Hydrogen Is Dangerous, Just Like Any Other Fuel

Jablonec-based DEVINN is one of the most prominent Czech companies in the field of hydrogen technologies. It was involved in the development of the first Czech hydrogen-powered truck built on a Tatra chassis, as well as the refuelling station capable of filling it with hydrogen. We spoke to the company’s founder, Luboš Hajský, and Technical Director Karel Souček about why the hydrogen market has yet to take off and where hydrogen makes more sense than batteries.

Could you introduce DEVINN to our readers and explain what you do?

Luboš Hajský: We are a development company that I founded with my wife twelve years ago. We set ourselves the goal of helping the Czech economy by creating high-value-added products developed here in the Czech Republic. It is an ambitious goal, and one we intend to pursue over the long term.

Hydrogen is one of the areas and market opportunities we are focusing on. There is less competition in emerging fields. The fact that we do not yet fully understand the technology may look like a risk from the outside, but for us it is a challenge – and that is exactly what we enjoy.

Projects are not developing as quickly as we imagined they would a few years ago. Where do you see the main barriers? Are technological limitations, economics or regulation the main issue?

Karel Souček: All three of these aspects are interconnected. Ultimately, however, they have a common denominator: economics.

With battery electric mobility, which is also a route towards decarbonisation, we do not currently concern ourselves, for example, with the energy mix of the electricity we draw from the grid. With hydrogen, however, we have stipulated that it must be green from the outset, meaning that it has to be produced at a higher cost, rather than allowing the use of cheaper hydrogen, for example, which could enable the technology to be deployed sooner in practice.

Then there is the technology itself. It is ready. There is no doubt that it works or that there is a sufficient range of solutions to choose from. Today, it is possible to build almost anything. Over the course of our work, we have integrated nearly ten different fuel cells with an output of around 50 kW, so we have a clear overview and can say that the technology really is ready.

Municipal bus fleets are a typical example. If a city, which has a duty to manage public resources responsibly, looks purely at the economics, then hydrogen will very often not make sense under today’s conditions.

Ultimately, then, it is the economics that brings the whole process to a halt. Those who want to produce hydrogen have no customers to buy it. The market has not yet developed – or rather, it is developing very slowly. And that is currently the fundamental obstacle to the development of hydrogen technologies.

Do you see battery electric and hydrogen mobility as competing or complementary technologies?

Karel Souček: Once we start looking at vehicles larger than passenger cars – vans over 3.5 tonnes, lorries, trains, buses or aircraft – hydrogen as an energy carrier is much more similar to the fossil fuels we use today and, for the time being, offers greater advantages than any battery currently available.

For two-wheeled vehicles, small urban vehicles, delivery services and similar applications, battery electric mobility has its place and works well. Batteries can also work very well in passenger cars. For larger, more energy-intensive vehicles, however, I believe hydrogen starts to make more sense. It is also a question of energy transmission.

If we imagine replacing all the lorries on the D1 motorway with electric lorries, we would need an enormous electrical infrastructure and quantities of electricity that we simply do not have today. Not everything can be transmitted through a cable.

Which of your hydrogen projects are particularly worth mentioning?

Karel Souček: Certainly, our biggest achievement is the project that has attracted the most attention and has a tangible impact: the hydrogen-powered lorry, which was developed as part of a consortium and supported by the state budget.

The project also includes a refuelling station. For DEVINN, it is something of a pat on the back that we were able to deliver the complete solution – both the hydrogen system for the vehicle and the equipment capable of refuelling it. Fortunately, we have also managed to secure the continuation of the project. A second hydrogen-powered Tatra is already being developed.

Hydrogen is often associated with concerns that it is dangerous and can explode. Should we be afraid of it?

Karel Souček: Yes, hydrogen is dangerous, just like any other fuel, because it is concentrated energy. A canister of petrol is also very dangerous. But there is no reason to demonise hydrogen as something significantly more dangerous than other technologies that we routinely use.

Even if a minor leak occurs, one of hydrogen’s properties is that it disperses very quickly. This means it is less likely to build up to an explosive concentration.

Luboš Hajský: I often use a simple analogy: every day, we put our children in the back seat of a car, with fifty litres of highly flammable petrol just ten centimetres away from them. And we hardly give it a second thought. These technologies can be managed, and we have the technical expertise to use them safely.