绿色氢能如何结束化石燃料时代

随着气候变化加速，寻找化石燃料的清洁替代品比以往任何时候都更加紧迫。社会企业家 Vaitea Cowan 认为绿色氢是答案。观看她分享她的团队大规模生产电解器的工作——将水分离为其分子成分：氢和氧的设备——并展示它们如何帮助使每个人都能负担得起和使用绿色、无碳燃料。“这就是我们结束化石燃料时代的方式，”考恩说。

We're going on a field trip together. We're going back to middle school, to chemistry class. Do you remember this? It was an experiment we did with salt water, a battery and two pencils.Guess what? The reaction you witnessed then is a key to tackling climate change. Yes, at 14 years old, we already knew.And today, we have the means to replace fossil fuels with green hydrogen. Let's walk through this.

们一起去实地考察。 我们要回中学， 上化学课。 你记得这个吗？ 这是我们用盐水、 电池和两支铅笔做的实验。 你猜怎么着？您当时目睹的反应是应对气候变化的关键。 是的，在 14 岁时，我们就已经知道了。 今天，我们有办法用绿色氢代替化石燃料。 让我们来看看这个。

The experiment I'm alluding to is called water electrolysis. And it is a way to create hydrogen. On Earth, hydrogen is found in the greatest quantities in water: H2O. And when you use renewable electricity to split water into H and O, that's green hydrogen. And the device creating this reaction is called an electrolyzer. There are other colors of hydrogen out there, but they use fossil fuels.So we're not going to talk about those today, they'll only make climate change worse. We are talking about green hydrogen,which is 100 percent clean. And the quickest path to scaling green hydrogen is by mass producing electrolyzers.

我提到的实验叫做水电解。 这是一种制造氢气的方法。 在地球上，水中的氢含量最多： H2O。 当你使用可再生电力将水分解成 H 和 O 时， 这就是绿色氢。 产生这种反应的装置称为电解槽。 那里还有其他颜色的氢， 但它们使用化石燃料。 所以我们今天不打算谈论这些， 它们只会让气候变化变得更糟。 我们谈论 的是 100% 清洁的绿色氢。 扩大绿色氢气规模的最快途径 是大规模生产电解槽。

But first, why do we need green hydrogen? When we look at our global energy consumption today, only 20 percent comes in the form of electricity or electrons. This means the remaining 80 percent of our world's energy use is in the forms of molecules.And while the world is making rapid progress in greening our electricity, we need to look towards our molecules as well. Think about your industry, transport, heating and cooling sectors.They're all powered by molecules. And yes, this means largely by fossil fuels: coal, oil and gas.

但首先，为什么我们需要绿色氢？ 当我们审视今天的全球能源消耗时， 只有 20% 以电力或电子的形式出现。 这意味着我们世界剩余 80% 的能源使用 是分子形式。 虽然世界 在绿色电力方面取得了快速进展， 但我们也需要关注我们的分子。 想想您的行业、运输、供暖和制冷行业。 它们都是由分子驱动的。 是的，这主要是依靠化石燃料： 煤炭、石油和天然气。

We won't be able to electrify all of our sectors. And here's why.Let's start with an example from the industrial sector. Molecules create the reaction, not electrons. To make steel the old way we first mine iron ore, then burn coal to remove the oxygen from the iron mix. Seven to nine percent of our world's CO2 emissionscome from this process. It's the coal that provides the molecule,creating the reaction to get rid of the oxygen. Electrons can't do that. But what they can do is power the device that creates green hydrogen. And this clean molecule will create the reaction,attract the oxygen and emit only water in the process. So by changing the process, we can eliminate up to 95 percent of our CO2 emissions. And today, major European steel manufacturersare already building green hydrogen-based steel production processes.

