The topic of clean and sustainable energy is a complex one. Industries and lifestyles alike require easy and affordable access to energy and, for a long time, a vast majority of that energy has been produced using fossil fuels. However, with the increased attention to climate change, energy producers face requirements to produce sustainable and clean energy. While sun and wind are abundant; harvesting it into affordable and usable energy at scale, is a major challenge. They can also only get close to a zero-carbon footprint. Never zero and never negative.
Enter waste and biomass. Founded in 2008, Boson Energy is a company developing technology to recycle otherwise non-recyclable waste and biomass into local carbon-negative hydrogen. With waste being available everywhere where energy is needed, this transforms waste into a major asset in the global energy transition. Company CEO, Jan Grimbrandt, believes hydrogen is ideal for clean and efficient use. “Hydrogen is a brilliant carrier.” He explains, “It will eliminate all emissions. It will achieve climate mitigation if we can grow the production of hydrogen.”
Produced locally, it also allows users the flexibility to utilise the hydrogen across many different applications – at a cost that can compete with diesel and natural gas. It can be used for hydrogen-powered speed charging of buses, trucks and cars without grid connection, directly in Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, for industrial heat applications, or even to provide power-grid stability. This makes it a prime candidate to replace natural gas and other fossil fuels.
To understand the potential; a European family can drive their zero-emission electric or hydrogen car 40-60km per day only on the non-recyclable waste they produce. This also means that a city like London could completely transition to zero-emission electric buses without taking a single kilowatt hour of power from the grid.
However, mere production of hydrogen is not the extent of Boson’s ambition in this space, and the true innovation comes from how the company unlocks that energy – from simple, everyday household waste.
“Of course, we need to recycle materials that are viable for second and third use.” Grimbrandt acknowledges, “But there are large volumes of local waste that are not possible to recycle efficiently with conventional recycling, but we can recycle it by using chemistry here.” Boson makes use of biodegradable household waste, contaminated waste and industrial waste alike in the production of hydrogen. The gains of utilising waste are clear when considering the environmental benefits. Boson can extract clean and sustainable hydrogen without risk of pollution. Rather than stressing and polluting water resources, treating that waste in Boson’s process, even allows for the production of clean water and no stress to reservoirs.
Hydrogen is an energy carrier with clear and sustainable benefits. However, integrating hydrogen into current systems is a challenge; with significant changes needed across generation, distribution and compliance. Boson’s distributed approach with local production keeps these infrastructure investments to a minimum. Communication is key, as stakeholders must be convinced of the benefits of transition. Grimbrandt is optimistic, however, “It’s financially viable so that’s a good driver. This is not decades away , we are only a few years away from a global ramp up.”
Boson is committed to driving the hydrogen transition forward. With its actions, Boson is making the benefits of hydrogen from waste too big to ignore and is contributing to a future where even toxic waste is part of the circular economy, and fossil fuels a thing of the past.
Source: TBD Media Group, https://www.davosinterviews.com/video-and-article/boson-energy