{"id":2094,"date":"2019-09-17T14:22:17","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T14:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joswassink.nl\/inzicht\/?p=2094"},"modified":"2019-09-17T14:22:17","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T14:22:17","slug":"how-clean-is-hydrogen-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joswassink.nl\/inzicht\/?p=2094","title":{"rendered":"How clean is hydrogen really?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hydrogen is seen as the ultra clean fuel for a\nsustainable future. But its CO2<\/sub> emissions are higher than those of\ndiesel. What is the chance of climate neutral hydrogen?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A flashy\npink racing car drew lots of attention on the racing circuits this summer. Not\nonly for its unusual colour, but also for the sound that was somewhere between\nhumming and screeching, and the cloud of steam at the back. On the circuits in\nZandvoort and the TT Assen the pink racer kept up with the loud roaring\nPorsches. That hydrogen technology has become a serious challenge for\ncombustion engines was very apparent when the Forze VIII combustion engine\nbuilt by students came second in the Supercar Challenge in Assen. \u201cNever before\nhas a hydrogen driven vehicle left other racing cars behind in an official\nrace, let alone in a race against these type of petrol cars,\u201d said team manager\nZhi Whei Cai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hydrogen\ncars are not only found on circuits, you can see them on the motorway too. But\nyou need a bit of luck to see them. These quiet cars are just as rare as Rolls\nRoyces \u2013 on 31 May 2019 there were 114 hydrogen cars in the Netherlands\ncompared to 111 RRs sold since 1983. There are 11,000 hydrogen cars in the\nworld now, but according to collated government goals, there should be 2.5\nmillion by 2030. This figure was calculated by the International Energy Agency\n(IEA) for The Future of Hydrogen<\/em>\nreport that was handed out to world leaders at the last G20 conference in Tokyo\nby IEA top man Dr Fatih Birol. \u2018Hydrogen is receiving much interest in the\nworld and it could help us make headway on the long held promise of clean\nenergy solutions,\u2019 says Birol in the foreword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That \u2018long\nheld promise\u2019 of hydrogen as a clean and universal fuel for industry, transport\nand domestic use was proposed by Jeremy Rifkin as early as 2002 in his book, The Hydrogen Economy<\/em>. Rifkin (1945) is an American\neconomist, political advisor and activist that writes influential books on the\nimpact of technological innovations. In The\nHydrogen Economy<\/em> he predicted with great flourish the end of the fossil\nfuel era, the emergence of a much better and cleaner future with hydrogen as\nthe emission free fuel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems that\nthe Forze team is proving Rifkin right. So will hydrogen technology soon put an\nend to the era of fossil fuel? I am afraid not, and will explain why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More emissions than diesel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast\nto petrol and diesel, hydrogen is not a source of energy but an energy carrier\nthat is derived from a source of energy. It could be produced from electricity,\nbut in practice this is rare \u2013 only 0.1% according to the IEA report. The most\nhydrogen by far is obtained from natural gas in an energy guzzling process that\nis known as steam methane reforming<\/em>\n(SMR). To a lesser extent hydrogen is also produced from petroleum and coal.\nThis releases a significant amount of CO2<\/sub>. Hydrogen may be clean at\nthe point of use, but its production emits a lot of greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So how much\nCO2<\/sub> are we talking about? The IEA estimates that in 2018 the\nproduction of 70 million tons of hydrogen generated 830 millions tons of CO2<\/sub>\nemissions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The carbon\nfootprint of hydrogen is 0.3 kg CO2<\/sub> per kilo watt hour (see below).\nThe climate impact thus lies between diesel (0.27 kg CO2<\/sub>\/kWh) and\ncoal (0.34 kg CO2<\/sub>\/kWh).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Six shades of hydrogen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surely this\ncould be cleaner? Technically, yes. Emission free hydrogen can be obtained\nthrough electrolysis of water (2H2<\/sub>O \u00e0 2H2<\/sub> + O2<\/sub>)\nusing green energy. Or by storing the emitted CO2<\/sub> during steam methane reforming (SMR). Machiel\nMulder, Peter Perey and Jos\u00e9 L. Moraga of the University of Groningen wrote\nabout the economic viability of these technologies in Outlook for a Dutch hydrogen market<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The\n\u2018Groningers\u2019 distinguished between six types of hydrogen: SMR in the shades\ngrey, blue and green. SMR hydrogen is obtained from natural gas (grey). If the\nresulting carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>) is stored, they refer to this as blue\nhydrogen. If biogas is used, it is green hydrogen. The electrolysis version is\nin shades of grey (standard energy), green (green energy) and orange (green\nenergy from the Netherlands).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These\ndifferent types are shown in a cost framework that clearly demonstrates two\nthings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n