我们将无法实现所有部门的电气化。 这就是为什么。 让我们从工业领域的一个例子开始。 分子产生反应， 而不是电子。 要以旧方式炼钢，我们首先开采铁矿石， 然后燃烧煤炭以去除铁混合物中的氧气。 我们世界上 7% 到 9% 的二氧化碳排放量 来自这个过程。 提供分子的是煤， 产生了去除氧气的反应。 电子无法做到这一点。 但他们能做 的是为制造绿色氢的设备提供动力。 这种干净的分子会产生反应， 吸引氧气 ，在这个过程中只放出水。 因此，通过改变流程， 我们可以消除高达 95% 的二氧化碳排放量。 如今，欧洲主要钢铁制造商 已经在构建绿色的氢基钢铁生产工艺。

That's just one of the countless industrial processes, small and big, that need a molecule.

这只是无数工业过程中的一个，无论 大小， 都需要一个分子。

Another example, let's say, that we can't use electricity for everything-everything is weight. Take the aviation sector. An 80-passenger aircraft flying on batteries. Kind of impossible. One would need more batteries just to fly the battery. Hydrogen planes, though, they're taking off emission-free. This is a 20-seater aircraft, and its commercial flights are scheduled two years from now. And by 2026, we'll be welcoming the 80-seater.And these are just two examples of how we can end our reliance on fossil fuels.

另一个例子，假设 我们不能用电来做所有事情——一切都是重量。以航空业为例。 一架可容纳 80 名乘客的飞机依靠电池飞行。 有点不可能。 一个人需要更多的电池才能让电池飞起来。 不过，氢飞机是无排放起飞的。 这是一架 20 座的飞机， 其商业航班计划在两年后进行。 到 2026 年， 我们将迎来 80 个座位。 这些只是 我们如何结束对化石燃料的依赖的两个例子。

The world is turning to green hydrogen because it is effectively coupling those hard-to-decarbonize sectors with green electricity. An electrolyzer connected to solar and wind power generation is transforming green electrons into green molecules.Green hydrogen is transforming our renewable electricity into an energy carrier that is extremely versatile. And today, this clean molecule is already being used in a wide range of applications. It can be combusted directly as a fuel and emits zero carbon emissions. It's also being turned into hydrogen-derived fuels like green ammonia, green methanol, which can fuel global shipping.Green hydrogen is being stored across seasons without losing energy, like here in the Alps. And it can then be used in a fuel cell to create electricity emitting only water, like in this remote village in Malaysia.

0世界正在转向绿色氢 ，因为它有效地将那些难以脱碳的行业 与绿色电力结合起来。 连接太阳能和风力发电的电解槽 正在将绿色电子转化为绿色分子。 绿色氢正在将我们的可再生电力 转变为用途广泛的能源载体。 今天，这种干净的分子已经被 广泛用于各种应用。 它可以作为燃料直接燃烧，碳排放量为零。 它还被转化为氢衍生燃料，如绿色氨、绿色甲醇， 可为全球航运提供燃料。 绿色氢气在不损失能量的情况下跨季节储存， 就像在阿尔卑斯山一样。 然后可以将其用于燃料电池中，以产生仅排放水的电力， 就像在马来西亚这个偏远的村庄一样。

Hydrogen is one of the most energy-dense molecules, and by mass it contains three times as much energy than diesel. So you might be wondering, well, why aren't we using this already everywhere? And so previously, the reason was the cost of green electricity. But that's no longer the bottleneck. So what's the challenge? It's the speed, scale and cost of making these green hydrogen generators. Luckily, people are already working on making green hydrogen a reality. Because to make green hydrogen the fuel source of the future, it needs to be cheaper than fossil fuels. And this means electrolyzers are going to need to be really, really cheap.

氢是能量密度最高的分子之一， 按质量计算，它所含的能量是柴油的三倍。 所以你可能想知道，好吧， 为什么我们不到处使用它呢？所以以前，原因是绿色电力的成本。 但这不再是瓶颈。 那么挑战是什么？ 这是制造这些绿色氢气发生器的速度、规模和成本。 幸运的是， 人们已经在努力使绿色氢成为现实。 因为要使绿色氢成为未来的燃料来源， 它需要比化石燃料更便宜。 这意味着 电解槽需要非常非常便宜。

We started Enapter in 2017 with this one goal in mind and urgency in our hearts. And so we chose a means that is a bit different from how others in the industry proceed. We turned to economic history for approaches that scaled fast and reduced prices significantly. And the answer was clear. If you want to take a solution around the globe as quickly as possible, you need to make it a standardized, mass-produced commodity. A product that's easy to make and use. And so some believe we need larger machines. But we believe the electrolyser should be a standardized, mass-produced commodity. A product that can make green hydrogen anywhere for anyone.

