S4E17 - Is Hydrogen more of a Water Sector Miracle or a World's Decarbonization Problem? | (don't) Waste Water! | Water Tech to Solve the World

Description

with 🎙️ Paul Martin, Chemical process development expert & founder of Spitfire Research.

💧 Spitfire research is a Process development consulting company for a decarbonized future, where Paul acts as an antidote to marketing hopium and a tireless advocate for a fossil-fuel-free future.

This episode is the first part of a Hydrogen Economy trilogy!

What we covered:

🧪 How the thermodynamics and fundamental properties of the Hydrogen molecule turn it into a false hope of decarbonization strategies

🌡️ How given the way it's produced, hydrogen actually is a decarbonization problem

🪶 How Goethe is right: hope's preferable to despair unless hope needs the laws of physics to stop applying

⚡ How the biggest problem with green hydrogen production is not its water impact but its energy consumption

🏭 How hydrogen barely moves today, and what that reveals about the difficulty of using it as a transportation fuel

😒 How producing small amounts of hydrogen from wastewater treatment plants is fully doable, yet barely desirable

🦘 How optimizing the production of green hydrogen requires very specific geographic properties, and where that applies

🌬️ How the World barely features half the renewable production capacity needed if we wanted to just switch from gray to green hydrogen

👃 How the Hydrogen economy may well be the false nose of Fossil Fuel Companies to keep striving in a decarbonized world

📈 How Turquoise hydrogen production makes a lot of sense, already today, but has a limited market potential for its byproducts.

🧑‍🔬 How turning Biogas into Hydrogen sounds like a very weird thing to do.

🔬 How electrolysis processes don't really allow to valorize the oxygen byproduct today, and why.

🚚 How Hydrogen is an amazing good and tool, just not to be wasted as a fuel

🌍 How the European Union and the UK daydream about Hydrogen, and how it may be a last resort solution for Japan and South Korea

🔋 How batteries are not perfect but have a clear path to scale

🏚️ How to be serious and earnest about decarbonization, states shall start with relevant policies

🍏 How we shall start with the low hanging fruit when putting hydrogen and decarbonization in the same equation

🦌 Canada tackling carbon taxes, CO2 prices as business enablers, Hydrogen promoters being useful idiots, Hydrogen as a sunk cost fallacy, Hopium... and more!

🔥 ... and of course, we concluded with the 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 🔥

➡️ Get the Full Story (including an infographic and full transcript)

➡️ Read Paul's best hydrogen articles

➡️ Contact BlueTech Research: info@bluetechresearch.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About (don't) Waste Water! | Water Tech to Solve the World

❓ Ever wondered how the #WaterIndustry was reacting to our World's Water Challenges? Water Scarcity? #SDG6? PFAS? Climate Change? Circular Economy? Digitization and Smart Water?

💪 Get the Water Market pulse for free. In one hour per week, while you do the dishes!

📈 We talk water investment, water tech, water entrepreneurship and water market with entrepreneurs, thought leaders, book authors, scientists, investment funds, VCs, and C-Level experts from water majors.

➡️ Leverage their insights, advice & experience and ensure to stay on top of best practices

🗓️ Tune in every Wednesday (don't miss out! 😅)

🌐 Find all the detailed episode notes, interviews, infographics, and more at http://dww.show

Currently in its 10th Season, the "(don't) Waste Water" podcast has already welcomed around 250 guests from Water Majors (SUEZ, Veolia, Jacobs, Xylem, Kemira, Evoqua, Aquatech, SKion Water...), Scale-Ups (Cambrian Innovation, Epic Cleantec, Gradiant, Liqtech, 374Water, Gingko Bioworks...), Start-Ups (Puraffinity, KETOS, 120Water, ZwitterCo, Membrion, Source...), Universities (Berkeley, the Columbia Water Center), Investment Funds (Sciens Water, Mazarine, Burnt Island Ventures...), Business Accelerators (Imagine H2O, Elemental...), Book Authors (Seth Siegel, David Sedlak, David Lloyd Owen...) or Market Intelligence Companies (BlueTech Research, Global Water Intelligence, World Bank, OECD, Isle Utilities...). Or simply water legends like Gary White, Mina Guli or Andrew Benedek!

On the "(don't) Waste Water" podcast, I strive to make the Water Industry easy to understand for everyone, starting with water professionals, executives, and investors. Hence, he opens the microphone to seasoned, inspirational water experts to discuss their field of excellence.

No one can claim an all-around in-depth understanding of a matter as complex as Water. But piece by piece, you can rebuild the puzzle. With curiosity, patience, and passion, Antoine Walter explores topics such as Advanced Treatment Technologies, Water-Energy Nexus (Hydrogen, Lithium...), PFAS removal, Nature-Based Solutions, Wastewater Reuse, Distributed Water Treatments, Water Finance, and Water Entrepreneurship.

I actually firmly believe that regular listeners of the "(don't) Waste Water" podcast may, in the end, claim a "Water MBA!"

A particular field of interest is how innovation forms, grows and gets widely adopted in a complex and conservative field like the Water Industry. This may be one of the keys to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal n°6 - #SDG6.

Oh, and in short, about me: I'm a water engineer turned avid student of the water business, market, finance, and tech. I'm married, a happy father of three, and I'm French (nobody's perfect 😅).