Importance of Green Hydrogen

Importance of Green Hydrogen

What is Green Hydrogen?

Even when referred to as "green hydrogen," hydrogen is a non-toxic, colorless gas. As the most prevalent element, hydrogen is thought to make about 90% of all atoms and account for roughly three-quarters of the universe's total mass.

How is hydrogen generated?

Since hydrogen cannot be naturally found in the earth's crust, it must be chemically extracted from other compounds. Steam methane reforming, or SMR, is the method currently used to manufacture the vast majority of industrial hydrogen from natural gas. This method of hydrogen production is commonly known as brown, grey, or even blue hydrogen!

Production

The electrolysis of water can also produce hydrogen (using an electric current to break water, H2O, into its component elements of hydrogen and oxygen). Green hydrogen is the clean hydrogen generated if this electric current is generated by a renewable source (such as solar panels or a wind turbine).

By-products

Methane in natural gas is reacted with high-temperature steam in the steam methane reforming (SMR) process while a catalyst is present. Ultimately, this results in the production of CO2 and hydrogen. Since natural gas is often affordable, the hydrogen it produces is also reasonably priced.

The typical SMR process does, however, have the substantial drawback of releasing a lot of CO2s into the environment, which is well recognized to be a very important greenhouse gas. It's less commonly recognized that because methane has an 85 times greater potential for global warming than carbon dioxide, even modest gas leaks from its source and throughout the process can have a big impact on climate change. A significant problem in our efforts to prevent a climatic catastrophe is the unrestricted generation of hydrogen utilizing SMR.

Carbon Capture and Storage

Better alternatives have been suggested, such as versions of steam methane reformation where the CO2 is absorbed and stored in a stable form somewhere else (CCS). Although CCS may be feasible, there remain concerns about our ability to manage and finance the storage of captured carbon. Unfortunately, our track record for managing the enormous captured carbon deposits we've inherited isn't very good.

Importance

Green hydrogen can be produced without any harmful emissions if renewable energy (such as power from solar panels) is utilized to generate the electricity needed for the electrolysis of water.

In order to replace fossil fuels as we move toward low emissions and a clean, healthy environment, our ability to manufacture vast amounts of green hydrogen will be crucial. To accommodate the growing number of EV drivers who will be on the road and need to charge their EVs, we need to reconsider our plan for power generation in light of the increasing popularity of electric cars. We can envision a sustainable future that can meet this growing need by using green hydrogen.