Blue and Green Hydrogen: Energy of the Future or Waste of Resources?

Because there is no time left for the major oil-producing countries to further "dance the ropes" to avoid the devastating repercussions of climate change, they have chosen to work seriously to reduce dependence on cheap fossil energy (oil, gas, coal), and seek to develop alternative energies.

Hydrogen energy (green, blue, ammonia blue) is at the forefront of the available options, to save fuel after the relative success of solar and wind energy in providing electricity.

What is the nature of hydrogen energy and what is the secret behind the great momentum to re-release it after neglecting it over the past decade? Will the rush of the countries of the region, such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey and Egypt, be an investment in the future or a waste of resources?

First, let us note that there is a serious tendency now among the major countries to address the problem of climate change and to commit to the goal of the Paris Agreement to keep the global average temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius. This seriousness is due to sensing the seriousness of climate change, and is also due - and perhaps most importantly - to geopolitical tensions, especially between China - Russia and America, as each party seeks to hold the other party responsible for the climate dilemma and consequently bear the largest part of the costs and economic burdens to confront it and develop clean sources of energy . This explains the push towards reviving hydrogen energy to form a major component of the energy mix in the future.

Why hydrogen?

The energy mix needed to achieve “net zero emissions” by 2050 is made up of renewable energy (sun and wind), nuclear, and clean, carbon-free fossil energy. Since renewable energy cannot provide more than 30% according to the most optimistic scenarios, and nuclear energy faces strong opposition, hydrogen emerges as a suitable option to provide fuel, especially for energy-intensive sectors such as heavy industries and large transportation (ships, planes, heavy machinery trains). civil, military, etc..) which are difficult to operate with electricity. The International Energy Agency expects that green and blue hydrogen will account for about 20% of global energy demand in 2050.

To clarify the picture, it is worth noting that there are different types of hydrogen fuel, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, namely:

Gray hydrogen: It is the most common type so far, and it is extracted from natural gas, but the process accompanies the production of large quantities of carbon dioxide, and therefore its production tends to decline despite the low cost.

Blue hydrogen: It is produced like gray from natural gas, with the main difference being that the associated carbon is captured and stored in the ground, often in non-producing oil wells, to be used later in what has become known as the “circular carbon economy.”

Green hydrogen: produced from water by the electrolysis process with the use of renewable energy sources and has almost zero carbon dioxide emissions. It is therefore a completely environmentally friendly fuel, and its main disadvantage is the high cost and the need for huge amounts of electric power.

Blue ammonia: The hydrogen fuel mixture is the winner, and it consists of three atoms of hydrogen and one atom of nitrogen. It is characterized as a more stable gas than hydrogen, and it can be easily transported by sea or by pipelines, which constitutes a solution to one of the biggest problems of pure hydrogen, which is caused by metal corrosion and leakage from tiny cracks. The discovery of this defect led to the cancellation of a huge project in Australia to produce green hydrogen and export it via pipelines to Singapore, and it was replaced by the export of ammonia gas.

The future of the hydrogen economy

It is difficult to be certain about the future of hydrogen energy, especially green. This is due to the intertwining of influencing factors and variables. This made major countries such as America or gas-producing countries such as Qatar wait to pump large investments in this field. While European countries rushed strongly to adopt the hydrogen economy option. For example, Germany has allocated part of the federal budget for clean energy to the component of green hydrogen.

But it can be said that the main variables play in favor of hydrogen, and among the most prominent variables that should be monitored are: government policies and initiatives of the industrial and transportation sectors, which play a decisive role in shaping markets and creating demand. This is what governs technology development efforts. To illustrate this, we refer, for example, to Airbus' announcement that it is optimistic about the success of its program to operate a hydrogen-powered aircraft by 2035, if the concerned parties join efforts to solve storage and supply problems in aircraft and airports. Russia has also announced intensified efforts to develop hydrogen-powered aircraft engines. It is expected that the near future will witness a boom in hydrogen engines for cars, especially military ones, based on the successive announcements of companies, such as Kia and Chevrolet, about their plans in this field.

Hydrogen catapult initiative

The Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, sums up the situation by saying, "Hydrogen energy is enjoying unprecedented political and commercial support. Political motives are stronger and clearer, technology is more mature and sophisticated, and markets are more ready to accept it and adapt to it."

Birol's words mean that the influencing factors, especially the availability of markets and demand, are pointing to a strong launch for hydrogen energy. In this context, we refer to an initiative with important significance for shaping the future of hydrogen energy, which is the "Green Hydrogen Catapult" initiative, through which the leaders of this industry announced Seeking to increase their production 50-fold over the next six years.

Hydrogen in the region

Regardless of expectations and scenarios regarding a decline in the share of fossil energy, where the International Energy Agency expects it to decline from 80 to 20%, while OPEC expects it to remain around 70%, there are certainly two clear paths, the first is an accelerated transition towards the clean energy mix, and the second is the crystallization and development of the components of this mix. Here, the importance of clean fossil energy and the responsibility of oil-producing countries, as well as countries that have large resources for renewable energy production, such as Turkey and Egypt, to take the lead in intensive and strategic investment in the development of hydrogen energy in all its forms, as well as the development of techniques for capture, storage and use of carbon dioxide, which is highly reliable in most Scenarios for the transition to clean energy.

Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt are at the forefront of the region's countries that pay great attention to hydrogen energy. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched several blue hydrogen production projects and green hydrogen pilot projects, and succeeded in exporting shipments of blue ammonia to Japan. In Turkey, during the current year, intensive tests have been started to include hydrogen in the renewable energy system by integrating it into gas distribution networks at a gradual rate of up to 20%. Turkey has a unique advantage, which is the abundance of renewable energy resources, which qualifies it to be an important producer of green hydrogen, in addition to the presence of an integrated natural gas infrastructure that qualifies it also to produce blue hydrogen. As for Egypt, it signed several agreements this year with Italian "Eni" companies, Belgian "Demi" and German Siemens, to conduct feasibility studies for establishing projects for the production and export of green hydrogen.(Yasser Hilal)