Both pink and blue have been used to distinguish between different methods of hydrogen production.
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from Tesla’s Elon Musk for President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen The past few years have seen a number of high-profile names speak out about the role hydrogen may – or may not – play in the shift to a more sustainable future for the planet.
is musk expressed doubt The utility of hydrogen remains uncertain, but many think it can help reduce emissions in many areas, including transportation and heavy industry.
While there is a major discussion about hydrogen and its importance as a tool in securing a low carbon future – a topic that has arisen much debate In recent months – most of its production is still based on fossil fuels.
Indeed, according to a September 2022 Tracking Report From the International Energy Agency, low-emission hydrogen production is expected to account for less than 1% of global hydrogen production in 2021.
Hydrogen generation needs to change in a big way if it is to have any role in the planned energy transition.
“The first thing to say is that hydrogen doesn’t really exist naturally, so it has to be produced,” said Rachel Rothman, co-director of the Grantham Center for Sustainable Futures at the University of Sheffield.
“It has a lot of potential to help us move forward, but we need to find low-carbon ways to produce it first,” he said, adding that different methods of production were “denoted by different colors”. Was.”
“About 95% of our hydrogen today comes from steam methane reforming and it has a large carbon footprint, and is referred to as ‘grey’ hydrogen,” Rothman told CNBC.
According to the energy firm, gray hydrogen is National Grid, “manufactured from natural gas, or methane.” It states that the greenhouse gases associated with this process is not capturedHence the carbon footprint that Rothman refers to.
The dominance of such a method is clearly with net-zero goals. As a result, an array of sources, systems and dyes of hydrogen are now being put forward as alternatives.
These include green hydrogen, which refers to hydrogen produced using renewables and electrolysis with an electric current. Splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen.
Blue, on the other hand, indicates the use of hydrogen, natural gas – a fossil fuel – and the carbon capture utility and storage. there was a charged argument Blue hydrogen can play a role in the decarbonisation of society.
pink capacity
Along with blue and green, another color gaining attention is pink. Like green hydrogen, its process involves electrolysis, but it has one key difference: it uses pink atoms.
Rothman said, “If you split … water, you get hydrogen and oxygen.” “But splitting water takes energy, so Pink is splitting water using energy that comes from the hydrogen atom.”
This means that “the whole system is low carbon, because … there is no carbon in the water … but the energy source is also very low carbon because it is nuclear.”
Along with electrolysis, Rothman notes that the atom can also be used with something called a thermochemical cycle.
This, he explained, used very high temperatures to split water into oxygen and hydrogen.
Pink hydrogen already has some potentially important supporters. These include EDF Energy, which has floated the idea of producing hydrogen at Sizewell Sea, a 3.2-gigawatt nuclear power station planned for the UK.
“At Sizewell C, we are exploring how we can produce and use hydrogen in a number of ways,” the says the firm’s website. “First, it can help lower emissions during the construction of the power station.”
“Secondly, once Sizewell C is operational, we hope to use some of the heat generated (along with the electricity) to make hydrogen more efficiently.”
EDF Energy, which is part of the multinational company edf groupsaid in a statement sent to CNBC, “Hydrogen energy produced from nuclear power could play an important role in the transition.”
The company also acknowledged that there were challenges facing the sector and its development.
“Hydrogen is currently a relatively expensive fuel and therefore the key challenge for low-carbon electrolytic hydrogen produced from renewable or nuclear energy is to reduce the cost of production.”
This required “supportive policies that encourage investment in early hydrogen production projects and encourage users to switch from fossil fuels to low-carbon hydrogen.”
“The growing market for low-carbon hydrogen will provide economies of scale and “learning by doing” that will help reduce the cost of production.”
While there is enthusiasm about the role of nuclear in hydrogen production and the wider energy transition – for example, the IEA says that nuclear power “has significant potential to contribute to the decarbonization of the electricity sector” – it goes without saying that It is not favored by all.
Critics include Greenpeace. “Nuclear power is touted as the solution to our energy problems, but in reality it is complex and extremely expensive,” says the environmental organisation. “It also produces huge amounts of hazardous waste.”
A multicolored future?
During his interview with CNBC, Rothman of the University of Sheffield talked about the big picture and the role of different types of hydrogen. Will we ever see a time when the level of blue and gray hydrogen drops to zero?
“It depends on how long you’re looking at the time frame,” he said, adding that “in an ideal world, they would eventually become very short.”
“Eventually, we ideally get rid of all our gray hydrogen, because gray hydrogen has a huge carbon footprint and we need to get rid of it,” Rothman said.
“As we improve carbon capture and storage, there may be a place for blue hydrogen and that remains to be evaluated … depending on the developments there.”
“There has to be a place for the pink and the green we know because that’s where you get the really low carbon [hydrogen]And we know it has to be, it’s possible to get there.”
Fiona Rayment, chief scientist at the UK National Nuclear Laboratory – which, like EDF Energy, is a member of the trade association Hydrogen UK – stressed the importance of having a range of options available in the coming years.
“The challenge of net zero cannot be underestimated; we will need to adopt all sources of low carbon hydrogen production to replace our reliance on fossil fuels,” she told CNBC.
While there has been a lot of talk about using colors to distinguish different methods of hydrogen production, there has also been lively discussion as to whether such a classification system should even exist.
“What we want is low-carbon hydrogen,” Rothman said. “And I know there’s a lot of confusion about the different colors, and I hear some people say … ‘Why do we even have colors, why don’t we just have hydrogen and low-carbon hydrogen?'”
“And in the end, it’s the low-carbon bit that’s important, and both pink and green will do that.”