The first Global Climate Summit was held in 1995, with COP 28 having been held recently in Dubai. Careful scrutiny of the proceedings and resolutions passed by several global climate meetings highlights the fact that there has been a conflict of interests between the countries when arriving at a strategy to overcome the steadily increasing global warming threat and consequent grim climate challenges that have been unfolding.
One consensus view appears to be that the use of fossil fuels (predominantly coal and crude oil) have to be somehow stopped once andd for all to prevent the emission of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and nitrous oxide, which are contributing to the steady increase in global temperatures. Apart from these, methane emission from livestock and during the transportation and storage of natural gas, as well as the use of fluorinated gas have also been cited as contributors for global warming
As coal, crude oil, natural gas are now extensively used as fuel and feedstock and economically and technically viable alternate fuel sources are still in the planning stage with uncertain outcomes, several leaders participating in the global climate meetings seem to be of the view, in their hearts of hearts, that totally eliminating the use of fossil fuels is a utopian expectation. Same is their view in the case of methane emission from livestock.
Hope for green hydrogen
There appears to be an unanimous conclusion that green hydrogen is one of the best options for use as an energy source and as feedstock source to some extent, as green hydrogen is an eco-friendly fuel, the use of which would cause no emissions. It is recognised that in the process of achieving global energy revolution in an eco-friendly way by eliminating the use of fossil fuels, green hydrogen energy is one of the cleanest energies with the brightest application prospects and highest practical values and utilisation.
Of course, green hydrogen is pure and clean hydrogen, produced from renewable energy source like solar, wind, hydro power as well as nuclear energy. Use of green hydrogen would help to decarbonise a range of sectors, including long-haul transport, industrial sector such as chemicals, and iron and steel where it has proven difficult to reduce emissions. Green hydrogen-powered vehicles would improve air quality and promote energy security.
Issues with Green Hydrogen – Will it end up as hype?
The fact is that green hydrogen can be a good enough substitute as energy source for brown / grey hydrogen produced from fossil fuels (steam reforming of fossil fuel) that have hefty carbon footprints. However, to be an effective substitute to ensure that fossil fuel based hydrogen would be totally eliminated, it is necessary that the production of green hydrogen, should be adequately large to replace the brown / grey hydrogen.
Global production of hydrogen (all types) via vis green hydrogen
Global production and use of hydrogen (all types) is estimated to be around 95 million tonnes per year in 2022, with the hydrogen almost entirely being produced based on fossil fuel. Global demand for hydrogen has been increasing at around 3% year on year, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
As against this, in the year 2022, the production of green hydrogen produced from renewable energy or from nuclear plants is estimated to be less than one hundred thousand (0.1 million) tonnes per annum, with the global green hydrogen production capacity being around 1,09000 tonne per annum only. Obviously, the production of green hydrogen represents a very small fraction of the total hydrogen production / demand in the world as of now.
To entirely replace the fossil fuel based hydrogen production whose demand is increasing at 3% every year, more than 95 million tonnes per year of green hydrogen has to be produced in the world. This appears to be an uphill task or perhaps, impossible task. as of now.
Issues relating to technology and cost of green hydrogen production
The key technology for producing green hydrogen involves electrolysis, where an electrolyzer utilizes electricity from renewable sources to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Globally, alkaline electrolyzers are most widely deployed for green hydrogen production. The alkaline electrolyzer technology accounted for the highest global green hydrogen market share in 2023.
Electrolyzer technology is power intensive. Minimum power requirement for green hydrogen production using electorlyzer technology is about 40 kWh/kg of hydrogen, which relates to an efficiency of almost 85%.
The cost of production of green hydrogen produced by water electrolysis process is much higher than that of grey or brown hydrogen. A number of research agencies have estimated that the levelised…
Read More: Hope Or Hype – OpEd – Eurasia Review