As VP of Green Hydrogen and Head of Origination with Engie North America, Jason Holland is admittedly "a little bit biased" about the irrefutability of hydrogen being a leading solution if the energy industry truly wants to pursue cleaner alternatives to fossil fuels.
"I don’t see any other solutions, save hydrogen storage," Holland said as a panel member discussing the implication of low carbon energy demand at the Hydrogen North America 2023 Conference, recently presented by Reuters Events in Houston.
Joining Holland on the panel, Chris Bohn, CFO with CF Industries, said he agrees with Holland’s assessment of the coming demand for hydrogen.
However, Bohn encouraged his colleagues to be careful to be "not too North American-centric when it comes to where demand" is originating.
"The Inflation Reduction Act was very supply-driven. What you’re seeing in Asia, though, is the demand incentive," Bohn said.
"Nothing is going to be lower in cost than fossil fuels, but someone’s going to have to pay something," Bohn continued. "Part of it will be the consumer, part of it will be from government incentives."
CF Industries, OCI, Engie discuss strategic energy supply-demand solutions
Pictured from left are Chris Bohn with CF Industries, Hanh Nguyen with OCI Global and Jason Holland with Engie North America.
Bohn said he believes "tying those two together" can be appropriately illustrated by employing the familiar "carrot and stick" metaphor.
"As I look at it, in the meetings I’ve had globally, the stick is Europe with a carbon tax," he explained. "And Canada is not moving at the speed the carrot was in the United States from the supply side of the agenda to the demand side."
Over time, Bohn said those carrots and sticks will arrive at a better balance and the industry will see even more hydrogen demand.
"It’s not going to be immediate, and it is a little bit of a dance right now as to which one comes first," Bohn said. "But you need supply to activate demand."
"But which needs to come first, supply or demand?" Bohn pondered.
"The answer is yes," he said, laughing. "From our perspective, it is supply. We’re trying to activate that demand by saying, ‘We will have that supply for you. We will partner with you, and we will be there.’"
Co-panelist Hanh Nguyen, VP of Global Sustainability with OCI Global, also touted the value of ammonia to power the maritime industry.
"Shipping is coming. If you had asked me six months ago, I might have been a bit more pessimistic of the ammonia engine, but the development in the last few months of 2023 is quite optimistic," Nguyen said. "Just imagine — we could design our vessels to run on ammonia."
Using ammonia as a fuel would "capture about 100% of the carbon we produce," Nguyen noted. "From where we’re sitting, we can calculate the probability of supply and demand and set the price, eventually."
"Batteries are still relatively nascent," Holland said, in praise of the clean energy storage method. "We just made a sizable investment in a battery company, and that’s part of our ‘flexible generation’ mantra where we ramp up and ramp down power demand."
Addressing concerns about ongoing disruptions to the supply chain, Holland reminded all that these challenges to the industry are nothing new, and that the industry can remain resilient when facing uncertainty.
"We just lived it with COVID-19," Holland said. "We tested the supply chain so heavily in that situation. Warren Buffet said that we’re going to be swimming naked when the water goes back. I think that’s what is happening, though maybe not in a transparent way, because we really won’t know until we test it around supply chain."
Over time, the quality of technology, whether applied to hydrogen, ammonia development or its storage will improve with automation, Holland optimistically concluded.
