel.
We can use hydrogen for ...
ZERO EMISSION TRANSPORT
London already fuels some of its famous double decker buses on hydrogen and South Korea is replacing 26,000 natural gas buses with hydrogen buses. California has dozens of retail hydrogen fuelling stations. Audi, Toyota, GM, Mercedes, Honda and many more vehicle manufacturers are producing hydrogen powered electric vehicles.
Hydrogen powered electric vehicles are called FCEVs (fuel cell electric vehicles). The fuel cells convert hydrogen into electricity needed to power the vehicle, with the only emission being water vapour. FCEV's have the advantages of electric vehicles; with similar range and comparable refuelling times to petrol and diesel vehicles.
With high energy density, more energy can be stored on-board a vehicle to power heavy vehicles like buses, trucks, trains and boats.
"Hydrogen is a key future fuel option that will help us meet our climate goals by enabling us to decarbonise transport and industry applications in particular that will be hard to electrify.
- Hon Dr. Megan Woods, Energy and Resources Minister (NZ)
"Clean hydrogen is a perfect means towards our goal of climate neutrality. It can power heavy industries, propel our cars, trucks and planes, store seasonal energy, heat up our homes. All of this with almost zero emissions."
- Ursula von der Leyenman, President of European Commission
CLEAN POWER
Currently, our electricity network lacks the ability to store excess energy during times when supply
surpasses demand. This is when hydrogen, as an efficient store of energy, comes in.
At 4am, a wind turbine might be creating plenty of electricity but most of the country is sleeping so can't use
that electricity. Similarly, a solar panel will create an excess of electricity on a bright summer's day.
Instead of just switching off these clean energy generators, we can use that electricity to produce hydrogen - storing the over-supply of energy for future use.
Hydrogen can store energy in greater capacities over longer periods than conventional lithium batteries,
thus potentially dealing with seasonal challenges of our hydro-dominated power generation.
Hydrogen can enable deeper penetration of renewables and decarbonisation by connecting renewables
with energy needs met by using fossil fuels.
Furthermore, hydrogen can be used in conjunction with fuel cells as an alternative to diesel generators
and as off-grid back-up power solutions.
"Clean hydrogen is a game-changer. It will help decarbonise high-polluting, heavy duty and industrial sectors while delivering good-paying clean energy jobs and realizing a net-zero economy by 2050."
- Jennifer Granholm
US Energy Secretary
GREEN INDUSTRY
When hydrogen is created from green sources, it can be utilised as a zero-emission source of industrial heat and power and as a clean feedstock for industrial chemical processes that use hydrogen (such as fertiliser manufacturing, methanol production and refining).
Hydrogen is a key building block of our industrial chemicals such as ammonia NH3, which typically use natural gas (methane - CH4) or coal as their feedstock to create hydrogen.
Methanation is an exciting CO2-net-zero process that captures carbon and combines it with H2 (hydrogen) to produce a synthetic methane. Synthetic methane (CH4) is a green replacement for natural gas, and when combined with carbon capture can produce net zero
emission synthetic fuels.
CLEAN HYDROGEN PRODUCTION
'Green' hydrogen is produced by using renewable electricity to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. This process is called Electrolysis and is 100% renewable and emission free.
No carbon is involved in the process.
Hiringa is only focusing on the production of green hydrogen.
The world already produces thousands of tonnes of hydrogen each year.
Most hydrogen produced is from natural gas (CH4) using a process called steam reformation, or from imported crude oil. The by-product carbon is released to the atmosphere. This 'brown' hydrogen is used by industry and export products.
'Blue' hydrogen is produced form fossil fuels but the carbon emissions are captured and stored (CCS) or captured and used (CCU).
ELECTROLYSIS
This is a clean method of
hydrogen production.
Electrolysis works by passing the electricity through the water (H2O) and so separating that hydrogen (H2) from the oxygen (O2).
With it, we can capture the daily and seasonal excesses of supply of renewable electricity and store that energy as hydrogen for use at a later time or different place.
Hiringa will produce green hydrogen using renewable electricity and electrolysis.
