Reducing hydrogen costs by 80pc by 2030 is a key part of President Joe Biden’s plan to cut US emissions, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said last week. 

The administration recently set a goal for the US to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by between 50pc and 52pc by 2030, based on 2005 levels. Hydrogen is increasingly seen in government as pivotal in the sectors where abatement is most difficult, such as steelmaking and industry.

80pc – Required fall in hydrogen production costs

“Hydrogen, I think, is something that makes a lot of us salivate a little bit,” said US climate envoy John Kerry in his closing speech at last week’s White House climate summit. But the path to a hydrogen future in the US remains unclear, despite details of the administration’s decarbonisation plan starting to emerge.

Unlike the electricity and transport sectors— where it seems like the renewables and electric vehicle adoption curves are clear—integrating hydrogen technologies into the industrial sector is more challenging.

US-based Mitsubishi Power Americas is currently behind new power plant projects—totalling over 4GW—that will be able to burn either natural gas or hydrogen, but these projects sit firmly within the power sector.

The Rocky Mountain Institute has done some work on the use of hydrogen on the steel industry. The institute believed switching to green hydrogen-based steel production represents an immediate CO₂ emissions reduction opportunity for new assets of 20pc.

Long road

But a hundredfold step-change in the pace of transition is required to adhere to a 1.5°C pathway, the institute says, a move that will require a concert of market, regulatory and finance interventions to accelerate deployment.

Other heavy industrial sectors such as ammonia, methanol, and refining already use large quantities of traditional hydrogen—synthesised from natural gas—and would need to transition to green hydrogen to reduce their emissions.

A roadmap set out by the Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association notes that regulatory barriers need to be removed and R&D funding provided to encourage industrial adoption.

The report—titled the Roadmap to a Hydrogen Economy—notes that, as well as low-cost renewables, a national portfolio of small, modular nuclear reactors due to come online in the 2030s could produce significant hydrogen at a stable cost and with a high capacity factor.

Other regions around the world are beginning to invest in hydrogen development. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry announced hydrogen funding of approximately $560mn for 2019.

China has announced hydrogen transport industry investments of more than $17bn over the next three years. And in Europe, Germany’s investment includes $110mn annually to fund research laboratories to test new hydrogen technologies for industrial-scale applications.

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Author: Gregor Macdonald