Transportation and logistics industries across the world are exploring the possibilities of hydrogen fuel as a new emissions-free alternative. Its economic viability is a critical factor in its adoption and viability for businesses of all sizes.
With new air quality and environmental standards being implemented worldwide, it is increasingly important that the business community transitions to emission-free fuel alternatives that work for their operations without unfairly penalizing their bottom line.
History of Hydrogen as a Fuel
New government incentives are driving clean-air initiatives around the world. As organizations look for emission-free fuel solutions, hydrogen is gaining popularity over battery-powered vehicles due to its performance, faster refueling, and simpler on-site infrastructure requirements — especially in off-highway applications such as forklifts. Hydrogen was a lesserknown fuel option for years because it previously lacked sufficient technological advances to make it economically viable in most commercial applications.
Historically, sources of hydrogen gas were predominantly industrial gas supplies being repurposed for fuel. Transporting hydrogen safely and cost-effectively proved difficult. The impracticalities of hydrogen from industrial gas companies, treated and transported to be used as motive power fuel, relegated it to highly specialized applications where its cost was outweighed by necessity.
However, in 2015, Paul Dawson saw hydrogen’s potential as an alternative fuel for much broader applications. He founded OneH2 to commercialize hydrogen technologies and explore new business models to make hydrogen fuel a viable option for business applications. By rethinking how and where hydrogen was generated, distributed, used, and packaged, OneH2 has grown into a successful, innovative, vertically-integrated hydrogen fuel generation and distribution company, dedicated to meet the growing energy needs of U.S. industries.
Comparing Fuel Options
In reviewing Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) adoption, a common theme surfaces. Issues cited by users of BEVs include decreased power over the life of a charge, lengthy recharge times, expensive battery replacement costs, and complex on-site charging infrastructure. Facilities managers and vehicle operators alike also experienced increased workload in managing, maintaining, and swapping out equipment in order to achieve the required uptime for multishift warehouse operations and 24/7 ‘always-on’ enterprises.
Alternatively, hydrogen fuel cells can be used to power equipment with electric motors. Hydrogen offers a better operating experience for high utilization fleets by providing a refuel-and-go experience, similar to internal combustion-based motive power, yet without the on-site emissions drawbacks. Hydrogen, via OneH2, can also be cost effective.
OneH2 provides customers with two options for hydrogen fuel. For those with smaller fleets, OneH2 offers a delivery model allowing for a rapid re-power of existing materials handling fleets to hydrogen. This method also provides for low infrastructure needs versus a battery-powered fleet, and is comparable to the infrastructure required for traditional propane and CNG-powered equipment. For larger fleets, enterprises can engage OneH2 to install on-site generation infrastructure, allowing customers to make their own fuel. The method provides a very low cost-per-hour solution, allowing customers to quickly recover their hydrogen infrastructure investment and enjoy the reliability of being able to generate and use their own fuel.
With OneH2’s technological advancements, hydrogen is becoming accessible, affordable, and overall beneficial to businesses. These developments make hydrogen a compelling fuel option for situations requiring high-performance, portable energy without carbon emissions at the tailpipe.
From Molecule to Nozzle — End to End Hydrogen Solutions
OneH2 is dedicated to making hydrogen fuel practical and cost-effective for businesses. They accomplish this by combining proven technologies with sophisticated real-time digital monitoring and regulation systems.
Finding previous hydrogen-generation equipment unreliable and difficult to maintain, OneH2 started by making its own generators in-house. Their new designs removed unnecessarily complicated mechanical features, have inbuilt redundancy, and a simpler and more efficient architecture, resulting in higher uptime performance with lower maintenance costs. The company also overcame one of the largest challenges in the distribution of hydrogen. OneH2 developed a superior solution to transport hydrogen in gaseous form, at the right pressure and purity for immediate use, with no post-delivery processing required. These OneH2 hydrogen trailers and cylinders are permitted by the Department of Transportation (DOT) to carry high-pressure gaseous hydrogen on public roads, and are housed in carrier frames that have undergone extensive crash analysis.
Gaining Fuel Independence
The full OneH2 product lineup includes the infrastructure a business needs to switch to a hydrogen fleet and minimize cost fluctuations of its fuel supply chain: two sizes of hydrogen generators, transport trailers and Mobile Refuelers of various sizes, and a line of dispensers (the hydrogen equivalent of a fuel pump). Additional customization is available through a variety of purchase, rental, and service contract structures.
Our near term focus is to translate our success in the materials handling industry and apply that model to on - road transportation, retail, and passenger vehicles
Hydrogen in the Real World
It is worth noting that while using electricity directly is more energy efficient than using electricity to make hydrogen, hydrogen in liquified or compressed form has incredible energy density that makes it useful as a power storage medium, excelling in mobility power applications like trucks and facilities without an energy grid. In many cases, it’s not a truly “green” power option, since the U.S. energy grid is largely powered by coal or other fossil fuels, but thankfully that is changing.
