Breakthrough opportunities are the holy grail for technology advancement, but do we see them in real time or are they a crafted story? The foundation for paradigm movement lies where technical synergies meet economic opportunity and give a psychological nudge forward to those taking a chance on a transformation. The steam engine gave rise to trains over horses and spinning propellers shred the sails - innovations that brought breakthrough technology into everyday lives. As the world decarbonizes, transportation will once again be at the center of the energy paradigm shift. The search to place the bet at the correct solution is well underway, not only in the transportation industry, but in the transportation of energy itself. Solar energy directed at the soil of Australia is being shipped to Japan via massive ammonia vessels - like crude oil of old.
Hydrogen created with renewable energy and sourced from sustainable feedstocks close the loop to phase away from fossil fuels entirely and are interchangeable with all other pure hydrogen supplies. This cleanly produced fuel can be hauled in a tanker-trailer as liquified/cryogenic hydrogen, ammonia, methanol (another hydrogen carrier), or tube-trailered as a pressurized gas. Fortuitously, the trucks themselves can be fuel-cell powered on H2, bringing hydrogen refueling stations to neighborhoods, continuing the process of displacing fossil fuels in our decarbonizing world. Once delivered, this hydrogen can be used to refill another FCE vehicle, charge a BEV, generate clean electricity for the grid, or be stored indefinitely in a ground-mounted tank for use later. With the purse-strings around infrastructure investment loosening, it is not hydrogen and lithium-ion batteries battling it out, as many remember VHS-Betamax; on the contrary, hydrogen and batteries are compatriots in a dance to displace diesel and gas. And like any good dancing couple: while one may lead, they are both marquee performers, turning energy into human motion.
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