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Hydrogen and fuel cells are often held up as one of the big solutions to getting off
fossil fuels, but what if I told you that 95% of hydrogen is currently produced from
fossil fuels?
This is when green hydrogen typically comes up.
But what is it and how does it stack up against other renewable options?
And what if I told you there’s a solar cell that can make hydrogen directly from the air?
Let’s explore green hydrogen’s booming potential.
Yeah, I made an explosion joke.
I’m Matt Ferrell ... welcome to Undecided
So when did hydrogen go green?
On paper, the British scientist J.B.S.
Haldane was the first one to raise the concept of renewable hydrogen in 1923.
It’s not until 1990 that the Haldane prediction came true.
In that year, hydrogen was produced from solar for the first time in a German pilot plant.
But what is green hydrogen ... well, there are three color coded categories of hydrogen
production: green, gray, and blue.
As of today, the definition of green hydrogen doesn’t seem to be the same across the globe.
Based on the European CertifHy project, hydrogen is awarded a ...green card...if it’s generated
by renewable energy and the process’ carbon emissions are 60% below those released by
gray hydrogen.
Gray hydrogen is made from fossil fuels ... obviously.
Specifically by steam reforming of natural gas.
And gray hydrogen turns into blue when carbon capture and utilisation/storage (CCS/CCU)
are used in the process.
Basically you’re just sucking up as much of the carbon output as you can.
I’ve got a video on CCS in another video if you’re interested, but that’s the full
hydrogen rainbow.
But how do we produce green hydrogen from renewable sources?
The most ready-to-go technologies are: 1) a renewables-powered electrolyzer (a.k.a.
power-to-gas (P2G) technology and 2) steam reforming of biogas with or without CCS/CCU.
For the purposes on focusing on the greenest hydrogen, I’m only going to look at the
first one.
So first, what’s an electrolyzer?
Put simply, it’s a device that breaks down water into oxygen and hydrogen.
This happens in a cell with a membrane separating a cathode (positive pole) and an anode (negative
pole).
When you apply a current to the cell you trigger electrolysis, in other words water splitting.
Now it sounds like a green process, but there’s a major issue.
If you’re not using renewable-generated electricity to power the electrolyzer, then
you’re still having a high environmental impact.
Although industrial renewable-powered electrolyzers achieve efficiencies of up to 85%, only 4%
of the global hydrogen is produced this way.
The high-purity hydrogen produced by an electrolyzer is ideal to be fed to a fuel cell.
During the last decade hydrogen fuel cells development has slowed down, but it’s still
moving along and hasn’t stopped.
Japanese companies have been all in on fuel cells for use in vehicles (FCEVs).
Sometimes to a fault, but the cost is dropping as the technology edges toward mass production.
Even if FCEVs lowering costs drop at the expected rate, it’s not expected to match those of
battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and fossil-fuelled cars until 2030.
Even though passenger car variants of FCEVs may be lagging behind battery electric, other
transport types might benefit from them.
Hydrogen fuel cells may make more sense for heavier vehicles traveling over longer distances
such as buses, trucks and trains.
For example, in 2016 in the US there were 12,000 hydrogen fuel cell powered forklift
trucks.
Other than road and rail transport, green hydrogen appeals to the shipping industry
as well.
Many maritime companies are considering this option, but it’s not clear sailing since
hydrogen has a low volumetric energy density compared to other fuels, which makes it tricky
to store on board.
The workaround for that would be to use high pressure systems, liquefied hydrogen or solid
material to trap the gas into.
All of this is still under development.
So, is green hydrogen getting off the ground?
In some cases it is ... literally.
Airbus is counting on green hydrogen to propel its zero-emission aircrafts by 2030, but the
aviation application isn’t free of challenges either.
We’re still far from having adequate infrastructures to provide large amounts of hydrogen at airports
around the world.
There seems to be a lot going on in the transportation sector, but what else can we do with green
hydrogen?
We can’t electrify everything and green hydrogen can work as an...extension cord...for
renewable energy.
Plus, clean hydrogen can also be stored, so it can be used to compensate for renewable
energy intermittency.
This makes a lot of sense as it gives us flexibility and a more resilient grid when used in combination
with renewable energy.
That’s why this clean fuel can be strategic as we clean up different sectors like heating
and other fossil fuel-dependent applications (e.g. like steel production).
For instance, as of 2018, hydrogen fuel cells heated up 225,000 homes around the world.
So, which countries are in pole position in the green hydrogen race?
One of them is my favorite renewable energy go to: Australia.
