Can hydrogen help the world reach net zero? | FT Film

Hydrogen is this magical molecule that is the lightest, most energetic and most abundant in the universe. When you master

hydrogen

in its pure component, you are basically having the best energy you can have in the global shift towards cleaner forms of energy. More and more attention is being paid. Drawn to the incredible potential of the smallest and simplest element that is

hydrogen

, in this

film

we will see the Gathering Rays build a massive new hydrogen economy that could transform sectors from heavy industry to mass transportation, starting here in the province of Spain, in the south of Spain.

Theodad's real solar panels are being used to power Europe's largest green hydrogen plant. It has been built by Eberdroller, the largest utility company on the continent. Solar electricity powers a process called electrolysis. It uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen goes directly to an adjacent factory to produce ammonia, which today is mainly used in fertilizers and is widely seen as a potentially crucial

zero

-carbon fuel. Our water molecule is hydrogen and oxygen, with the energy and green energy we break the molecule to get oxygen on one side and hydrogen on the other side we take the energy from the photo taking band which is actually four or five kilometers away From here in Puertoiano we take it and bring it to this building where we have electrolysis we have 16 electrification cells there we break down the water molecules we obtain this hydrogen, this oxygen and what we do is that the oxygen can be used for other industrial uses and The hydrogen is delivered to the client and we can only produce it during the day, that is why we have the tanks that store part of the production so that during the night we can use the hydrogen that we have stored and deliver it to the client, as well as the projects near the city of Puerto Yano is just the beginning of an ambitious Bed Roller hydrogen campaign that plans to invest 3 billion. euros in this space by 2030.

Before 2030 we have different projects in different geographies in the Iberian Peninsula, in the USA, in Australia, Brazil, and we will see how these products progress and it is not just about the manufacturing facilities of hydrogen, ammonia or methanol. also about the electricity that needs to be generated from renewable energies to power all these factories and this is also an interesting investment of our site. Hydrogen is already widely used largely in the fertilizer and petrochemical industries. Today, almost everything is produced by breaking down hydrocarbons. Fossil fuels give off hydrogen and carbon dioxide that emit about one billion tons of carbon dioxide each year.

Two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. At the moment, the green hydrogen process is more expensive, but it is surrounded by a huge and growing collection of solar and wind farms. We expect that to change fairly quickly as the cost of renewable energy and electrolyzers continues to fall while the price of fossil fuels rises with stricter carbon pricing systems. What we want is for the end customer to know who is going to buy the bread. At the supermarket, do you have to pay more to buy a Prelude that has not contaminated while it was produced? So fertilizers, of course, are a key element to decarbonizing the entire chain, if we can take that money to lower the price. the hydrogen king our client will be able to sell more green fertilizers and that money will flow through the chain to the end client that is the objective that is the idea and this is something we count on so that those who project are completely viable some The experts in energy have expressed concern that enthusiasm for green hydrogen may go too far.

Recent studies have shown that if man-made hydrogen leaks into the atmosphere, it could interact with greenhouse gases and worsen global warming, while the

world

is already struggling to generate enough renewable energy to shift its electricity generation away from fossil fuels the more electricity is used to produce green hydrogen they are concerned the longer it will take to decarbonize the grid we can see that renewables are being put on hold a lot everyone can see that this will also bring economies of scale moving forward Along the learning curve , I understand that the final solution will be green hydrogen, but green is just one color in the hydrogen rainbow.

Pink hydrogen also involves electrolysis with electricity generated by nuclear plants rather than renewable energy. Gray hydrogen is produced by splitting methane. gas to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide black and brown hydrogen are produced similarly using black or brown carbon the blue hydrogen process also breaks down fossil fuels but in this case the carbon dioxide is captured and stored or used for Industrial Proponents say this is the most promising cost-effective solution in the short term, but critics argue that it carries a high risk of greenhouse gas leakage and is aggressively promoted by the fossil fuel industry and then there is Esmeralda hydrogen, a concept that an ambitious startup is pursuing. near Hull, in the north-east of England, High Rob has patented a system to produce hydrogen from hydrocarbons such as methane using a plasma torch.

