At a motorway service station on the M25 stands a big white metal box, about the size of a shipping container. Inside is something very clever.
In fact, as London deals with its pollution problem and our energy system transitions to one with a lower carbon intensity, boxes like the one near Cobham have probably got to be part of the solution.
The box is connected to a renewable energy supply and turns water into fuel for cars. That fuel is hydrogen… and it has a lot going for it.
It takes three or four minutes to fill up, the fuel is impossible to spill, it doesn’t smell and a full tank is enough to take you about as far as a standard petrol car. Crucially, the only thing that comes out of a hydrogen car’s exhaust pipe is water vapour. It’s also as quiet to drive as an electric car. That’s because it is an electric car – the hydrogen is converted straight into electrons.
True, there aren’t many people in London with hydrogen cars… yet. And one pump does not make a transport revolution.
Could hydrogen cars be used as black cabs? Yes. Can buses be hydrogen-powered? Yes. London already has a hydrogen bus route that runs between Covent Garden and Tower Hill. The capital will be getting its first hydrogen double-deckers later this year.
So far, hydrogen cars have suffered from the great “chicken/egg” dilemma. No vehicle maker would sell cars without a fuelling network, no fuels retailer would set up a network without customers.
But Shell’s new hydrogen station, the first 24/7 retail site in the UK, could help end that impasse. Together with its technology partner, ITM Power, Shell will open two more in service stations near the M25 corridor in the coming months.
A glimpse of a possible future can be caught in Germany. There a group of companies, including Shell, have already come together to start setting up a nationwide hydrogen refuelling network. That group is now opening stations at a rate of about one a fortnight.
Vehicles – like the Toyota Mirai, the Honda FCV Clarity or the Hyundai ix35 – are in production and other car makers are developing vehicles including Daimler, BMW, Audi and GM.
While battery electric cars are especially good for journeys in urban settings like London, hydrogen, with its range and quick refuelling, suits long journeys as well and large vehicles too: from SUVs to buses and lorries.
Along with the development and sale of greater numbers of hydrogen cars, the advance of battery electric cars must also continue at pace. The world needs both of these technologies, and much more, if it is going to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
The world should do better with the technology it has now: by using cleaner and more economical fuels, more efficient engines and better lubricants. Biofuels, which are already blended with conventional fuel, should be an important part of the future too.
Liquefied natural gas and compressed gas, which both burn more cleanly than oil, will undoubtedly have a place in some markets. Liquefied natural gas is increasingly used for shipping and trucks in Europe, in the US and in Asia.
Another glimpse of the future can be snatched at the Shell Eco-marathon, which took place in London last year and will return again this year. In it students from around the world will compete to drive the furthest distance on the least amount of energy.
Some will drive ultra-efficient petrol and diesel cars.
But others will drive cars powered by hydrogen, liquefied natural gas, ethanol, and lithium batteries.
That’s a lot of different vehicles, fuelled by lots of different things all sharing the same bit of tarmac.
We should probably get used to the idea.
Sinead Lynch is chair of Shell UK
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