ENERGY
Hydrogen, the element with the chemical symbol H2, plays a vital role for the energy and mobility transition. While there are still open questions regarding the way hydrogen is produced and transported, experts expect it will be available as a climate-neutral energy source in many sectors from 2050.
Text: Frank Lassak
Illustrations: Andrea Ucini
ENERGIE
Hydrogen, the element with the chemical symbol H2, plays a vital role for the energy and mobility transition. While there are still open questions regarding the way hydrogen is produced and transported, experts expect it will be available as a climate-neutral energy source in many sectors from 2050.
Text: Frank Lassak
Illustrations: Andrea Ucini
Only about 16 percent of primary energy consumed in Germany is produced from renewable sources. That is not enough to reach the Paris climate goals. If the country won't switch to renewable resources and develop more efficient engine and heating technologies, the energy and mobility transition will stall. But how can that be successful, if wind and solar power cannot cover the country's energy demand sufficiently and reliably due to the geographic, i.e. meteorological, situation? The answer is: hydrogen. The most common chemical element found in the universe is abundantly available on Earth in the form of water, and provided it is produced in a climate-neutral way, hydrogen can be the solution to the dilemma.
For decades, energy and heating utilities as well as the transport and chemical industries have relied mostly on fossil fuels willingly accepting the CO2 and methane emissions associated with them. Now, engineers and scientists are frantically working on new methods to make better use of non-fossil energy sources, so that we may end the fossil economy. “Forgoing petrochemical fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil will only become a reality or rather only be possible when there are well-developed methods to use sustainable energy sources,” said André Thess at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Stuttgart. “Chances are the infrastructure for hydrogen as a climate-neutral energy source won't be available across the board before the middle of the century.”
Which is one of the reasons why the transition cannot be expected to happen overnight. The infrastructure that is being used for distributing and storing fossil fuels is largely not compatible with hydrogen. And existing power plants cannot run on hydrogen as they are; the need to be converted. A project at the multinational energy group Vattenfall shows just how complex of an undertaking that is: the company intends to turn a former coal power plant in Hamburg into a hydrogen production facility and expects a construction timeline of three years. Even so, on a more general level, André Thess at the German Aerospace Center expects hydrogen to develop quickly, especially in the transport sector where they can build on existing technologies, for example with fuel cells. Of course, scaling up new technologies to meet the demand in aerospace or shipping won't be easy. “We will need a lot of new technology,” said Thess. Which will not fall from the sky.
Considerable investments are necessary
According to a study by PWC, Germany will need hundreds of billions worth of investments in infrastructure and production facilities over the next three years, if hydrogen is to replace fossil fuels. What's more, producing CO2-neutral green hydrogen requires a lot of energy resulting in high production costs. Realising this, the US government has recently launched a support programme for the hydrogen industry worth more than USD 50 billion. Meanwhile the German government is still relying on importing hydrogen: Canada wants to start supplying gas from 2025. Other possible suppliers are African nations such as Namibia, Mauritania or Morocco that are rushing to build electrolysis plants for the production of green hydrogen. Compared to the US, German subsidies are paltry, however: the government wants to start supporting the sector with less than EUR 4 billion. “If Germany doesn’t act quickly, the whole technology will go the US,” said Werner Diwald from the German Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association (DWV) in an interview with the “Berliner Zeitung”. Both the production methods and the transport of large amounts of gas by pipeline or ship are still in the development or approval phase.
If Germany doesn’t act quickly, the whole technology will go the US.
Also, not all pipelines are suitable because unlike natural gas hydrogen is a highly reactive element that can make the pipeline steel brittle. Bastian Gillessen at Forschungszentrum Jülich’s Institute of Energy and Climate Research said that while the pipelines in Germany could be expected to withstand hydrogen, gas pipes in other countries were not all hydrogen-resistant because they might be made of inferior steel in some cases. Electrolysis needs to be improved, too: “While the procedure has been applied on an industrial scale for decades, its efficiency needs to be improved considerably to make hydrogen economically viable as an alternative fuel,” said Volker Quaschning, professor for renewable energy systems at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences (HTW Berlin).
Also, not all pipelines are suitable because unlike natural gas hydrogen is a highly reactive element that can make the pipeline steel brittle. Bastian Gillessen at Forschungszentrum Jülich’s Institute of Energy and Climate Research said that while the pipelines in Germany could be expected to withstand hydrogen, gas pipes in other countries were not all hydrogen-resistant because they might be made of inferior steel in some cases. Electrolysis needs to be improved, too: “While the procedure has been applied on an industrial scale for decades, its efficiency needs to be improved considerably to make hydrogen economically viable as an alternative fuel,” said Volker Quaschning, professor for renewable energy systems at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences (HTW Berlin).
Green hydrogen is still expensive
Economic viability is indeed still a long way off. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany it currently costs EUR 165 to produce and transport 1 MWh of imported green hydrogen; by 2030 that price could be down to about EUR 90. To put this in perspective, it costs about EUR 145 to produce and transport the same amount of energy in natural gas right now; before the Ukraine war, it used to be around EUR 35 per MWh. In the medium term, gas market experts at energy consulting firm First Energy expect natural gas prices to be around EUR 50. Green hydrogen should be about twice the price of its fossil competitor then.
HTW's Quaschning has recently done a projection for road traffic. As soon as large hydrogen production facilities are widely available, green hydrogen could be sold to motorists for around EUR 2 per litre of petrol equivalent at the pump, Quaschning writes in his book “Renewable Energy and Climate Change”.
The colours of hydrogen
The names reflect different production methods. Only the green variety is really climate-neutral.
The colours of hydrogen
The names reflect different production methods. Only the green variety is really climate-neutral.
Green hydrogen:
is produced by electrolysis of water using electricity from renewable sources and therefore climate-neutral.
Turquoise hydrogen:
is the product of thermal splitting of methane. Climate-neutrality depends on both the energy source and the way the methane is captured.
Blue hydrogen:
is also produced from methane and the by-product CO2 is stored underground.
Grey hydrogen:
is produced by splitting fossil fuels using electricity from fossil energies.
White hydrogen:
is a by-product of industrial chemical processes, mostly using fossil fuels. Not climate-neutral.
Red hydrogen:
is produced by electrolysis using nuclear power. The method's climate-friendliness is disputed.
Yellow hydrogen:
is produced using a mix of renewable and fossil energies.
Brown hydrogen:
is produced using electricity from coal-fired power plants making it damaging to the climate.
Green hydrogen:
is produced by electrolysis of water using electricity from renewable sources and therefore climate-neutral.
Turquoise hydrogen:
is the product of thermal splitting of methane. Climate-neutrality depends on both the energy source and the way the methane is captured.
Blue hydrogen:
is also produced from methane and the by-product CO2 is stored underground.
Grey hydrogen:
is produced by splitting fossil fuels using electricity from fossil energies.
White hydrogen:
is a by-product of industrial chemical processes, mostly using fossil fuels. Not climate-neutral.
Red hydrogen:
is produced by electrolysis using nuclear power. The method's climate-friendliness is disputed.
Yellow hydrogen:
is produced using a mix of renewable and fossil energies.
Brown hydrogen:
is produced using electricity from coal-fired power plants making it damaging to the climate.
Frank Lassak was born in Hamburg and works as a business journalist in Berlin. He has a particular interest in everything related to the energy and transport sectors.
Frank Lassak was born in Hamburg and works as a business journalist in Berlin. He has a particular interest in everything related to the energy and transport sectors.
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