Hydrogen Renewables Australia is developing a 5-gigawatt project to produce green hydrogen
for export to Asian countries.
The mega electrolyzer will be powered by a combo of solar and wind and use desalinated
water taken from the ocean.
The UK is planning to use its offshore wind power for a 5GW hydrogen production capacity
by 2030.
Green hydrogen can inspire a vision for futuristic cities.
Just like the Saudi Arabian Neom, a $500bn urban project, whose energy demand will come
from renewable hydrogen.
To make the dream come true, the US company Air Products & Chemicals has been building
what they claim to be the world’s largest green hydrogen plant.
4 GW worth of solar and wind installations will generate the clean fuel.
And then there’s Wuhan ... it’s not just famous ... or infamous ... for what we all
know it for.
China is planning to shape Wuhan as a hydrogen city, which will have up to 100 fueling stations
by 2025.
But solar and wind aren’t the only options to produce green hydrogen.
Despite an explosion at a hydrogen filling station, Nel’s fuel cell EVs production
is still going at ... full blast ... the Norwegian company has been generating their clean hydrogen
from hydropower since 1940.
This year Scotland will launch the world’s first continuous green hydrogen plant powered
by tides.
The missing link is vanadium flow batteries, which will store energy surplus generated
by tidal turbines at high tide and release it at low tide.
To add to that, geothermal energy will also contribute to green hydrogen generation in
New Zealand at some point this year.
That’s not the end of it.
Scientists around the world have been brewing up clean hydrogen using crazy innovations.
What if you could produce hydrogen using the solar panel on your roof?
A Belgian research team did it.
Well, they didn’t actually use the one on your roof, but developed a solar cell prototype
that produced 250 liters of hydrogen per day out of sunlight and moisture.
Yes, just the moisture from the air.
To add to that, their latest panel efficiency increased 150 times compared to the one created
10 years earlier.
Now, this is still lab talk, but if they’re able to scale up the technology, we won’t
need expensive electrolysis mega-plants.
What about producing hydrogen while reducing global warming at the same time?
Sounds crazy, right?
Well, South Korean researchers developed a catalyst made of cheap materials like magnesium
to convert the two worst greenhouse gases, CO2 and CH4, into hydrogen.
Their climate-friendly process is called dry reforming.
Another cheap yet efficient solution is coming from Japan.
The University of Tokyo made hydrogen out of light, organic waste and a catalyst made
of rust.
Yes, rust.
By-passing the energy-demanding, water-thirsty electrolysis, their technology produced 25
times more hydrogen than the conventional techniques.
While there is a buzz around green hydrogen, it’s money that makes the world go around,
right?
So, is it worth it?
Let’s look at the true cost of green hydrogen and see how competitive it is compared to
other fuels.
Based on the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), as of today green hydrogen
has a comparable cost (around $2.50/kg) to some of the fossil-fuel alternatives only
when produced with the cheapest renewable technology.
Good news is the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of solar and wind has fallen dramatically
over the last decade and is expected to continue to fall over the next 30 years from additional
technology improvements.
The same applies to electrolyzers.
This favorable combo is expected to make green hydrogen cheaper than all forms of hydrogen
from fossil fuels by 2050.
Or even by 2025 according to Nel.
The Norwegian electrolyzer manufacturer claimed they could cut the cost of their devices by
75%.
This will bring down the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) to $1.50/kg.
The same as grey hydrogen.
So if they pull this off, they’ll be price parity in just a few years.
The Hydrogen Council also predicted green hydrogen to become more competitive than grey
hydrogen as early as 2030 for long-range large vehicles (trains, buses, forklifts), boilers
and industrial heating.
But this won’t come for free.
We’ll need to invest $70B to up-scale hydrogen technologies.
It’s a big investment.
Throwing money at hydrogen might not be a good idea for some.
Green hydrogen skeptics argue we might struggle to produce enough renewable energy to meet
its global demand.
So what do we do?
We could mix and match the colors.
Remember blue hydrogen?
It might be able to act as a bridge as we ramp up green production.
The point is that the much-hyped hydrogen economy might be slower and less green than
many think.
The hydrogen hype might work as a diversion driving money away from renewables and battery
technologies ... shifting it towards oil companies.
Regardless of how you may feel about that, green hydrogen might be an essential piece
of the renewable energy puzzle over the next few decades.
If you’d like to learn more about hydrogen, energy, and the “how” behind a lot of
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So what do you think of green hydrogen?
Is it an essential part of our fossil fuel free energy future?
Jump into the comments and let me know.
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