GREEN HYDROGEN IN THE SHORT TERM, ...., HOW TO ACHIEVE IT?
THE GOAL
It is a desire of the international community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with societal climate goals as much as possible; therefore, given its high volumes of emissions, the world industry is currently facing great challenges to adapt to this global clamour.
THE CHALLENGE
But how big is the challenge facing humanity? In
accordance with the United Nations
Organization, which promulgated The
Sustainable Development Goals (Video https://youtu.be/0XTBYMfZyrM) established Climate Actions as
the GOAL 13, declaring: The world must transform its energy,
industry, transport, food, agriculture and forestry systems to ensure that we
can limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C.
One of the problems facing this GOAL 13 is that an increase
in global energy demand of between 25 and 30% is expected until 2040, which
would mean an increase in CO2 emissions for economies dependent on
coal and oil, thus nullifying all actions and efforts aimed at mitigating
climate change.
THE OPTIONS
Knowing the solution, it seems that it is easy to
respond to the problem, since it is enough then: to substantially increase
electricity generated from renewable sources; and the replacement of fossil
fuels in sectors with a high carbon footprint, such as transport, by new means
of propulsion.
One of the strategies that we have on the planet for
such purposes is the use of Hydrogen, but for its use to meet the required specifications,
it must be produced through the use of renewable energy, which is then
classified as Green Hydrogen.
GREEN HYDROGEN
To recap, we have to lower our carbon footprint, and one of the fastest ways to do it is by substituting fossil fuels for Green Hydrogen ,…, But how fast can we achieve that?
As mentioned, Green Hydrogen requires that it be
produced through the use of electricity generated from renewable sources, and
the impact of electricity on its production cost is currently in the range of
60-70%.
It is certainly noticeable that the cost of electricity is a fundamental factor in the economic viability of Green Hydrogen, which is even more important during the amortization period of the Capex required for the construction of Green Hydrogen production infrastructures, whose demand is projected in the order of more than 500 million tons per year by 2050.
CLEAN ENERGY FOR GREEN HYDROGEN
To generate the electricity that allows us to produce Green Hydrogen, we mainly have three ways, photovoltaic, wind and hydraulic energy, which are briefly evaluated below.
- Currently, the electricity generated by solar and wind energy still suffers from high storage costs; therefore, by not being able to supply 24/7/365 power to continuously generate Green Hydrogen, these energies lead to a low use of the invested Capex, or high investments in storage systems.
- Hydroelectricity allows the continuous and uninterrupted production of Green Hydrogen, thus allowing greater optimization of Capex, and increasing economic profitability.
CONCLUSIONS
- It is necessary to substantially increase the production of Green Hydrogen and its derivatives.
- The optimal energy source to increase the production of Green Hydrogen in the short term is Hydroelectricity.
- The construction of infrastructures for the production of Green Hydrogen should be oriented towards places that immediately have Hydroelectric Energy.
- In addition to the immediate availability of Hydroelectric Power, the possession of iron ore and bauxite reserves for the use of part of the Green Hydrogen in the certification of Green Iron and Steel and Green Aluminium, are an additional factor to consider in the evaluation of potentials sites for the production of Green Hydrogen.
- Venezuela, which has Hydroelectric Energy available and at competitive prices, vast reserves of iron ore and bauxite, as well as high potential for the generation of solar and wind energy, offers ideal conditions for the production of Green Hydrogen and its derivatives.
Dr. Jesús Imery
PhD Engineering and
Materials Science (Imperial College, London)
Email: jesus.imery@alprotes.com
Email: alprotes@alprotes.com
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-jesus-imery
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