The process occurs in the absence of oxygen, meaning it produces solid carbon instead of carbon dioxide. One of the funniest things we talked about. people is your carbon footprint is your CO2 your carbon dioxide footprint carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas solid carbon ironically solid carbon is the lead of your pencil is inert will not turn into carbon dioxide in thousands of years so it is not a problem in fact, it is a quite useful byproduct that is used in the tire industry to make tires. Rubber and usable, it is used for coatings, toner, etc., and then we use it more and more in new cases as a construction material in cement or steel in steel production and other use cases High Rock says its process can offer A useful alternative to green hydrogen, it can be deployed on a small scale and uses less energy per kilogram of hydrogen produced and offers a potential means of using the

world

's reserves of fossil gas without dangerous carbon dioxide emissions.

Hydrocarbons get a lot of negative press because when they burn they produce CO2, but they are excellent fuels, they are actually very energy-rich and therefore a great source of hydrogen for us. We have buyers, we have too many buyers and we have to limit the number of projects we can do this year. The investment behind this is huge and fantastic because people see the potential of our technology outside of hydrogen on a large scale. The economy will require large amounts of capital and, for some investment funds, this looks like one of the biggest opportunities in the world today.

Pierre Tien, a former industrial gases executive, is the CEO of High 24, a fund dedicated to hydrogen. Investments Launched in 2022, the fund has raised €2 billion from a number of major industrial and financial companies, including Airbus and Allianz. When hydrogen is mastered, since in its pure component you basically obtain the best energy you can have. You have to be very clear if you are moving towards the energy of the future. world is skin energy and it is a mixture of electrons on hydrogen whatever you do in the future you will need a combination of the two the only question is whether hydrogen represents 10 to 15 to 20 percent of the final energy demand no you have another option We represent a big part of this as a phone, we are involved from Upstream to Downstream, so we are involved in the hydrogen value chain.

Upstream, you are dealing with very classic industries that are already using hydrogen, you just need to move beyond Gray. to Green, so if you find the right schemes with the right political support, you can deliver green hydrogen at a similar price to Gray and then you will get a solid and steady return; those projects are the first to start and you have the The second type of projects, which are riskier, they are much larger, they are more exploratory, but if they move forward, they will be extremely interesting in terms of performance. He is the one trying to develop this power for topic X, which is massive renewable energy. you capture, you make hydrogen, you transform it into ammonia and then you send it to the countries that need that source of energy that is clean and then the third, which are those linked to Mobility where basically you try to deploy the networks that are going to enable fleets captives and massive fleets of bus tracks or heavy duty trains, so we are looking at those three types of projects with different risky worlds combined, but they are all very promising so far, all High 24 investments have been made in Europe . which has been the busiest region for hydrogen projects so far, but PRTN warns that European policymakers will have to up their game if the continent is to remain at the forefront of this fast-moving industry.

Europe is too regulated in the way it processes. their knowledge but the skills are there, the issue is having a really friendly business market system and this is where Europe still has a little way to go. It is a fundamental moment that we are living in now, but Europe needs to take it very seriously, because if not, we will lose many industries that consume a lot of energy and that is going to be a drama. Foreign competition between governments for hydrogen investment has

reach

ed a fever pitch. The EU, which had long set the pace for green policy, is now struggling to respond to a game.

The changing move from the US, where Joe Biden's $369 billion inflation reduction law has offered generous subsidies for clean hydrogen production, is a positive sign that everyone wants to go neutral. Climate change is a global challenge for all of us, so it's good that the US is stepping up. with the IRA Japan and others, and hydrogen is a key example of that low carbon green hydrogen, so in that sense I think it's positive that we are all working on it and if the US will step forward, clearly so will the EU. I think 10 years ago, when I joined the Commission at the Department of Energy, hydrogen was a niche, it was something for researchers to meet, it was always there, but it wasn't high on the agenda.

