Hydrogen offers a renewable substitute for fossil-based energy and feedstock for a growing number of applications, reducing the carbon-intensity of a variety of industries.
Certain industries seek to gain the most by decarbonising with hydrogen. These industries include:
The transportation industry accounts for roughly 16% of global GHG emissions with road transportation emitting almost 12%. Hydrogen is considered key to decarbonisation.
Applications include heavy duty vehicles, rail transport, agricultural vehicles, material handling, and marine fuel for ships.
Applications like heavy transport, shipping or aviation require high energy density at low weight which batteries will not be able to provide.
The existing hydrogen economy is based on proximity of on-site production and consumption (point-to-point). First hydrogen clusters are developing and it is expected that a merchant market will develop within the next decade.
In many European countries hydrogen can already be blended into the natural gas stream (up to 5-10) thereby repurposing the vast natural gas infrastructure for transportation.
Compressed hydrogen can be transported in high pressure tanks (via train or trucks) offering high geographical flexibility at minimal fix infrastructure.
Chemical conversion to ammonia is an alternative method of transporting large amounts of green hydrogen. Transportation of ammonia is common practice and many ports already have the required infrastructure in place.
Renewable hydrogen can substitute coal and other conventional fuels not only in high temperature industrial processes, but also in thermal application because of its high energy density.
Heavy industrial sectors with high consumption of hydrogen (25% of global demand) are iron, steel, aluminium, and cement production. A further 10% of global demand is used in industries such as semiconductors, glass production and food processing.
Many processes like steel or cement manufacturing cannot be fully electrified because of the high temperatures required.
Hydrogen can replace fossil fuels providing stable, reliable, and clean energy on demand through combustion turbines or a fuel cell.
Like other fuels, hydrogen can supply locations with limited access to the grid, provide load balancing when large portions of electricity come from intermittent renewables sources such as solar and wind, and provide energy for temporary applications through portable power generators.
Building heating is one of the largest pollutants. With minor retrofit, many boilers can already use hydrogen to generate heat and reduce emissions.
Hydrogen, with its high energy density, can be used to heat buildings such as hospital, schools, sports centres, offices, and residences, to name but a few.
Different storage solutions are available including material-based storage (ammonia, DME), or physical-based storage as compressed hydrogen.
Pressurised tank storage is suitable for short- and medium-term storage and it is easily scalable. Large storage capacity mainly for seasonal usage can be provided through underground hydrogen storage either in salt caverns or porous reservoirs.
Hydrogen has been identified as an enabler of the Energy Transition to harness excess energy and manage, store and securely supply it at the right capacity, time and affordability. Renewable electricity is intermittent because it depends on sun and wind. Energy storage solutions through hydrogen (daily, seasonal) will secure electricity supply when required by customers.
Hydrogen is an important chemical feedstock used as part of the process or as element to create more complex compounds.
65% of hydrogen produced today is used in the chemical industry, most of which is sourced from coal (48%), oil (30%) and natural gas (18%).
Among others, it is used in agricultural fertilizers, refineries, petrochemical products such as ammonia, resins and polymers.
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