Thomas Koch-Blank

Managing Director, RMI · 1 appearance on the record.

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At RMI, he leads efforts to accelerate clean hydrogen adoption across hard-to-abate sectors like steel, shipping, and chemicals, and heads the Green Hydrogen Catapult coalition. Prior to RMI, he spent over eight years at McKinsey & Company helping build its Sustainability and Resource Productivity practice.

10statements → 9claims → 8claims resolved → 88%fully supported → 3.8/5average certainty → 2.1/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →

7 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not checkable as stated how the 9 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 8 assertions · 1 insight · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 9 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 8 are resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Thomas argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported

Koch-Blank: Historical IPCC tables underestimated the climate impact of hydrogen leakage

“There has, I mean, if you go back in the tables that have been developed by the IPCC process and used in all the national inventories for hydrogen leakage, the number has been significantly lower than some of the recent research suggests.”

Thomas Koch-Blank Feb 9, 2023 ▶ 6:06 What hydrogen leakage means for the climate

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Thomas Koch-Blank on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

What they said10 Episodes1

Everything Thomas Koch-Blank said on Catalyst that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Supported

Koch-Blank: Historical IPCC tables underestimated the climate impact of hydrogen leakage

Thomas Koch-Blank Feb 9, 2023 ▶ 6:06 What hydrogen leakage means for the climate

Assertion Supported

Koch-Blank: Hydrogen leaks indirectly cause warming by extending methane lifetime and creating water vapor

“Basically what happens is that the hydrogen that leaks has itself a global warming potential, which has been considered, but then also it has an effect of extending the lifetime of methane in the atmosphere basically causing the methane to stick around longer,…”

Thomas Koch-Blank Feb 9, 2023 ▶ 6:29 What hydrogen leakage means for the climate

Prediction Not checkable as stated

Koch-Blank: Massive hydrogen adoption rates across the economy are unlikely

“Very large adoption rates for hydrogen in the economy, for example, which I think many of us who work with hydrogen a lot would consider to be a big number, which is unlikely as an outcome”

Thomas Koch-Blank Feb 9, 2023 ▶ 17:00 What hydrogen leakage means for the climate

Assertion Supported

Koch-Blank: Recent research doubles hydrogen's 100-year global warming potential to 10

“The global warming potential, which has been traditionally considered, has been, I think, five. Kilograms of CO₂ equivalent per kilogram of hydrogen leaked, and the recent research indicates that it's, should rather be 10.”

Thomas Koch-Blank Feb 9, 2023 ▶ 9:56 What hydrogen leakage means for the climate

Assertion Supported

Koch-Blank: Methane leakage has 5x the 20-year warming impact of hydrogen per megajoule

“For natural gas, it goes from 25 to 80, roughly, from a, when you compare a hundred to 25. And for hydrogen, it goes from 10 to 40, so it increases substantially, but it's still half of the global warming impact, global warming potential of Natural gas per kil…”

Thomas Koch-Blank Feb 9, 2023 ▶ 13:36 What hydrogen leakage means for the climate

Insight

Koch-Blank: Safety risks will force hydrogen infrastructure to leak less than methane

“The safety aspects of leaking hydrogen, because the properties of leaking hydrogen is much more dangerous than leaking, Methane. Partly because it's harder to detect. So, So that's one reason why systems are likely to be tighter.”

Thomas Koch-Blank Feb 9, 2023 ▶ 23:33 What hydrogen leakage means for the climate

Assertion Supported

Koch-Blank: Hydrogen for steelmaking yields double the emissions reduction of transport

“Using the hydrogen molecule for reducing iron ore Has twice as much you know, impact on the alternative, compared to the alternative If you benchmark with using it for transportation applications, and I bucket here shipping, aviation, and trucking.”

Thomas Koch-Blank Feb 9, 2023 ▶ 35:26 What hydrogen leakage means for the climate

Assertion Supported

Koch-Blank: Moving energy via pipeline molecules is cheaper than electrons

“Pipeline, moving molecules in a pipeline is really cheap. That's what we see in other markets. You know, there is a reason we're moving molecules to the regional power markets and then not moving electrons over copper between Europe and North America, for exam…”

Thomas Koch-Blank Feb 9, 2023 ▶ 38:51 What hydrogen leakage means for the climate

Assertion Supported

Koch-Blank: Operating hydrogen pipelines do not publicly disclose leakage rates

“There's a lack of statistics, I think, from the existing hydrogen supply chains. There are several pipelines in operation, for example, and they're not publicly disclosing their leakage rates or how they detect or measure, and that I think is a, you know, it's…”

Thomas Koch-Blank Feb 9, 2023 ▶ 40:35 What hydrogen leakage means for the climate

Assertion Partly supported

Koch-Blank: One steel mill matches hydrogen demand of 100,000 buses

“You need roughly, you know, 100,000 fuel cell buses to equate to a single steel mill. And shipping is somewhere in between with roughly 30 ships for, you know, equating to a steel mill”

Thomas Koch-Blank Feb 9, 2023 ▶ 36:35 What hydrogen leakage means for the climate

Appearances (1)

Episode	Date	Speaking time
What hydrogen leakage means for the climate	Feb 9, 2023	22m

Thomas Koch-Blank

The record, in short

Their most notable supported claim

How they sound: not measured why? →

Appearances (1)

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