Does Malaysia have a hydrogen road-map that can guide Malaysians towards sustainable motoring and pioneer a renewable energy source that supersedes the intermittency of solar voltaics?
A Malaysia Renewable Energy Roadmap (MyRER) was published in 2021 by the energy and natural resources ministry but this statement of intent will need to be re-validated following the 2022 elections that swept in a new unity government.
That ministry is now re-constituted as the natural resources, environment and climate change ministry.
While energy is king, a renewable and low-cost source is even more exalted. It’s in this realm that most countries have R&D budgets to study the Holy Grail of pollution-free fuel including hydrogen, and its electrolysis by renewable energy known as green hydrogen.
Malaysia has identified hydrogen fuel cells as a priority research item for development since the Eighth Malaysia Plan (2001–2005).
Malaysian academician Abu Bakar Jaafar started on a green journey with an internship report for a master’s degree in environmental science at Miami University of Ohio in 1976,regarding conversion of solar energy into hydrogen.
Four decades later, Prof Abu Bakar Jaafar proposed what could be the framework of a Hydrogen Road Map for Malaysia starting with the establishment of a Petronas-equivalent ocean thermal energy company, named Ocean Thermal Energy Nasional Berhad (Otenas).
Speaking at an international conference on emerging technologies and sustainability in late December, he said that the price of green hydrogen produced by a theoretical ocean thermal energy conversion plant would make a Toyota Mirai run cheaper than an equivalent internal-combustion car.
“In the tropics, ocean thermal energy is the most abundant source of renewable energy, much more than hydroelectric, solar PV, biomass. There’s not that much wind, wave, current, and tide.
“Since there are multiple streams of revenues that could be generated from the application of ocean thermal energy conversion (Otec) technology, the cost of electricity generated is very competitive; and thus, the cost of green H2 production: 80% of it, is the power cost. Even at the current high price of green H2, it could be demonstrated that H2-Fuel Cell powered vehicles are already competitive, and more competitive than the existing internal combustion engine vehicles, including those that use subsidised fossil fuels,” said Bakar in his paper “Prospects of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)-driven Development for Sustainability in Malaysia: Proposed Formation of Otenas”.
“In Malaysia, it has been established that ocean thermal energy has the potential capacity over 26,000 MW. Such potential has been realised in Kumejima, Okinawa, Japan; and in Hawaii, USA.
“The Korean Research Institute of Shipping and Ocean Engineering (Kriso) has just commissioned, in late September 2019, a 1-MW Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (Otec) plant which will be installed in Kiribati. A 10-MW Otec plant has been designed for the Martinique Territory of France in the Caribbean.
“In short, Otec technology, considered one of the 21 most impactful emerging technologies in this century, is the only energy conversion technology that generates, not only competitive pricing of energy, but also highly beneficial mineral water and high value marine produce, sea foods, and marine products,” said Bakar, a research fellow and founding director of the UTM-Ocean Thermal Energy Centre, at the physical and virtual conference last December.
China uses a lot of fossil-fuel derived hydrogen for fertilisers and as an energy importing nation, it has had a series of plans for green hydrogen.
Today, China is already the third-largest fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) market and the first for fuel cell trucks and buses in the world. Using low-carbon sources to produce hydrogen and using clean hydrogen in various industrial sectors would help mitigate China’s carbon emissions.
More recently, Reuters reported that India would announce by May this year a US$2 billion programme to subsidise green hydrogen projects that qualify.
Quoting unidentified sources, the news agency reported that India’s government aimed to nurture the green hydrogen initiatives being undertaken by South Asia’s corporate giants including Reliance Industries and Adani Enterprises.
Closer to home, Sarawak is already in the hydrogen club with its hydro-sourced electricity to electrolyse water into hydrogen. There are one or two fuel-cell buses serving a Kuching river-front inner city route, understandably more for the learning experience than as an actual public transport.
On Jan 17 2023, the Sarawak Economic Development Corporation announced that it would start manufacturing electrolysers in Kuching by 2024. These electrolysers will generate hydrogen to fuel its Autonomous Rapid Transit system.
Sarawak will invest RM6 billion in the Kuching urban transport system that will be the first in the world to use hydrogen fuel-cell powered autonomous buses (no driver, 100% punctuality).
Construction of the first line between Summer Mall in Kuching City 70 km to the east to Samarahan region started on Dec 16, 2022, and is scheduled for testing in 2024.
On this note, a green hydrogen plan centred on Otenas to build the first green hydrogen Otec plant that is globally competitive would attract plenty of foreign investment and create vast opportunities for employment in a whole new frontier of technology. - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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