CLEAN GREEN NEW TECHNOLOGY GENERATES GREEN HYDROGEN
Countries around the globe are implementing aggressive initiatives to encourage the production and use of green hydrogen. Some forecasts predict that markets for two nickel-containing technologies, electrolysers that produce hydrogen, and fuel cells that use hydrogen to power vehicles, are likely to increase by two orders of magnitude in the next ten years.
Energy is consumed in four major areas: transportation, industry, residential and commercial uses.
What is fueling the shift?
The role of electrolysis
To achieve the Paris Agreement’s decarbonisation targets and the subsequent ambitions of individual countries for a carbon-neutral society, fossil fuel combustion must be replaced by carbon-neutral alternatives.
The most efficient way of producing hydrogen is by electrolysis, which is based on splitting a water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen. The dissociation of the water molecule in an electrical field evolves hydrogen on the cathode (−) and oxygen on the anode (+), where they are both collected off respective terminals. When hydrogen is produced by electrolysis using renewable energy sources, it is also free of CO2 production. This form of hydrogen is called “green hydrogen”.
Hydrogen could be a perfect solution as an alternative fuel. It is a gas that, when converted to energy, does not produce CO2 but rather emits only water vapour. Its adoption would, therefore, significantly reduce greenhouse gas generation. 10 | NICKEL, VOL. 36, Nº 1, 2021
