During the sell-out Summit of the 2022 Hydrogen Americas Summit, we spoke to global and regional #hydrogen and #energy leaders about the future outlook for the hydrogen industry. Including an interview with Rick Beuttel, Vice President Hydrogen Business at Bloom Energy.
What message did you share with the audience?
At Bloom Energy we’re focused on deploying our industry leading fuel cell technology, and quite simply I am mechanical engineer, so I try and simplify things, we’re running it backwards. So by running it backwards, instead of generating electricity and a little bit of water those are our inputs. Therefore, the output is clean hydrogen and oxygen as a biproduct. With our technology which runs at very very high temperatures, higher temperatures than alkaline or pem, I won’t drag people back to physics or chemistry from University, but because of that, we are 15 to 30% more efficient than lower temperature electrolyzer technologies like alkaline and pem. So what we bring to the table is the most efficient electrolysis technology, and then a fuel cell which could run on clean hydrogen, it could run on biogas, it could run on natural gas or any hybrid of the above.
How has the hydrogen market changed in the last several years?
So I think in the last several years, and I almost wonder if it’s people had time during COVID to sit back and reflect on what we as a species are doing to the planet that we walk around on and depend upon. So this need to halt global temperature rise to one a half degrees C, has amazingly become forward in many societies collective consciencesess’, Governments are now putting legislation in place to support clean hydrogen investment, clean energy investment. So I think to me and for Bloom, what’s different in 2022 compared to 2019, is in 2019, everyone you talked to about hydrogen wanted hydrogen that was cheap and reliable. No one really cared what the carbon footprint was or what the carbon consequences were. Today, the first conversation with everyone around hydrogen, is what’s the carbon intensity, how are you producing it, what’s the electrolysis technology, if it’s blue hydrogen and you’re sequestering the Co2 well where are you sequestering it, how are you sequestering it, how are you going to be sure it stays underground. It’s really been an amazing transformation the last few years.
Why is this summit important?
Wow, this a fabulous conference because it brings together key decision makers across industry, across Government, across technology providers and across users of hydrogen, all in one place. And if you look at all the terrific programs that the Department of Energy is leading, the fact that this is happening here in Washington D.C., Secretary Granholm was here today, I believe Jigar Shah is going to be here tomorrow, it really underscores the Biden Administrations perspective to make the U.S. a leader in clean energy and in particular clean hydrogen.
#H2Americas2023
Join them at global and regional #hydrogen and #energy leaders at #H2Americas2023 Summit & Exhibition taking place 2-3 October 2023 in Washington D.C. Produced by the Sustainable Energy Council and Co-Hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy, the event welcomes 3000 industry professionals, 170+ Speakers, 60 Exhibitors and 35+ sponsors to share the latest news, establish key connections and sign business deals to accelerate the deployment of the hydrogen economy. Visit our website for more information & to register your place among hydrogen pioneers: https://www.hydrogen-americas-summit.com/
