Special report
Due to technological advancements, hydrogen can now be produced using methods that do not contribute to the worsening of the ecosystem.
cleanly and efficiently, at a stroke transforming industrial processes and offering users a genuinely sustainable way of sourcing the molecule. At its most successful, indeed, green hydrogen could do much to save the planet at large – vital if we’re going to avoid a 2°C rise in global temperatures. Even so, this brave new world is far from straightforward. Though tests and prototypes are well underway, it remains to be seen how green hydrogen will fare when production is ramped up. Then there’s the question of demand. Though hydrogen is an industry stalwart, advocates hope to broaden its popularity, liaising with governments and municipalities to fill everything from taxi cabs to steel plants. But for that to happen, attitudes towards energy planning need to change and robust infrastructure needs to be able to transport molecules from offshore turbines to wherever they’re required. With a bit of support from politicians, however, green hydrogen could soon be as popular as wind energy – and potentially even more reliable.
Coming up for err
Hydrogen is a crucial part of the global economy. Around 75 million tonnes are produced globally each year, employed everywhere from refining petroleum to treating metals to manufacturing products like electronics and glass. As some of these examples imply, the hydrogen sector has traditionally not been especially clean – and that’s before you consider how it’s made. “To produce a ton of hydrogen, you emit like 10t of CO2
,” says Poul Skjaerbaek, the chief
innovation and product officer at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy. As Skjaerbaek explains, that colossal figure can fundamentally be understood in terms of chemistry. Historically refined from fossil fuels gas and coal – themselves made from carbon and hydrogen – the process produces carbon leftover. That carbon, Skjaerbaek continues, reacts with oxygen in the air, resulting in mountains of climate- damaging CO2
. World Wind Technology /
www.worldwind-technology.com
Altogether, old-fashioned hydrogen manufacturing is estimated to produce 830 million tonnes of CO2
each
year – almost as much as the whole of Germany – while about 6% of all natural gas consumption is taken up by hydrogen production. But perhaps even more frustrating than these headline figures is that an alternative to fossil-based hydrogen is theoretically available. As Skjaerbaek stresses, scientists have, for over a century, understood that hydrogen can also be made with water electrolysis. The problem, however, is that producing the necessary electricity has typically required fossil fuels – quickly negating whatever environmental benefit electrolysis could have offered. That, of course, is no longer true. With individual offshore turbines now able to produce up to 74GWh – as is the case with GE’s Haliade-X 14 MW turbine – and the biggest offshore farms capable of powering a cool 1.3 million homes, clean electricity is a reality across Europe and beyond. That, in turn, offers new space for electrolysis-based hydrogen manufacturing. “Placing hydrogen electrolysers on offshore wind turbines is likely to be the quickest and cheapest way of providing fossil-free hydrogen at the scale needed to reduce emissions from heavy industries such as steel and chemicals,” stresses Danielle Lane, Vattenfall’s UK country manager, adding that there’s a real urgency to produce “large quantities” of fossil-free hydrogen. Appreciate the market and this last comment makes sense. For starters, the need for hydrogen in traditional chemical or electronics manufacturing isn’t going away. According to work by the World Bank, the hydrogen production market is already worth $130bn and is expected to rise by 9.2% per year through the end of the decade. That’s shadowed by the rise of new hydrogen-heavy industries too. Between hydrogen- powered cruise ships and hydrogen-powered planes, Lane argues the molecule is “set to play an important role as we move to net zero”. More to the point, Lane adds, industry needs to get ahead of the game, mapping out development and delivery processes even
77% Pew Research Centre $130bn
The value of the global hydrogen market in 2022, which is expected to rise by 9.2% per year through the end of the decade.
World Bank 33
The percentage of people in the US that support building more wind turbines, according to a 2021 survey.
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