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GREEN HYDROGEN
Green hydrogen is in the news lately. Governments around the world want to produce and use more and more of green hydrogen. Many of the countries, from the US, to the European Union, China, Chile, Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Australia and India are pouring billions of dollars to research and come up with viable use of green hydrogen.
On August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of the National Hydrogen Mission (NHM), coinciding with India’s 75th Independence Day. Mr Modi said that the aim was to make the country a global hub for production and export of green hydrogen.
The potential of hydrogen as a game-changer in the energy arena has long been known. Its versatility allows it to be utilised in transportation, power generation and industry.
So, what is green hydrogen? There
are several ways of extracting hydrogen, and, depending on the method, the hydrogen produced is classified as grey, blue and green hydrogen.
The World Energy Council notes: About 96 per cent of hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels via carbon intensive processes. Hydrogen thus obtained is called grey hydrogen as the process, though not as expensive as the other methods, releases a lot of carbon dioxide.
Grey hydrogen becomes blue hydrogen when the carbon dioxide given out during its production is locked up through carbon capture and storage (CCS) processes. But while the carbon dioxide output is lowered, this process is quite expensive. Grey and blue hydrogen thus are both produced by the same processes.
Green hydrogen, on the other hand, is hydrogen that is created using renewable energy instead of fos
sil fuels. Hydrogen can be produced through electrolysis of water, leaving nothing but oxygen as a by-product. Electrolysis employs an electric current to split water into hydrogen and oxygen in an electrolyser. If the electricity is produced by renewable power, such as solar or wind, the resulting pollutant-free hydrogen is called green hydrogen.
However, producing green hydrogen is easier said than done because of the huge cost involved. This is where all the government are funding researches to make green hydrogen production economically viable. Rapidly-declining cost of renewable energy and falling cost of electrolysers raise hopes around green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is certainly the fuel of the future. However, until the cost of its production falls considerably, green hydrogen will be the fuel of the distant future.