00:00Could hydrogen provide the key to cleaner alternatives to fossil fuel?
00:05Professor Kui Dijou from China's Tianjin University is executive chair of the 17th International
00:13Green Energy Conference which is underway in Iceland.
00:16He told our correspondent Li Jianhua that AI-driven developments in fuel cell technology
00:22could make hydrogen a game changer.
00:26By hosting this conference we are very happy to see that not only people from the energy
00:30side, also the people from the computational computer science side, from the AI side, they
00:36are more and more people like that are coming to the energy sector trying to use their technology
00:41to solve the energy problem.
00:42Yeah, we have been talking about AI, AI is everywhere, it is ubiquitous, but how can we incorporate
00:49AI into energy transition?
00:51Actually, there are so many ways.
00:55For example, from the fundamental material development to the system level.
01:00For example, when people develop their materials, for example, we develop the catalyst for batteries,
01:05we develop the electrolyte, originally people have to, you know, do lots of treatments to
01:11make lots of combinations and to find the best combination, the best material, the best way
01:17to make it, but not with the AI, you know, with a few, with a few trials, then that we can
01:24use the data and to quickly find the best option.
01:27And now let's talk about your research on fuel cells.
01:30In simple terms, how does it work exactly?
01:33But cost is still a barrier, isn't it? And where are we right now? Is it ready to be commercialized?
01:54The cost is not very easy to estimate because it's not only based on the material to make it, it's
02:04also based on the volume of the production, how many products we are making. If we have
02:09a massive commercial production, the price will get very, very low. The problem that's
02:17limiting fuel cell to be commercialized now is, is not really fuel cell itself. It is the hydrogen
02:24that will be supplied. For example, how many hydrogen stations we have? And, right? And, and, and how do we
02:31produce the hydrogen? And how do we deliver the hydrogen to the fuel cell stations? That's the main problem.
02:38And another one is that the total cost for the driver. So the total cost must be competitive.
02:46I don't have the right number, but I would say right now it is still slightly higher than what
02:53expected. I'm 100% sure hydrogen energy will be the future because hydrogen is a, a very efficient
03:01way for the large capacity energy storage.
03:04And in terms of energy storage, where are we right now? Any major breakthroughs have made?
03:10Yes, China have made actually a very strong breakthrough in energy storage.
03:15From the fundamental material development, for example, the catalyst we have developed for batteries,
03:22for fuel cells, the electric, the electrolytes, and also the system levels, the, the power plants,
03:29the engines, and also how do we integrate the renewables into the grid? China really made very,
03:37very, very impressive progress on the energy storage technology, on all different kinds of, kind
03:42of energy storage technologies. And, and the market will tell which technology will win,
03:47will win finally. But I'm sure hydrogen energy will be part of it.
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