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HYDROGEN & CCS
ENERGY CRISIS BOLSTERS GREEN HYDROGEN AND CCUS PROJECTS By Tsvetana Paraskova
The energy crisis and the Western drive to cut dependence on Russian fossil fuels, coupled with government and company pledges for net-zero economies and operations by 2050, have accelerated plans for decarbonisation projects such as green hydrogen and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS).
Low-carbon hydrogen is one of the ten items in the UK’s The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution unveiled two years ago. The UK Hydrogen Strategy from August 2021 says that low-carbon hydrogen will be critical for meeting the UK’s legally binding commitment to achieve net zero by 2050. “Hydrogen can support the deep decarbonisation of the UK economy, particularly in ‘hard to electrify’ UK industrial
Hydrogen and CCUS are part of many government plans for net-zero emissions. They are also part of investments in decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries of many international oil and gas majors, most of which have pledged to become net-zero energy companies within three decades. Hydrogen and CCUS will need a lot of government support and massive private investment to become cost-effective solutions in the energy transition. Yet, projects in these areas are already gaining momentum with the net-zero emission targets and, most recently, the upended global energy markets after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which prompted Western economies to accelerate the development of hydrogen projects as part of an irreversible policy to move away from Russian oil, gas, and coal.
Hydrogen Features in Government Plans for Decarbonisation Hydrogen is a key pillar in government plans for decarbonisation in Europe, including in the latest energy strategies of the UK and the European Union.
www.ogv.energy I August 2022
energy across power, heat and transport. Moreover, the UK’s geography, geology, infrastructure and expertise make it particularly suited to rapidly developing a low carbon hydrogen economy, with the potential to become a global leader on hydrogen and secure economic opportunities across the UK,” the strategy says.
split across industry, power, and the transport and storage network, the plan says. The EU also looks to accelerate the development of hydrogen and hydrogen corridors in the Mediterranean and the North Sea, as part of its REPowerEU Plan, its response to the hardships and global energy market disruption caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The EU Energy Platform will enable the joint purchase of renewable hydrogen. The EU is also proposing setting a target of 10 million tonnes of domestic renewable hydrogen production and 10 million tonnes of imports by 2030, to replace natural gas, coal, and oil in hard-to-decarbonise industries and transport sectors. The European Commission will also roll out carbon contracts for difference to support the uptake of green hydrogen by industry.
The UK has an ambition to have up to 10 gigawatts (GW) of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030, as set in the recent Energy Security Bill. The UK Hydrogen Strategy sets out a so-called ‘twin-track’ approach to supporting both electrolytic ‘green’ and CCUS-enabled ‘blue’ hydrogen production from natural gas. The UK has recently doubled its target for hydrogen production from 5 GW to up to 10 GW by 2030, with at least half of this coming from electrolytic hydrogen.
Green hydrogen’s attractiveness as a source of renewable energy supply has grown as the cost of the other forms of hydrogen production – blue and gray – have soared with high natural gas and coal prices, according to Rystad Energy.
The Energy Security Bill aims to enable the delivery of a large village hydrogen heating trial by 2025, providing crucial evidence to inform strategic decisions in 2026 on the role of hydrogen in heat decarbonisation. Two potential locations for this have already been announced in Whitby, in the Ellesmere Port area, and Redcar.
The war in Ukraine has turbocharged the green hydrogen sector. Green hydrogen’s potential win comes at the expense of its fossil fuel-linked blue and gray alternatives, whose costs have increased by over 70 percent since the start of the war in Ukraine, rising from about $8/kg to $12/kg in a matter of days, Rystad Energy said a month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The plans also includes a target to capture and store 20-30 Mt CO2, which includes 6 Mt CO2 of industrial emissions, per year, by 2030. This could support over 12,000 jobs across the hydrogen value chain and 50,000 jobs in the CCUS sector
“Green hydrogen promises energy security as well as potential new regional economies for renewable energy. While some countries are focused on domestic usage, others are focusing on exports, suggesting that we may be moving
Green Hydrogen Attractiveness Grows
