Hydrogen for a Net-Zero Carbon World

The concept of the “hydrogen economy” was first coined by Prof. John Bockris during a talk he gave in 1970 at the General Motors Technical Center. Bockris’s talk introduced the vision of a world economy in which energy was carried in the form of hydrogen, resulting in zero emissions at its point of use—be that as a chemical feedstock or as a fuel for industrial or domestic heating, for power generation in a gas turbine, or in a fuel cell “engine” for transport applications. Despite several waves of significant interest and investment, however, due to the relative costs and technological immaturity of hydrogen technologies, the hydrogen economy was never delivered at scale nor was there sufficient motivation to create the technology needed to overcome these hurdles.
But today, as the world seeks to transition to a truly net-zero carbon economy, hydrogen has returned to the fore as a key energy carrier—not as a hydrogen economy, but as “hydrogen in the economy,” synergistically working alongside low- to zero-carbon electricity to decarbonize those parts of the economy that are too expensive or too difficult to be directly decarbonized with electricity. These include:
♦ Transport applications in which large amounts of energy are needed on the vehicle, such as planes, trains, shipping, long-distance trucks, and heavy-duty vehicles;
♦ Industrial applications such as steelmaking and cement manufacturing;
♦ Long-term energy storage for days to weeks at a time;
♦ The production of green chemicals such as green ammonia and green methanol;
♦ Industrial (and potentially residential) heating.