Researchers say that the greenhouse gas emissions from hydrogen produced from fossil fuels such as natural gas are "remarkable."
Last modified on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 20.08 EST
According to a new study by the Australian National University, the higher price of hydrogen produced from fossil fuels will release more greenhouse gas emissions, and the risk of stranded assets is greater.
In this paper published in the peer-reviewed engineering journal Applied Energy, the researchers compared the emissions and financial costs of using fossil fuels or renewable energy to produce hydrogen.
"Blue hydrogen" is produced using natural gas, while "green hydrogen" is made by passing electricity through water using an electrolyzer powered by renewable energy sources such as wind or solar energy.
"Clean hydrogen" refers to the term used when carbon capture and storage are used in the production process to capture carbon dioxide emissions, similar to the "clean coal" recommendation.
Hydrogen has become the core of the Australian government’s current proposal to achieve net zero emissions, and blue hydrogen has been recognized by the former chief scientist of Australia, Dr. Alan Finkel, as a way to build industrial capabilities.
But researchers at the Australian National University found that the emissions of hydrogen made from fossil fuels are still "large".
Researchers found that current estimates of CCS emissions fail to take into account fugitive emissions such as methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas that leaks into the atmosphere during natural gas extraction.
These emissions will not be captured by CCS, and because the production of hydrogen from natural gas is not completely effective-more gas is used to produce hydrogen as energy instead of simply burning the gas-methane emissions will increase with the extraction rate Continue to grow.
As the rate of extraction to supply export markets increases, these emissions will also increase.
The researchers also found that as factories approached 90% of their emissions, the financial cost of using CCS to make blue hydrogen became more expensive. This is because as the concentration starts to drop, it becomes more difficult to capture CO2.
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The report’s co-author, Dr. Fiona Beck, an engineer from the Institute of Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions at the Australian National University, said that CCS requires expensive “customized solutions for each plant”, which increases the risk that these projects may become stranded assets .
"Green hydrogen is now more expensive, but it has the ability to reduce costs very quickly," Baker said. "Unless we have some form of incentives to encourage people to apply CCS, it will never make sense to make blue hydrogen."
"This really raises the question, who would invest in Blue Hydrogen?"
Due to the high capture rate, the researchers set the cost of producing blue hydrogen at US$2.87 (US$2.09) per kilogram of carbon dioxide, while the cost of producing green hydrogen at US$4.99 (US$3.64) is expected to drop to US$2.55 (US$1.86 in the United States). ).
Since the technology for producing blue hydrogen has been around for some time, it is unlikely that there will be major technological advances that can drive down prices like the production of solar panels.
The CSIRO database tracks new hydrogen projects that have been announced or are being developed, recording at least 65 new green hydrogen projects in Australia and only three attempts to produce hydrogen from fossil fuels and CCS.
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The Australian National University's research report is supported by other global studies, such as a study published in September by researchers from the French energy giant Engie. They found that it is already possible to produce green hydrogen at a price similar to that of blue hydrogen.
The study found that the cost of producing hydrogen from fossil fuels is between US$1.34 and US$2.40 per kilogram of carbon dioxide. In some operations, it has become possible to produce hydrogen from solar energy at a price of US$2.36 per kilogram.
Scott Hamilton, a senior adviser to the Smart Energy Council and the Australian Hydrogen Energy Association, said that the industry has "a long, long way to go" to fully realize these costs, but the Australian government should actively support the development of green hydrogen energy.
"The Australian government needs to do more than just have hope, prayers and magical ideas in their modeling," Hamilton said. "They need appropriate goals and appropriate policy actions to bring these emerging technologies to the market, just as they did with wind and solar energy 20 years ago."
Hamilton stated that the government currently underestimates the price of blue hydrogen in its net-zero model, assuming that the price of hydrogen produced from fossil fuels is US$1.80 per kilogram, while hydrogen produced from renewable energy will only become cost-competitive in 2030 Strength-although the price of natural gas has increased steadily since 2015.
Dr. Madeleine Taylor, a senior lecturer at Macquarie University School of Law and climate committee member of the Australian Climate Council, said that the Australian National University’s research “confirmed the business case, commercial feasibility and policy case of green hydrogen”.
"There is a lot of money to make, but if we don't do it well, there will be a lot of risks. If we don't invest in the right technology or send the right signal," Taylor said.
"If we don't think about it carefully, we may leave stranded assets. We may produce products that the world doesn't want. We may leave infrastructure to be dismantled by taxpayers."