Jade Cove, a venture firm, argues that “Hydrogen is Big Oil’s Last Grand Scam” – yet another disinformation campaign to make their pipeline infrastructure, LNG terminals and natural gas look valuable even as the world abandons hydrocarbons. As an example, for green hydrogen to play a meaningful role in the electrification of the Netherlands, the entire North Sea would need to be filled with wind turbines, and even that wouldn’t provide enough clean power.ĭespite its drawbacks, hydrogen may play a role in the energy transition-just not the leading role many oil and gas companies have marketed to the public. Hydrogen can be “green” if the producer electrolyzes water using renewable energy for power, but this is an inefficient and expensive process with exuberant space requirements. Today, most hydrogen is produced through steam-methane reforming, a process that uses natural gas as feedstock and releases carbon emissions (which can be captured). Once asked for his perspective on hydrogen fuel cells, Elon Musk put it succinctly: “I just think that they’re extremely silly.” Take that with a grain of salt coming from the CEO of a battery-powered electric vehicle company. Proper storage is critical because the “Houdini” of gases, as hydrogen is known, leaks easily and is highly flammable. Energy consultant Michael Liebreich, founder and former Chairman of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, notes that for hydrogen to be stored, it must be compressed to 700 times atmospheric pressure and chilled to -253° C. Hydrogen is a storage solution rather than a source of energy, meaning it is by default more expensive than the solar or wind power used to produce it. Unfortunately, hydrogen has disadvantages that limit its impact on emissions. There is renewed interest in hydrogen now that many countries and companies have made it a pillar of their net-zero strategies. Summary: Impact – Moderate Roll-out Time – 2021-35 Cost – Expensive Feasibility - Moderate Hence, DAC likely will not play a significant role before 2030. But before it could work at scale, the cost would need to fall dramatically, and there would need to be steep increases in carbon taxes. Still, point-of-source carbon capture probably will not be a permanent solution, and the technology should not be used to excuse the ongoing extraction of coal and building of more coal-fired plants.ĭirect air carbon capture (DAC)-which can take place anywhere-will be important too. Carbon pricing may change that by unlocking a CCUS marketplace that becomes attractive for investments-similar to how subsidies in solar unlocked investment opportunities a decade ago.
Most carbon emissions, however, need to be stored permanently, and so far, there is no cost-effective way to do that at scale.
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