Weighing the Options
Early on, OneH2 had to make a decision: aim for the cleanest solution, or a SMR solution with small, incremental advancements? They decided to aim for the latter, as a better approach for faster adoption which is critical for hydrogen’s long term success as a fuel. Most businesses can’t justify multi-million dollar “green fuel” solutions that do not meet reliability or uptime demands and struggle to make economic sense. Whatever solution they use needs to meet the rapidly shifting regulatory landscape, their own ecological aspirations, and just as importantly, support their market competitiveness. The technology wasn’t quite ready when OneH2 started making innovations in 2015, and what we see available today is the culmination of every company like OneH2 finding ways to gradually build our society’s sustainability success.
In deciding which hydrogen-generation options to provide, OneH2 leaned on SMR early on to provide a “zero-emissions at the tailpipe” fuel that businesses can afford. While not emission-free during the production phase, by the time it’s bottled and used to fuel a forklift or other vehicle, the only exhaust is water in the form of steam. There is no carbon left because it was stripped out during the reformation process. This is why hydrogen produced by any means still satisfies air quality initiatives as currently prescribed.
Creating a Resilient Hydrogen Economy
By supplying the most realistic, cost-effective option early on, OneH2 ensured they would be able to continue making advances in hydrogen technologies and develop better solutions as they grew. Regardless of which hydrogengeneration option customers choose, the foremost priority is gaining better operational and cost control of their fuel supply chain.
Customers who produce more hydrogen than they need can sell it back to OneH2 in the form of ‘off-take agreements’ further accelerating the recovery of their capital investment. OneH2 uses the purchased hydrogen to deliver fuel to nearby customers who want to purchase by the kilogram. This reduces delivery distances and improves overall efficiency through a distributed hub-style generator network.
For customers who don’t have enough demand to justify their own generator, or find they have significant seasonal variation in energy needs, delivered hydrogen is an excellent option. For this solution, OneH2 makes or sources hydrogen themselves, then delivers a trailer load of the fuel on a predetermined, automated, or on-request schedule. Customers frequently use delivered hydrogen in combination with their own on-site production.
Paul Dawson, CEO and founder of OneH2, Inc., explained the company’s philosophy, “Whatever method a client decides is best for them, OneH2’s solutions remain economically competitive because our hydrogen value chain is more efficient. We create and deliver our hydrogen to clients, so our cost base is lower in all scenarios, from the price per kilogram of hydrogen and capital investment to the operating and utility costs.”
Putting Hydrogen to Work
OneH2 provides a selection of equipment designed to work independently or in tandem with one another, even ensuring that customers who already have outmoded hydrogen generators can benefit from newer hydrogen development via retrofits and open-compatibility principles.
The OneH2 team designs a hydrogen ecosystem that perfectly fits each customer’s needs. They’ll help you attain the necessary permits, walk you through the entire system, set everything up, test it, provide service contracts, supply supplemental deliveries, help you save money by buying back excess hydrogen, and offer extensive client support. With OneH2 at its side, any business can use hydrogen to meet their bottom line.
OneH2 has worked with several national and international organizations to make accessible hydrogen fuel a reality. Most recently, the company contracted with Douglas County Public Utility District in Oregon to build a hydroelectricpowered electrolysis hydrogen hub for public transportation, commercial, and private vehicle fueling needs within the community.
Companies requiring extensive warehouses and complicated logistics chains are using OneH2 to power their forklifts through a mix of delivered and on-site generated hydrogen services. Passenger and off-road vehicle manufacturers are completing hydrogen vehicle research and development using OneH2-supplied fuel deliveries. Companies interested in making and distributing their own hydrogen are contracting with OneH2 to get their initial equipment, setup, and assistance with ongoing maintenance and expansion. Across a variety of applications, OneH2 has shown their willingness to do whatever it takes to support the adoption of hydrogen fuel.
Looking to the Future
As a new and quickly growing fuel option, hydrogen infrastructure currently is limited, and only a few manufacturers have come out with vehicles that run on hydrogen. But this is changing.
“Right now, OneH2 is working as a hydrogen equipment supplier for our channel partners who use hydrogen in offhighway and materials handling applications. Our channel partners are accelerating the adoption of hydrogen as a critical mobility fuel in their local geographies and equipment ecosystems,” said Dawson. “We’re also helping communities set up new hydrogen infrastructure for hydrogen-powered public transportation. Our near term focus is to translate our success in the materials handling industry and apply that model to on-road transportation, retail, and passenger vehicles.”
Hydrogen fuel is a portable power source with the potential to positively impact the world’s search for energy solutions. However, in order to stimulate wide adoption and gain the necessary economies of scale to perpetuate the use of hydrogen fuel, we need to increase access to hydrogen through shared infrastructure and encourage utilization with universal equipment and technology updates.
In such a reciprocally-dependent, “Catch 22,” situation like this, it’s all too easy for the incumbent fuel technologies to point out how much work it is to change, and let the rest of us linger over the lack of better options. OneH2 has helped us overcome such barriers by finding the resources and creating the solutions needed for a better future. By making business sustainable, they’re working toward a world that is clean and healthy for all who live in it.
