Policy & Socio-Economics

The importing of renewable energy will be one part of the process of defossilizing the energy systems of countries and regions which are currently heavily dependent on the import of fossil-based energy carriers. This study investigates the possibility of importing renewable methanol comprised of hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Based on a methanol synthesis simulation model the net production costs of methanol are derived as a function of hydrogen and carbon dioxide expenses. These findings enable a comparison of the import costs of methanol and hydrogen. For this the hydrogen production and distribution costs for 2030 as reported in a recent study for four different origin/destination country combinations are considered. With the predicted hydrogen production costs of 1.35–2 €/kg and additional shipping costs methanol can be imported for 370–600 €/t if renewable or process-related carbon dioxide is available at costs of 100 €/t or below in the hydrogen-producing country. Compared to the current fossil market price of approximately 400 €/t renewable methanol could therefore become cost-competitive. Within the range of carbon dioxide prices of 30–100 €/t both hydrogen and methanol exhibit comparable energy-specific import costs of 18–30 €/GJ. Hence the additional costs for upgrading hydrogen to methanol are balanced out by the lower shipping costs of methanol compared to hydrogen. Lastly a comparison for producing methanol in the hydrogen’s origin or destination country indicates that carbon dioxide in the destination country must be 181–228 €/t less expensive than that in the origin country to balance out the more expensive shipping costs for hydrogen.

As the world looks to implement the Energy Transition repurposing existing fossil fuel infrastructure to produce or distribute “clean” energy will be critical. The most promising is using natural gas pipelines for moving hydrogen. This is the cheapest and fastest method of transport and reducing the cost of transporting hydrogen is a key step in making it economically viable. However while there are technical challenges the greater challenge is in the legal arena. This paper seeks to outline the numerous legal — treaty statutory and contractual — and regulatory obstacles to repurposing natural gas pipelines for hydrogen transport. Gas pipelines exist in a complex microclimate of international public and private law and domestic law and contracts. Ownership is often layered and tangled; financing doubly so; and myriad state interests compound the private interests including national security concerns energy supply imperatives and geopolitical balance. State aid — investment subsidies and tax breaks — may encumber the project with additional legal obligations. And the contracts that control the development of a pipeline project may inject further legal complexity such as dispute mediation procedures and fora and applicable law. This paper seeks to map all the likely areas of future conflict or difficulty so that work on developing the requisite legal regime and remedies to permit use of natural gas pipelines for hydrogen transport can begin now. For policy and lawmakers as well as the private sector evaluating these known unknowns is a good starting point for reconsidering legislation regulation contracts and project risk in preparation for the future probability of hydrogen pipelines.

Hydrogen (H2) is expected to play a crucial role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However hydrogen losses to the atmosphere impact atmospheric chemistry including positive feedback on methane (CH4) the second most important greenhouse gas. Here we investigate through a minimalist model the response of atmospheric methane to fossil fuel displacement by hydrogen. We find that CH4 concentration may increase or decrease depending on the amount of hydrogen lost to the atmosphere and the methane emissions associated with hydrogen production. Green H2 can mitigate atmospheric methane if hydrogen losses throughout the value chain are below 9 ± 3%. Blue H2 can reduce methane emissions only if methane losses are below 1%. We address and discuss the main uncertainties in our results and the implications for the decarbonization of the energy sector.

Fossil fuels continue to exacerbate climate change due to large carbon emissions resulting from their use across a number of sectors. An energy transition away from fossil fuels seems inevitable and energy sources such as renewables and hydrogen may provide a low carbon alternative for the future energy system particularly in large emitting nations such as the United States. This research quantifies and maps potential hydrogen fuel distribution pathways for the continental US reflecting technological changes barriers to deployment and end-use-cases from 2020 to 2100 clarifying the potential role of hydrogen in the US energy transition. The methodology consists of two parts a linear optimization of the global energy system constrained by carbon reduction targets and system cost followed by a projection of hydrogen infrastructure development. Key findings include the emergence of trade pattern diversification with a greater variety of end-uses associated with imported fuels and greater annual hydrogen consumption over time. Further sensitivity analysis identified the influence of complementary technologies including nuclear power and carbon capture and storage technologies. We conclude that hydrogen penetration into the US energy system is economically viable and can contribute toward achieving Paris Agreement and more aggressive carbon reduction targets in the future.

