Green Hydrogen
Green Hydrogen for the
clean energy transition
Hydrogen (H₂) is a fundamental element for various chemical reactions and acts as a clean fuel for a sustainable world, emitting only water when used. Yet, most of today's hydrogen production is carbon-intensive. When produced using renewable energy to split water, it's labeled "green" and results in zero emissions, positioning it as an ideal fossil fuel alternative.
Currently, industries consume over 100 million tons of hydrogen annually. However, demand is projected to soar to 500-600 MTPA due to its expanding roles in clean power, energy storage, transportation, and industrial processes, emphasizing its potential to decarbonize vast economic sectors.
Why Green Hydrogen?
Zero carbon emissions
Regardless of the production method, Hydrogen is 100% clean to use, emitting only water vapor. Green hydrogen, produced with renewable energy in a zero-emissions process, has no carbon footprint from production through use.
Exceptional energy density
Hydrogen has an exceptional energy density – delivering more energy per weight than gasoline, natural gas, and other fuels.
Versatile usage
Hydrogen's versatility spans various applications, functioning as an energy source—burned as fuel or converted to electricity via fuel cells—and as a clean chemical in industrial processes, including its role as a reduction agent in green steel production.
biggest challenge facing humanity.
biggest challenge facing humanity.
51 Gigatons of annual GHG emissions is the
THE MISSING PIECE IN THE PUZZLE
NET
ZERO
.png)
Net-zero cannot be achieved without green hydrogen
Increasingly affordable renewable electricity
is a huge part of the solution, but there are
but there are
still big challenges to overcome.
still big challenges to overcome.
Green Hydrogen solves these problems.
INTERMITTENCY OF
RENEWABLES
For a decarbonized world, we need clean energy to be available 24/7, but renewables are not. Wind does not always blow and the sun does not always shine, especially in many of the most industrialized parts of the world. Furthermore, electricity is difficult to store seasonally, as well as to transport long distances.
AlWAYS ON
ENERGY
Green hydrogen is great for long-term energy storage and long distance transport. This allows us to take excess renewable energy, save it for when we don’t have it, and share it with places in the world that are lacking renewable resources. When it’s time to use, hydrogen can be easily converted to electricity.
CAN’T ELECTRIFY
EVERYTHING
In many applications, batteries are impractical. Think about how big a battery would need to be to power an airplane, ship, or long-haul truck - it just wouldn’t work. Additionally, in many industrial processes, like glass or cement manufacturing, the high heats needed are not easily achieved with electricity.
ZERO
EMISSIONS FUEL
Sometimes, you just need good old fashioned combustible fuel. Green hydrogen is that - but unlike fossil fuels, when you burn hydrogen for energy, or convert it into electricity using a fuel cell, the only emissions are water vapor! This makes hydrogen, and e-fuel derivates, the perfect solution for applications where batteries are impractical or where high heats are needed.
POLLUTING INDUSTRIAL
PROCESSES
Many industrial processes, like steel-making, rely on CO2-emitting reducing agents like coal or natural gas. Moreover, some industrial processes, like ammonia production for fertilizers, or crude oil refining, specifically require hydrogen. Today this hydrogen is gray, meaning it’s produced from fossil fuels in a carbon-emissions intensive process.
CLEAN INDUSTRIAL
PROCESSES
Green hydrogen is a clean reducing agent - that’s right, once again, when used in chemical reactions, the only bi-product is water vapor! This means we can get rid of coal or natural gas in steel-making, and use hydrogen instead for a greatly emissions reduced process. Additionally, green hydrogen is the only solution to replace current use of gray hydrogen.
Green hydrogen is critical for many applications
Achieving Net Zero requires replacing current hydrogen derived from fossil fuels with green hydrogen, as well as expanding uses of green hydrogen to a variety of hard-to-abate sectors.
Hydrogen Colors and Carbon Intensity
The only catch is that hydrogen rarely exists naturally in pure molecular form - it needs to be produced. So while in reality hydrogen is actually colorless, we label it with colors as a short-hand code to describe how it is made. Remember - while hydrogen is always clean to use, it’s not always clean to make. That’s why we must prioritize making green hydrogen an affordable, viable solution!
Gray hydrogen
Hydrogen is present in all fossil fuels, and that’s where the overwhelming majority of hydrogen production comes from today. This type of production is called gray hydrogen – hydrogen refined from fossil fuels through a variety of chemical processes. Gray hydrogen production costs around $1 per kilogram, cost-effective but polluting and unsustainable.
Production cost:
$1-3/kg H2
Carbon emissions:
9 – 20 kg CO2/kg H2
Blue hydrogen
To reduce the environmental impact of gray hydrogen, some producers use carbon capture techniques. These processes take CO₂ emissions and either sequester or use them elsewhere to keep them out of the atmosphere. This is more environmentally sound, but is only an intermediate solution as it does not economically bring the emissions down to zero, e.g. does not solve the issue of methane leakage upstream.
Production cost:
$2-4/kg H2
Carbon emissions
0.4 - 4.5 kg CO2/kg
H2 + significant scope 2 emissions
Green hydrogen
Hydrogen isn’t just in fossil fuels – it’s also one of the two components of water. Electrolysis separates hydrogen and oxygen from water by running an electrical current through it. This simple process can be driven by electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind power to create green hydrogen. However, these technologies drive up today’s costs to well over $5 per kilogram.
Production cost:
$5-7/kg H2
Carbon emissions
Zero
Affordable Green
Hydrogen by H2PRO
If we want to see the necessary widescale integration of green hydrogen, we must reduce costs associated with production. H2Pro’s technology is designed to make green hydrogen production viable at scale, this decade.
Target Production Cost:
$1/Kg H2
Carbon emissions:
Zero
Hydrogen Colors and Carbon Intensity
