The dynamic transition to clean hydrogen requires temporary compromises

As the lightest and most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen plays a crucial role across a wide range of applications. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), hydrogen serves various industrial purposes, including in the production of fertilizers, serving as a fuel in metal smelting and electricity generation, and functioning as a reactant or catalyst in the manufacture of various chemicals. For sustainable development purposes, the biggest significance and advantages of hydrogen include its roles as a clean energy source and an efficient energy storage carrier. 

Nevertheless, according to 2021 data, the global production of hydrogen is still limited with only about 75 million tons per year. This level of production is sufficient just for existing industrial demands and falls short of making a significant impact in carbon reduction efforts. The primary reasons are that much of the current hydrogen production has faced criticism for being too expensive to produce and not truly zero-carbon, as the methods used to produce it are very complex and still emit carbon dioxide. For example, the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)—a carbon program that imposes tax on certain goods imported from outside the European Union—has even placed hydrogen on its initial list of goods that are subject to carbon tariffs for its carbon emission. However, the reluctance to embrace hydrogen, considering its potential for sustainable development, is essentially abandoning an effective route to green transition. Green development heavily relies on economic incentives, which are, in turn, closely tied to governmental policies and attitudes. Governments and the public should be patient with the gradual pace of green hydrogen development, and expect it to play a bigger role in clean energy transition over the long term. 

Currently, only about 1% of global hydrogen production is produced entirely from renewable energy sources. Steam-methane reforming is now the most widely used method for commercial hydrogen production. This non-clean method requires the reaction between high-temperature steam and high-pressure methane to generate hydrogen, yet it also results in significant carbon dioxide emission. The hydrogen product can be classified as either black or blue hydrogen depending on whether the carbon emitted is captured or not. Electrolysis, which directly splits water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity, is the renewable technique for hydrogen production. Hydrogen produced in this way is also known as green hydrogen.

Although hydrogen is far from being easily renewable, it has already shown enormous potential as an alternative energy source and just needs more attention and investment from stakeholders. Firstly, as a flammable gas, hydrogen’s combustion efficiency far exceeds that of fossil fuel energy. For instance, the energy that can be released by 1 kilogram of hydrogen is about the same as the energy of 3 kilograms of gasoline. Indeed, critics often argue that utilizing hydrogen as a power source for cars or planes is impractical due to the technical limitations of hydrogen-powered engines and the extremely unstable nature of hydrogen, but one has to realize that cars are not the only things in the world that need energy. Activities like smelting, residential heating, and power generation also all rely on fuel combustion to produce heat. Hydrogen energy can already serve as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels in these areas. Additionally, with the advancement in production, existing application, market attention, there is a greater likelihood for technological breakthroughs in hydrogen engines and other hydrogen energy applications.

Secondly, hydrogen energy is also an effective means of energy storage. Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind have always had problems with storing their excess energy produced during strong production periods. Existing methods like pumped hydroelectric, thermal energy storage, and lithium batteries all have their unique limitations and are gradually falling short of meeting the growing installed capacity of renewable energy. Electricity generated from renewable sources can now be directly stored in the form of hydrogen through electrolysis. Although there is never a perfect option, utilizing hydrogen at least offers an additional energy storage option; especially for countries with less developed lithium battery technologies. For example, some energy companies have already started the construction of hydrogen storage facilities to store excessive electricity for later use, and this model should be promoted worldwide.

Although the majority of the current hydrogen production techniques still result in carbon emissions, no one should deny the fact that hydrogen is still a clean energy source. Governments should encourage more companies to use hydrogen to replace original fossil energy under the right conditions. 

In fact, the skepticism and challenges surrounding hydrogen energy development today are similar to the doubts faced by electric vehicle developers during their early stages. Critics have argued that electric vehicles are not better for the climate than gasoline cars because of power plant emissions. However, the reality is that, even though the majority of electricity originates from fossil fuels, the portion generated from renewable sources still significantly reduces the carbon emissions of electric vehicles, and they will continue to be cleaner as the installed capacity of renewable energy increases. Also with the continuous development and popularization of electric vehicles, the originally expensive technology, production, and maintenance costs are becoming lower as well. The same model is also applicable to hydrogen.

Thus, for the development of hydrogen, one of the most important aspects is to expand its application fields and lower production costs. Governments have the power through establishing compensation policies, for instance, to incentivize companies to use hydrogen as fuel in situations where they normally burn fossil fuels like coal or natural gas. Once such a shift is sufficiently initiated and bolstered, supply and demand will mutually stimulate each other, creating greater profit opportunities for both parties. On the contrary, CBAM’s decision to include hydrogen in its first list of goods subject to carbon tariffs might not be the best choice. Tariffs not only directly increase the price of hydrogen in the European market, but also diminish the enthusiasm of hydrogen manufacturers worldwide, which will hamper the market expansion of hydrogen from both the supply and demand sides.

It is also necessary to ensure that hydrogen is actually becoming cleaner, because there will always be critics who would argue that it is meaningless to replace coal and natural gas with hydrogen that is originally generated from natural gas. Fortunately there are already means to achieve this objective. On the one hand, as the scope of hydrogen applications expands, more renewable electricity will be used to produce hydrogen, especially those that are originally intended to be stored in batteries. This will gradually reduce hydrogen’s carbon emissions. On the other hand, as mentioned at the beginning, there is a commonly used hydrogen production method that captures and stores the carbon dioxide generated while producing hydrogen, known as blue hydrogen. This production model is much more efficient than directly using fossil energy and trying to capture carbon dioxide from the air. As long as the demand and incentive for hydrogen remains strong, hydrogen will almost certainly become cleaner in the foreseeable future.

All in all, the promotion of hydrogen will undoubtedly aid the development of clean energy in the future, and it is essential for all stakeholders—including governments, industries, and communities—to work collaboratively to enhance the production, utilization, and public awareness of hydrogen as both a cleaner energy and an alternative energy storage carrier. Hydrogen should take its rightful place as an indispensable component to the pursuit of a cleaner future.