On 20 December 2021 the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) launched a Call for Evidence (CfE) on enabling or requiring hydrogen-ready industrial boiler equipment. The aim was to gather evidence from a broad range of UK manufacturers industrial end-users supply chain participants and other experts to enable the development of proposals. The CfE was open for 12 weeks closing on 14 March 2022. The CfE followed the publication of the UK Hydrogen Strategy on 17 August 2021. In the Strategy government committed to run a CfE on hydrogen-ready industrial equipment by theend of 2022. The published CfE focussed on industrial boilers due to their widespread use and because BEIS analysis indicates a significant proportion of the demand for hydrogen in industry will come from this equipment category. Furthermore the technology required for hydrogen boilers is relatively advanced and more standardised than for other types of industrial<br/>equipment. For these reasons industrial boiler equipment presents a good test case for hydrogen-ready industrial equipment more broadly.<br/>The CfE contained the following three sections:<br/>• The opportunity for hydrogen-ready industrial boilers<br/>• The role for government to support hydrogen-ready industrial boiler equipment<br/>• The role of the supply chain and economic opportunities for the UK<br/>Respondents were asked to support their answers with evidence relating to their business product or sector published literature studies or to their broader expertise. To raise awareness of the CfE BEIS officials held two online webinars on 1 February 2022 and 3 February 2022. These were open to boiler manufacturers industrial end-users supply chain participants trade associations professional bodies and any other person(s) with an interest in the area.<br/>To build on evidence gathered through the CfE BEIS commissioned an independent study from Arup and Kiwa Gastec to further examine whether government should enable or require hydrogen-ready industrial boiler equipment. This study investigated the following topics:<br/>• definitions of hydrogen-readiness for industrial boilers<br/>• comparisons of the cost and resource requirement to install and convert hydrogen-ready industrial boiler equipment<br/>• industrial boiler supply chain capacity for conversion to hydrogen<br/>• estimates of the UK industrial boiler population<br/>The final report for this study has been published alongside the government response to the call for evidence. The conclusions and recommendations of that report do not necessarily represent the view of BEIS.

The Government is committed to developing the UK’s low carbon hydrogen economy: hydrogen is considered critical to delivering energy security and our decarbonisation targets and presents a significant growth opportunity. It can play a pivotal role in our transition to a future based on renewable and nuclear energy while ensuring that natural gas used during this transition is from reliable sources including our own North Sea production and can provide clean energy for use in industry power transport and potentially home heating. In the UK Hydrogen Strategy we included the commitment to regularly summarise our policy development to keep industry apprised. Since publication of the Hydrogen Strategy we have doubled our low carbon hydrogen production capacity ambition to up to 10GW by 2030 (with at least half from electrolytic hydrogen) in the British Energy Security Strategy provided greater clarity to investors through the Hydrogen Investment Package and made substantial policy and funding strides across the hydrogen value chain. We summarised these ambitions commitments and actions in the first Hydrogen Strategy update to the market in July 2022. This was published alongside other key elements of our policy support which also included the launch of the first Electrolytic Hydrogen Allocation Round – offering joint Net Zero Hydrogen Fund (NZHF) and Hydrogen Production Business Model (HPBM) support – and our Hydrogen Sector Development Action Plan and the appointment of a UK Hydrogen Champion. Hydrogen is closely integrated into Government’s wider policy development on energy security and the energy transition both domestically and internationally with hydrogen policy previously announced through the Net Zero Strategy and the Breakthrough Agenda at COP26. This December 2022 Hydrogen Strategy update to the market summarises the extensive activity across Government since July to develop new hydrogen policy at pace and to design and deliver funding support. This includes announcements on shortlisted hydrogen projects in the Cluster Sequencing Process the launch of a consultation on hydrogen transport and storage (T&S) infrastructure the publication of the HPBM Heads of Terms and an update on the ongoing first Electrolytic Hydrogen Allocation Round. The hydrogen policy development presented here underlines the Government’s approach to promote every aspect of the UK hydrogen economy in collaboration with industry investors and international partners to create a strong globally competitive UK hydrogen sector.

Authored by the Hydrogen Council in collaboration with McKinsey and Company Global Hydrogen Flows addresses the midstream challenge of aligning and optimizing global supply and demand. It finds that trade can reduce overall system costs.

