The photo is sourced from iea.org
Among the growth points for the industry today is the production of petroleum products: hydrogen, in particular, is used in the production of low-sulfur diesel fuel from oil with a high sulfur content, including in regions with strict environmental regulations. For instance, refineries in the West Coast states (California, Oregon and Washington) of the United States ramped up their purchases of hydrogen from third-party producers by 29% between 2012 and 2022 (up to 15.4 million cubic metres per day). As a result, the share of purchases in the total hydrogen consumption by the region’s refineries rose to 70% in 2022 (against 63% in 2019, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, EIA).
Another sector for the introduction of hydrogen, which has already been mentioned, is transport, where fuel-cell vehicles serve as an alternative to the use of lithium-ion batteries, for which effective disposal methods have not yet been found. The global fleet of fuel-cell vehicles increased by 20% in 2023 (to 87,600 units), which in absolute terms translates into 15,400 vehicles, of which half were passenger cars, and the other half consisted of trucks, vans and buses. The largest number of passenger cars powered by fuel cells – over 33,000 vehicles – is recorded in South Korea, while China leads in the other segments, accounting for 80% of the water buses used worldwide, as well as 90% of vans and 95% of trucks powered by fuel cells, which convert the chemical energy of hydrogen into electricity.
Hydrogen is gradually finding application in the power sector. An example is a 49 megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant in the English county of Lincolnshire, where H2 has been used to generate electricity since 2023. Hydrogen, which is produced through thermal plasma electrolysis (separating natural gas into carbon and hydrogen), is added to the gas mixture at a concentration of 3%. Over time, the concentration is supposed to increase to 20%, reducing the carbon footprint of gas-fired power generation: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that the specific emissions of gas-fired power plants are more than 40 times higher than those of nuclear reactors (490 grams versus 12 grams of CO2 equivalent per 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity).
Half of the global hydrogen supply by 2050 will come from grey and blue hydrogen: in both cases, H2 is produced by steam reforming of methane, but the production of blue hydrogen involves CO2 capture technologies. The GECF estimates that 45% of the world’s H2 supply by 2050 will come from electrolysis units, which split water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable energy sources, and the remaining 5% will come from all other methods of producing H2, including naturally occurring hydrogen (white hydrogen).