HYDROGEN
SAFETY
Hydrogen fuel is clean,
sustainable and safe.
Learn more about the facts and myths surrounding the use of Hydrogen.
Safety is of utmost important to us at Hiringa, so we would like to share the important facts around hydrogen safety, as well as dispel any myths.
Like all fuels, hydrogen needs to be managed properly, and the unique properties of hydrogen considered in the design of hydrogen systems.
Should you have any further questions about hydrogen safety, we welcome your enquiry.
THE FACTS:
Hydrogen is colourless, odourless and non-toxic.
Other fuels either have odour (petrol/diesel) or are odorized (natural gas) and leaks are detected by smell. Hydrogen is not odorized due in part to its small molecular weight and buoyancy, and because an odorant would contaminate hydrogen purity and affect vehicle performance. Leaks are detected by sensors.
Hydrogen is flammable but diffuses rapidly and has low emissivity - Hydrogen is no more dangerous than other flammable fuels or the batteries used in electric cars. Hydrogen has a rapid diffusivity (3.8 times faster than natural gas), which means when released, it dilutes quickly into a non-flammable concentration. Hydrogen has a low emissivity (you can put your hand next to a hydrogen flame without being burnt). Petrol and diesel, with their heavier-than-air vapours, are more likely to cause a fire, or an explosion when confined in a tight space, and create secondary fires.
No drips, spills or smells when you fill the tank with lighter-than-air hydrogen. Safety systems at the station and on the vehicle are designed for a buoyant, gaseous fuel.
Hydrogen powered vehicles do not emit carcinogens or smog-forming particulates and compounds which negatively affect air quality and consequently public health in built up areas.
THE MYTHS:
Myth 1: Hydrogen gas is dangerous to store and use. Arguably one of the most common concerns raised when discussing the use of hydrogen is that, as a flammable gas, it can be easily ignited and as such, far too hazardous to be stored either in refuelling stations or within a pressure tank. Yet, hydrogen is no more dangerous than other flammable fuels or the batteries used in electric cars. In fact, vehicles with pressure gas storage tanks are nothing new. With millions of on-the-road miles driven over the last few years, an existing global multi-billion industry transporting and making hydrogen for many decades, hydrogen can be used, stored and transported safely. To reinforce the safety aspect of using hydrogen storage tanks, Toyota reported that it had even fired bullets at its carbon-fibre fuel tanks, which failed to do any more than bounce off or leave small dents. Tanks are designed for controlled release of hydrogen if damaged.
The Facts:
Myth 2: Hydrogen is more dangerous than gasoline.
It's true that hydrogen is highly flammable. But petrol, with its heavier-than-air vapours, is more likely to cause a fire, or an explosion when confined in a tight space. That's because hydrogen is a gas that's 14 times lighter than air. When it's burning, it tends to vent straight up, like the flame from a butane lighter. Burning petrol, on the other hand, is heavier than air, remains liquid and will spread over various surfaces, leading to widespread fire damage. A researcher in the US proved this a few years ago with a hydrogen safety test that involved torching a hydrogen fuel leak and then a petrol leak in the same car. The burning hydrogen, which vented up and away, didn't damage the vehicle, whereas the petrol fire destroyed the car.
Unlike lighter-than-air hydrogen, petrol won't vent quickly from an enclosed fuel tank, so the pressure build-up from the expanding heated fumes can more easily cause an explosion. During the hydrogen fuelling process a controlled and monitored seal is created and fuelling is shut off if the seal is broken. In petrol fuelling there are no controls preventing discharge of fuel.
Myth 3: The Hindenburg.
The Hindenburg, the enduring source of hydrogen's bad reputation, didn't explode. Its millions of cubic feet of hydrogen burned away in less than 60 seconds. Most of the smoke and flame recorded by newsreel cameras as the giant lighter-than-air ship landed came from burning diesel fuel and the dirigible's painted canvas "gas bag" covering. The truth is that both petrol and hydrogen can be dangerous if they're not properly handled. But as a transportation fuel, hydrogen is less dangerous than existing fuels.