I think that has changed and I think it's a good push, yes I think financial support is important but it should mainly come from the private sector so the private sector has a key role to provide enough funding to move forward and we see that a lot is happening in the hydrogen area. To accompany and cover the costs of the first, the first to act, who have to pay a high price, we have created a hydrogen bank or a hydrogen facility that is financed by our innovation fund with 300 billion and this will be a starting point this year. to actually do more Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has highlighted the risks of Europe's dependence on Russian natural gas giving new impetus to the hydrogen agenda.

We already had a hydrogen strategy in 2020, but with the invasion of Russia and Ukraine we really set very ambitious targets for hydrogen as well to not only decarbonize but also become more independent, for example, from imports of Russian gas or fossil fuels to see one of the most disruptive hydrogen investments in the EU, we head to one of the continent's northernmost cities, Lulia, in Swedish Lapland. Steel production accounts for approximately seven percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. It currently relies heavily on blast furnaces that heat iron ore with coke, a carbon-rich coal derivative. The carbon in the coke binds to the oxygen in the iron ore, leaving the iron behind in large quantities. volumes of carbon dioxide this transformation that we do here at ssab by transforming luliocytes and oxalisone we are actually reducing the Swedish carbon dioxide footprint with 10 out of lulia ssab Sweden's largest steel company and also its largest carbon emitter has built a pilot, the first of its kind In a plant that uses green hydrogen instead of coal, we use the same iron ore, but instead of using carbon to reduce oxygen, we use hydrogen, so if we take this pellet of ore of iron, we put it in this process, we add a gas with a high hydrogen content and then the hydrogen gas reduces the oxygen of the paddle and then we get the rest of the product here it is water and then we get a ball of spongy iron, since in In reality it is almost 100 iron, the only difference is that in this process it comes outlike a liquid. and in the hybrid it is still a cold product, so we have to take this product and then melt it.

I'm actually very proud of ssab for being at the forefront of this transformation, people were shaking their heads and saying, you're what? Are you doing this? It's not the way you do it, but now we have produced fossil-free iron ore or sponge iron, we have produced the steel from it and our partners have produced vehicles from it, so we have been able to demonstrate it. That this works SSAB technical director Martin Pay says this process is now at the heart of the company's long-term strategy. He has already made his first shipments of green steel using treated iron at the Lulia pilot plant to customers such as the Volvo car company. and plans to begin large-scale industrial production in 2026.

At first there is really concern about whether there will be such products on the market now that we have proven that this works and many other companies are starting to plan. For such a transition and we receive a fairly clear signal that more customers also believe that this is the right path forward for us as a company, we realize that we cannot continue without significant technical advances, otherwise we would be irrelevant in the long term, beyond the heavy. Industry one of the biggest potential targets for hydrogen is transportation. Ecological passenger vehicles. Electric batteries have become the dominant technology, surpassing hydrogen fuel cell cars.

It is cheaper to recharge an electric car than to fill an equivalent hydrogen vehicle and it is easier to implement. Electric charging stations that create the complex hydrogen fuel network are needed to support large numbers of fuel cell cars, but experts see more potential for other areas of transportation where the heavy weight of batteries and the time they take to loading can create problems. Hydrogen could offer an attractive option for trucks, buses, trains and ships. could simply offer a means to clean up the world's most controversial form of transportation away from all the challenges posed after a greener global economy cleanup Aviation has long been considered one of the scariest, but here in the The English Cotswolds is a The startup is trying to prove that hydrogen can offer a

zero

solution.

Avia has developed a system to power aircraft using hydrogen fuel cells. Fuel cells effectively perform electrolysis in reverse, converting hydrogen and oxygen into water along with electricity that powers an engine. The company was founded in 2017 by valmiff darkov, a former Google executive who received investments from Amazon and Bill Gates' innovative energy companies and when I started the company, we actually looked at all of those areas, so we looked at batteries, we looked at hybrids, we looked at sustainable aviation fuels, bio and even synthetic hydrogen combustion and it was quite clear that the combination of hydrogen on board the aircraft but with electric motors through fuel cells is the best possible option, and we did not see no one doing this, that's how I started the company.

