HYDROGEN | SPECIAL REPORT
Is there a place for a future nuclear- hydrogen economy?
The rapidly-expanding hydrogen economy is set to be an opportunity for nuclear. Taking advantage of that option will present a complex challenge for developers Janet Wood reports
Above: Hydrogen is an opportunity for nuclear but also presents challenges
HYDROGEN IS ALREADY A BIG business. Global demand stood at 130 million tonnes in 2020, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA’s) 2021 Global Hydrogen Review. Two thirds of current production is used for industrial purposes, including to produce ammonia in an early stage of fertiliser production. A third is as part of a mixture of gases, such as synthesis gas, used for fuel or feedstock for other chemicals. At the moment the overwhelming majority of hydrogen is
produced from methane gas, via steam reforming. Those uses are not going away – quite the reverse. In
Janet Wood
Expert author on energy issues
future, more industries are expected to turn to hydrogen, to replace fossil fuels in sectors such as steelmaking. Hydrogen is also expected to be important in decarbonising other sectors where electricity cannot be used, such as heavy transport including trucking and rail services. It is also an important option for long-term energy storage and other roles in managing electricity supply, for example hydrogen replacing methane in gas turbines. The IEA estimates that by 2050 hydrogen production will have to grow to over 500 million tonnes annually. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission puts the potential at twice that.
But in order to play those roles hydrogen must be
produced free of carbon emissions. Two options are on the table. The traditional method of methane reforming uses steam at 700–1,000°C to produce hydrogen (an alternative method, autothermal reforming – is a chemical process that has not yet been deployed at scale). In order to qualify as low carbon it has to be combined with carbon capture and storage, increasing the cost and risk of deployment. Another problem in stepping up the use of methane reforming is the significant constituency across climate and energy who consider that basing a hydrogen industry on continued use of methane can only be a short-term fix. There is growing interest in electrolysers, which use an electric cell to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. They have the attraction of simplicity, if the electricity used is low carbon and produced by nuclear or renewables. Electrolysers are now being installed at demonstration or pre-commercial scale of up to a few MW at sites worldwide. In electrolysis, a lot of power capacity is of course
required. The IEA estimates that to meet its hydrogen target will require that installed electrolysis capacity reaches around 850 GW by 2030 and almost 3600 GW by 2050. U
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