我们在 2017 年启动了 Enapter， 并牢记这一目标并在我们心中紧迫。 因此，我们选择了一种 与业内其他人的运作方式略有不同的方式。 我们求助于经济史 ，寻找能够快速扩大规模并显着降低价格的方法。 答案很明确。 如果您想尽快在全球范围内采用解决方案，则需要使其成为标准化的大规模生产商品。 易于制作和使用的产品。所以有些人认为我们需要更大的机器。 但我们认为电解槽应该是一种标准化的、 大批量生产的商品。 一种可以在任何地方为任何人制造绿色氢气的产品。

So to better understand our approach, let me draw an analogy.Up until the ’80s, mainframe computers, they were considered the future of computing. They were huge and complex equipment, and they were designed for businesses only. Then came the PC, and at first people laughed and wondered: Why would we ever need such a tiny computer? But ultimately, it disrupted the industry. And today, data centers, they use blade servers, which is PC technology. Why? Because the PC became a compact, standardized and mass-producible product that was cheap to make, easy to build, and that could be used in any kinds of context. It's time to do this with green hydrogen.

因此，为了更好地理解我们的方法，让我打个比方。 直到 80 年代，大型计算机 都被认为是计算的未来。 它们是巨大而复杂的设备， 它们只为企业设计。 然后是个人电脑， 起初人们笑了，想知道： 为什么我们需要这么小的电脑？ 但最终，它扰乱了这个行业。而今天，数据中心，他们使用刀片服务器，这是 PC 技术。 为什么？ 因为个人电脑成为了一种紧凑、 标准化和可大规模生产的产品，制造成本低、易于构建， 并且可以在任何环境中使用。 是时候用绿色氢来做这件事了。

To this end, Enapter is designing all of its electrolyzers as products and not projects. At the heart of our electrolyser is an electrolysis core generating green hydrogen, and it is the foundation for all of our products. And we're taking these core stacks and other components of our electrolyzers into mass production. And so instead of building larger electrolyzers, we're building compact ones that can be combined to achieving any hydrogen quantity needed. And we believe this is the quickest way to scale green hydrogen and drive down its price.

为此， Enapter 将其所有电解槽设计为产品 而非项目。 我们电解槽的核心是 产生绿色氢的电解核心， 它是我们所有产品的基础。 我们正在将这些核心堆栈 和我们电解槽的其他组件投入批量生产。 因此， 我们不是建造更大的电解槽，而是建造紧凑的电解槽，这些电解槽 可以组合起来以达到所需的任何氢气量。 我们相信这是扩大绿色氢气规模并降低其价格的最快方式。

And the next step is going into mass production. This is our campus. And it's going to be fully powered by renewables, of course, and that's where we'll be tackling speed, scale and cost.By focusing on one single core size, we can leverage massive economies of scale and drive down the price of green hydrogen.

下一步 是进入批量生产。 这是我们的校园。 当然，它将完全由可再生能源提供动力， 这就是我们要解决速度、规模和成本问题的地方。 通过专注于单一核心尺寸， 我们可以利用大规模的规模经济并降低绿色氢的价格。

Because that’s what it’s all about: making green hydrogen cheaper than fossil fuels. We have the means to make green hydrogen the fuel source of the future. It's time to listen to our 14-year-old selves and the 14-year-olds of today. Our generation has a unique opportunity. It's time for the next industrial revolution. We can build our world's energy supplies sustainably,made of a lot of green electricity and a wave of green hydrogen molecules.

因为这就是它的全部意义所在： 使绿色氢比化石燃料更便宜。 我们有办法让绿色氢成为未来的燃料来源。 是时候倾听我们 14 岁的自己 和今天 14 岁的孩子了。 我们这一代人拥有独特的机会。 是下一次工业革命的时候了。 我们可以可持续地建立我们世界的能源供应， 由大量的绿色电力 和一波绿色氢分子组成。