Hydrogen in the mobility sector holds significant promise as one of the primary clean fuels that could trigger a green revolution in the sector.

Craig Knight’s statement echoes the thoughts of many in the industry – that hydrogen as a fuel is in fact very safe and perception must change to support the adoption of the clean solution.

For this reason, H2 View brought together three areas of the hydrogen mobility ecosystem to debate and discuss hydrogen’s role in the sector.

Joining Craig Knight was Jaco Reijerkerk, founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Ekinetix, and Jose Dias, Process Engineer for Hydrogen Solutions of PRF Gas Solutions.

Read more: Jackie Birdsall: When people hear electric, they should think battery-electric and fuel cell

Kicking off the webinar, Jaco Reijerkerk raised a significant analysis; decarbonisation of the transportation sector is crucial in creating a greener economy and lifestyle.

“I think decarbonisation of transport is vital for the environment, but also for our global economy. Transport is the blood in the system of the economy – we need it every day,” Reijerkerk told the H2 View event.

But there should not be a versus notion when discussing battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell electric – both technologies have advantages and disadvantages, and these will be needed to support the growing demand for eco-friendly mobility solutions.

Reijerkerk said, “The revolutionary step now, for most transport applications, is electrification. By this I mean an electric engine motor attached to the wheels, which can be powered by hybrids, battery electric or fuel cells. And really, I believe, there is a family of solutions for different applications and user profiles.

“For instance, fuel cell uses hydrogen as a fuel to cover heavy applications.”

Despite this, perception is a huge obstacle that the hydrogen industry must overcome before the wider adoption of hydrogen mobility solutions is possible.

Crucial to this is raising awareness for how safe and reliable hydrogen in the mobility industry is and this is exactly what Jose Dias believes and is aiming to support.

“Maybe in each of the filling stations may well have more information regarding the smarter filling with more videos and more information saying you must do this and this is completely safe and so on,” Dias told the H2 View event.

With this in mind, Craig Knight raised several points around safety and how reliable hydrogen mobility actually is in comparison to fossil fuel-based transportation.

Along with the challenge with public perception, collaborations are needed to drive down the costs for hydrogen to allow further infrastructure to be constructed to support the growing demand for mobility solutions.

Knight said, “We are a big believer in facilitating the build out of ecosystems and, on that front, people may have read about our effort to establish a coalition of willing and capable and experienced partners.

“We established the Zero Carbon Alliance, which a non-profit. It’s simply a collaboration model that seeks to establish hydrogen ecosystems.

“We have leading companies from around the world joining us on this journey to identify opportunities for the build out of ecosystems and to aggressively replace diesel-based engine systems with zero emission fuel cell technology.”

Knight also stressed the need to use both battery electric and fuel cell electric with hydrogen holding more promise as a means to electrify the transportation sector with the need for the grid.

Knight told the H2 View event, “All the while, we can transition these types of vehicles onto hydrogen with no dependence whatsoever on the electrical grid. Hydrogen is the way to electrify transport without the grid.

“Think about that if we need to transition heavy vehicles from fossil fuels to electric propulsion.

“This will create an enormous burden on the electric grid if we need to depend on the grid. But if we can make hydrogen, for many, a locally available resource, we can then make our own fuel local to the vehicles operation.”