Hydrogen

Often promoted as the fuel of the future, Hydrogen is currently enjoying significant momentum as countries around globe increase efforts to decarbonise sectors that have been traditionally difficult to decarbonise such as transportation and industry.

Hydrogen burns clean yielding water, oxygen and energy. It is currently a relatively expensive energy vector, though costs are coming down quickly.

In addition to its use as a fuel, blue or green Hydrogen can be used as a raw material in ammonia manufacture, avoiding the production of huge quantities of CO2 in the traditional ammonia manufacture process.

There are several mechanisms of production, differentiated by colours:

• ‘Grey or brown’ hydrogen is produced by reforming methane in steam methane reformers (SMRs) or auto-thermal reformers (ATRs). Large amounts of CO2 are produced as a by-product and released to atm

• osphere

• ‘Blue’ hydrogen is produced by reforming methane in steam methane reformers (SMRs) or auto-thermal reformers (ATRs) that capture the resultant CO2 stream for indefinite storage in underground reservoirs or aquifers. There is still small amounts of CO2 released to atmosphere

• ‘Green’ hydrogen is produced by using renewable energy, such as wind or solar, to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen in an electrolyzer. This process yields zero carbon and is thus considered the most environmentally friendly production method. Reducing costs are rapidly making this technology commercially viable