Ok here’s a tale of two technologies – graphene the carbon wonder material and hydrogen the miracle clean power source….. yeh right.
The truth is both these technologies have had bad press, they are often criticised as too expensive to make and are they too limited to use? Well this week I chatted to Mamoun Taher, the CEO of Swedish company Graphmatech. He is developing a way to make better hydrogen transport vessels using graphene in a world leading process. The aim is to make the growth of clean energy more affordable and decarbonise industry.
I started by asking why graphene is much maligned. Mamoun said it was all to do with unrealistic expectations.
“So the thing is graphene has been hyped and expectations were set to be wrong. I mean, when we say graphene is 200 times stronger than steel, so that is the bond between carbon atoms. We should not expect the graphene addition to plastic to make plastic stronger than steel.
“So what we have been doing in the past years is to correct the course and to put the right expectations and to show like solid, engineering data with technical data sheets tested according to standard, that when you use graphene, you gain this, this and that and it will cost you that much.
Hydrogen has been criticised as too expensive and also often made as a by product from fossil fuels, however Mamoun believes that is changing with big scale green hydrogen around the corner.
“So I am very positive. And if you look at different countries, they already started to have hydrogen happening at scale. So one of the countries I want to to highlight here is India. India is one of the countries with a clear hydrogen strategy and hydrogen hubs in different locations. they have a clear sectors.
“They want to decarbonise and hydrogen is key for that. And the availability of solar cells and other renewable sources make it possible to make green hydrogen. And in a country like India, for example, it can help those difficult to decarbonise sectors. However in other places where the availability of renewables is quite limited. Then I think it doesn’t make sense.”
So let’s put it all together if we need more hydrogen, we need to move it from place to place and that’s where their tech of using graphene to make much better storage vessels could be a key play.
Mamoun explained hydrogen is a tricky molecule which can escape from any vessel and rapidly. Sometimes as much as 20% can be lost depending on the container used, this isn’t just costly but because hydrogen has 11 times the global warming potential of CO2, it’s terrible for the climate.
His team have now come up with a solution which could help transform the take up of both technologies.
“We put the graphene in extremely high, dispersion inside a plastic like inside polyethylene or nylon. And then we create a barrier that if hydrogen is leaking, it will face the first layer of graphene. So then it will go around it. So then it will face the second one. And then it will be like a zigzag movement.
“This means it will take way longer time for the hydrogen to go through that material to reduce the leakage. We achieved extremely good results. As of today, the best results we have reduced leakage by 83%, compared to the benchmark available in the market today.”
Listen to the whole podcast as we explore the future of these two technologies and how they can change our clean energy future. Make sure you subscribe.
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