Many airlines are currently focused on moving towards so-called sustainable aviation fuel, which is chemically the same as conventional jet fuel, but is produced using plant matter or carbon dioxide captured from the air. Val argues that this approach still carries climate impacts related to the burning of hydrocarbons in the air, which only fuel cell powered flights can avoid, so there are no nitrogen oxides, no water vapor at high temperature, no particulate emissions, all those things actually contribute to two-thirds of aviation. climate impact, so if we just use, say, biofuels or synthetic aviation fuel, we are only solving one-third of the problem at best and we are not solving two-thirds of the problems to solve two-thirds of the problem or one problem Completely it is necessary to move away from combustion and electric hydrogen is the only way to do it.

Hydrogen flights are nothing new Nearly a century ago, airships using hydrogen-filled balloons crossed the Atlantic regularly, but that era came to an end. Burning end with the Hindenburg disaster of 1937. zero Avia says there is no danger of a similar tragedy affecting its engines. It has been testing its system on small aircraft in the cradle world, where the company has established a large operation thanks to financial incentives from the UK government. Since January 2023, xero Avia has been conducting test flights of a 20-seater aircraft with one of its engines powered by hydrogen, despite a previous crash landing in 2021 in which no one was injured, test pilot John Killerby says the company is on track to meet all regulatory requirements necessary for its hydrogen-powered engines to

reach

the commercial market in the coming years.

We are designing how we test the system to demonstrate that they are secure. We will not be able to use this technology in a commercial market. application unless we demonstrate that it is safe, we work to the same safety requirements that exist for known conventional powertrain systems and we, as an organization, are working very closely with regulators to ensure that as we move forward, they learn and move forward together zero. Avia is in a race against its American rival Universal Hydrogen, which in March 2023 conducted a 15-minute test flight of a 40-seater aircraft with an engine powered by a Valsa Zero hydrogen fuel cell.

Avia hopes to have its engine for 20 seats. planes on the market in 2025, followed by 70-seaters in 2027 and 100-seaters in 2029. This is the beginning of guilt-free flying, so to speak, that's when you say, hey, I'm flying with sun or wind or whatever. demanding Renewable energy of choice different geographies different types of renewable energy but you can fly on electricity you just need to use the right medium to package that electricity on board the plane and hydrogen is the best way to do it so what will be the economics of the hydrogen? what the future looks like and how quickly we can get there hydrogen has the potential to decarbonise industry and transport and that is our common goal it is good for climate change it is good for competitiveness but we should not overestimate the role hydrogen has either a key role in certain sectors, but there is much more in electrification that we can do with bioenergy solar, wind, etc., if you can electrify then do it because it is the most efficient and competitive way to do it, but sometimes you can't, so We have another solution, this is hydrogen, this is another root, it is a more expensive route, not only in terms of economy, in terms of efficiency, the use of energy is very poor, but it is a solution that we have in our hands , you will go in and have most operations with the hydrogen electric approach, non-combustion fuel, where there will be no smell of jet fuel, noise levels will be much lower, there will be no pollution around airports and the fuel will be produced on-site from renewable electricity.

I believe the hydrogen economy will account for 25% of global energy. The supply will come from hydrogen, so if we look at 2050, Fusion will hopefully be fixed by then. We have hydrogen. They are going to be huge parts of what we do and want. to be a big part of that as a business, our vision is a known dream and we want to

help

achieve Net Zero as a planet so we want to do our small part of that and hydrogen is a great place to be if you believe in the energy transition This is the wave of the decade and the only real risk, which is not small, is that the energy transition does not occur because, for some reason, some people stop it or do not want to promote it with the regulatory frameworks or political support that They are needed for this to happen.

Hydrogen may not be the answer to most of the challenges we face in decarbonizing the global economy, but it is increasingly looking like an interesting potential solution for many of them and the race to seize those opportunities is already on. underway, this was the second

film

in a three-part series, be sure to like, comment and share.