Harboring Hydrogen: The Significance of Hydrogen for the Transport Sector and Ports
摘要
Hydrogen’s potential is currently attracting a lot of attention. It is a crucial link in the energy transition toward a climate-neutral future. Hydrogen serves as a fuel, a resource for chemical industries, and an energy carrier that must be produced before it can be applied. Hydrogen produced from sun or wind is climate neutral. The advantages of using hydrogen in the transport sector include zero-emissions and, compared to battery technologies, a large range and long operating time and short refueling time. The disadvantages include the fact that the technology has not yet been fully developed, the high costs of the technology and of hydrogen production and use, and its low energy efficiency. Various policy initiatives aim to achieve a transition in which ports might play a crucial role. Because of ports’ location and existing activities around petrochemical clusters, they have not only a sales and user market, but also an extensive import, export, and distribution infrastructure. The successful introduction of hydrogen depends not only on technology (techware) but also on the priority given to organizational aspects (orgware). This is not a simple challenge, as orgware has its own complexities to overcome.