Financial Times Letter: "Why transporting hydrogen by truck is self-defeating"

There's an inherent contradiction in relying on diesel-powered trucks for the delivery of hydrogen, a fuel of the future. Delivering hydrogen by truck undermines the very goal of transitioning to a green economy by ignoring the carbon footprint associated with vehicle miles traveled (VMT).

We sent this "Letter to the Editor" to the Financial Times in order to draw attention to the need for a policy recalibration. The letter invites policymakers, industry leaders, and the community at large to engage in a meaningful dialogue on how our current practices should better align with our long-term goals.

The Financial Times published this letter on April 4, 2024. If you have a subscription, you can access the article here and provide your comments: https://on.ft.com/3vCE8Ul.

You can also read our letter here:

Modern's Letter to the Editor in Financial Times:

Why transporting hydrogen by truck is self-defeating

In relation to your story “Big Oil calls for realism on green transition” (Report, March 25), I would like to highlight one critical point preventing the US from reaching this more sustainable future.

Currently the US Department of Energy artificially puts the transport of hydrogen over pipelines and onsite production of hydrogen at a competitive disadvantage to road transport by not accounting for the CO? impact of the so-called vehicle miles travelled (VMT) in the delivery of hydrogen.

Every hydrogen delivery truck travels one way loaded and returns home empty. All of these delivery miles travelled today are fueled by diesel, and DoE’s hydrogen CO? intensity methodology accounts for none of the emissions. As a result, hydrogen producers and potential hydrogen users do not demand pipelines or onsite production, because truck delivery is perfectly acceptable.

The end results are taxpayer-funded hydrogen projects that in the near term have CO? footprints (from diesel-fueled delivery) greater than the hydrocarbon-fueled applications they were originally meant to displace.

In the medium term, this effectively eliminates consideration of pipelines and onsite co-located production.

Longer term, it negatively affects the economics, availability and market readiness for hydrogen.

The DoE should account for the carbon intensity of the vehicle miles travelled associated with the delivery of all government-incentivized hydrogen projects. By recalibrating our incentives to encompass the full environmental cost of hydrogen delivery, we can then unlock its true potential as a cornerstone of our decarbonized future.

Mothusi Pahl

Vice-President, Business Development and Government Affairs

Modern Hydrogen