Green Hydrogen is the Future!

Green Hydrogen is the Future!

It is known that traditional sources of energy have a lot of harms with various malicious environmental troubles as they contribute in atmospheric pollution by their emissions of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide (CO2), which has prejudicial impact on human health and climate change. For this reason, renewable clean energy is the key and the relevant solution.

Renewable energy has several sources such as: solar and wind energies. In addition, one of the promising clean energy is green hydrogen.

Before explaining the definition of ''Green Hydrogen'', let's discuss the common traditional ways to obtain H2.

Using processes like steam reforming, we generate H2?from natural gas, LPG or naphtha. Hydrogen, in this case, is called ''Gray Hydrogen''. Gray hydrogen has increasingly been produced also from coal, with significantly higher CO2 emissions per unit of hydrogen produced, so it is often called "Brown Hydrogen" or "Black Hydrogen" instead of gray. But, if we can capture CO2 evolved from steam reforming and store it for a long term, hydrogen is called "Blue Hydrogen". There is another way to produce hydrogen from methane using pyrolysis which is better than blue hydrogen with effective long-term storage of CO2 in solid form and the evolved hydrogen is called "Turquoise Hydrogen".

On the other hand, "Green Hydrogen" is produced by splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen using electrolysis. The most distinguished thing is that the electricity needed for this process is generated exclusively from renewable sources. Therefore, H2 is called green.

The following infographic shows the mechanism of green hydrogen production:

The image below illustrates the diverse kinds of hydrogen:

Uses of Hydrogen

Hydrogen is versatile and has many uses. It may be used as a clean fuel (zero-carbon fuel). Some vehicles like cars, trucks and aircrafts are powered by hydrogen energy. It can also be used within homes in cooking and heating. But, the most substantial utilization of hydrogen is in oil & gas refineries as well as chemical and steel industries.

Transportation of Green Hydrogen

Green hydrogen can be blended in most natural gas networks at a rate of 6% in terms of volume. This can happen in the absence of sensitive structures or installations on the customer’s premises. The blending of green hydrogen can defray the cost of building dedicated hydrogen pipelines during the early market development phase. With several announcements of the installation of 100MW electrolyzer plants, transportation through natural gas pipelines is expected to play an important role.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Green Hydrogen

This energy source has pros and cons that we must be aware of. Let's go over some of its most important good points:

• 100 % sustainable:?green hydrogen?does not emit polluting gases?either during combustion or during production.
• Storable:?hydrogen is easy to store, which allows it to be?used subsequently?for other purposes and at times other than immediately after its production.
• Versatile:?green hydrogen can be?transformed into electricity or synthetic gas?and used for domestic, commercial, industrial or mobility purposes.
• Transportable:?it can be mixed with natural gas at ratios of up to 20 % and travel through the?same gas pipes and infrastructure?- increasing this percentage would require changing different elements in the existing gas networks to make them compatible.

However, green hydrogen also has?negative aspects?that must be taken into account:

• High cost:?energy?from renewable sources,?which are key to generating green hydrogen through electrolysis, is more expensive to generate, which in turn makes hydrogen more expensive to obtain.
• High energy consumption:?the production of hydrogen in general and green hydrogen in particular?requires more energy?than other fuels.
• Safety issues:?hydrogen is a?highly volatile and flammable element?and extensive safety measures are therefore required to prevent leakage and explosions.

Finally, I will leave you with this interesting video:

Thank You!

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