In doing so it provides a perspective on how the global trade of hydrogen and derivatives including hydrogen carriers ammonia methanol synthetic kerosene and green steel (which uses hydrogen in its production) can develop as well as the investments needed to unlock the full potential of global hydrogen and derivatives trade.

Our hope is that this report offers stakeholders – suppliers buyers original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) investors and governments – a thorough and quantitative perspective that will help them make the decisions required to accelerate the uptake of hydrogen.

Key messages from the report:

Hydrogen and its derivatives will become heavily traded: 400 out of the 660 million tons (MT) of hydrogen needed for carbon neutrality by 2050 will be transported over long distances with 190 MT crossing international borders.

In a cost-optimal world around 50% of trade uses pipelines while synthetic fuels ammonia and sponge iron transported on ships account for approximately 45%. Europe and countries in the Far East will rely on imports while North America and China are mostly self-reliant.

Trade has huge benefits: It can lower the cost of hydrogen supply by 25% or as much as US$6 trillion of investments from now until 2050. This will accelerate the hydrogen transition which can abate 80 gigatons of CO2 until 2050.

The paper can be found on their website.

In this paper we implement a long-term multi-sectoral energy planning model to evaluate the role of green hydrogen in the energy mix of Chile a country with a high renewable potential under stringent emission reduction objectives in 2050. Our results show that green hydrogen is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly route especially for hard-to-abate sectors such as interprovincial and freight transport. They also suggest a strong synergy of hydrogen with electricity generation from renewable sources. Our numerical simulations show that Chile should (i) start immediately to develop hydrogen production through electrolyzers all along the country (ii) keep investing in wind and solar generation capacities ensuring a low cost hydrogen production and reinforce the power transmission grid to allow nodal hydrogen production (iii) foster the use of electric mobility for cars and local buses and of hydrogen for long-haul trucks and interprovincial buses and (iv) develop seasonal hydrogen storage and hydrogen cells to be exploited for electricity supply especially for the most stringent emission reduction objectives.

Hydrogen can be recognized as the most plausible fuel for promoting a green environment. Worldwide developed and developing countries have established their hydrogen research investment and policy frameworks. This analysis of 610 peer-reviewed journal articles from the last 50 years provides quantitative and impartial insight into the hydrogen economy. By 2030 academics and business professionals believe that hydrogen will complement other renewable energy (RE) sources in the energy revolution. This study conducts an integrative review by employing software such as Bibliometrix R-tool and VOSviewer on socio-economic consequences of hydrogen energy literature derived from the Scopus database. We observed that most research focuses on multidisciplinary concerns such as generation storage transportation application feasibility and policy development. We also present the conceptual framework derived from in-depth literature analysis as well as the interlinkage of concepts themes and aggregate dimensions to highlight research hotspots and emerging patterns. In the future factors such as green hydrogen generation hydrogen permeation and leakage management efficient storage risk assessment studies blending and techno-economic feasibility shall play a critical role in the socio-economic aspects of hydrogen energy research.  

Technical economic and environmental assessments of projected power-to-gas (PtG) deployment scenarios at distributed- to national-scale are reviewed as well as their extensions to nuclear-assisted renewable hydrogen. Their collective research trends outcomes challenges and limitations are highlighted leading to suggested future work areas. These studies have focused on the conversion of excess wind and solar photovoltaic electricity in European-based energy systems using low-temperature electrolysis technologies. Synthetic natural gas either solely or with hydrogen has been the most frequent PtG product. However the spectrum of possible deployment scenarios has been incompletely explored to date in terms of geographical/sectorial application environment electricity generation technology and PtG processes products and their end-uses to meet a given energy system demand portfolio. Suggested areas of focus include PtG deployment scenarios: (i) incorporating concentrated solar- and/or hybrid renewable generation technologies; (ii) for energy systems facing high cooling and/or water desalination/treatment demands; (iii) employing high-temperature and/or hybrid hydrogen production processes; and (iv) involving PtG material/energy integrations with other installations/sectors. In terms of PtG deployment simulation suggested areas include the use of dynamic and load/utilization factor-dependent performance characteristics dynamic commodity prices more systematic comparisons between power-to-what potential deployment options and between product end-uses more holistic performance criteria and formal optimizations.