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Green Hydrogen
Green Hydrogen
Green Hydrogen
Prepared by
Majeda Alhaj-Hussein
Submitted to
Dr. Abdel Fattah Hasan
Hydrogen, as one of the best substitutes for traditional fuels, is predicted to play a
critical part in the future Low-Carbon Economy.
The difficulties of storage and transportation, as well as the high cost of its manufacture
from renewable energies, which is three times the output of fossil fuels, are among the
most significant problems that need to be developed technologies to expedite by
extending its production globally.
The above leads us to ask a question about the concept of green hydrogen: What is it?
How does it vary from the common, emissions-heavy blue and "grey" hydrogen?
Introduction
Hydrogen has emerged as an important renewable energy source with certain
distinguished characteristics, and because it is abundant, theoretically there are no
boundaries to its production.
It is light, storable, and has a high heat value density, where heat value is the quantity
of heat emitted during fuel burning, also known as energy/heat value (Jkg-1).
The following Table compares the heat value of H2 to that of typical organic fuels.
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The burning of hydrogen produces zero emissions nor greenhouse gases (GHG). The
utilization of H2 as a power source was established in the twentieth century, and since
that the hydrogen market has seen significant progress in recent decades. Hydrogen will
play an important part in the renewable energy economy, contributing to lower GHG
emissions, a zero-carbon economy, and other societal advantages.
Hydrogen is an excellent fuel for global decarbonization and de-fossilization, and it will
aid in the establishment of energy self-sufficiency. Currently, H2 is largely employed in
the manufacturing of chemicals, fertilizers, petroleum, metal treatment, food
processing, and rocket fuel. It may also be used to power homes, factories, transit, and
autos, and it is predicted to overtake the automobile sector in the future decades.
Significant financing are being made in the hydrogen economy and infrastructure as a
result of rising conventional fuel prices and environmental concerns.
Governments around the world are focused significantly on hydrogen production, with
a strong necessity to focus on hydrogen consumption in many sectors to reduce GHG
emissions. At the moment, producing H2 from renewable sources costs approximately
two to seven times more often than producing H2 from Nat. gas without carbon capture.
According to International Energy Agency (IEA) reports, there was no substantial
advancement in the domain of Green Hydrogen until 2010 due to the restricted output
of H2 production plants (one megawatt) via electrolysis. This figure has recently risen
as more hydrogen generating units with capacities of up to 25 MW have been erected,
for example, in 2020 A 10 MW project was built in Japan, while a 20 MW facility was
built in Canada. Recently, the private sector invested in 700 MW electrolyzers.
According to IEA studies, tremendous progress has recently been made with promising
chances for renewables with potential lower costs, lower energy loss, and almost zero
GHG emissions. However, there are several numbers of technological and commercial
difficulties for the green hydrogen economy, including:
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Types of Hydrogen
Hydrogen can be categorized into three broad groups based on its source of creation, as
indicated below:
Source:https://aeclinic.org/aec-blog/2021/6/24/the-colors-of-hydrogen
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Green Hydrogen
What is Green Hydrogen?
Green hydrogen is hydrogen created by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using
renewable energy. This is a completely different path from both grey and blue.
The splitting process is aided by solar energy, which reduces the amount of electrical
energy required to break the chemical bonds in the water molecule in order to make
hydrogen and oxygen.
Green Hydrogen can be consumed immediately or pumped into the gas distribution
system. In the latter situation, because it can be kept and transferred, it can be created
in one location and at one moment and utilized in another location at a later period,
resulting in the separation of the creation and consuming processes.
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The main applications for green hydrogen include:
1. Industry: presently contributes for further than 90% of global hydrogen use ,
although this is mostly due to grey hydrogen, or CO2-containing hydrogen.
Using green hydrogen in these processes would be a significant step toward
reducing industry's environmental imprint.
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Hydrogen Production Technologies
While there are other techniques for producing hydrogen, the great bulk of global
hydrogen production now originates from nonrenewable fossil fuels, specifically steam
reforming of methane, because it is inexpensive and high efficiency. However, these
procedures tend to yield less pure hydrogen, in addition to emitting dangerous
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. As a result, new sustainable energy techniques
are being developed to substitute for the current system, specifically via water
electrolysis; this process allows for the creation of environmentally, high-purity
hydrogen while still emitting oxygen as a byproduct as demonstrated by the next
equation
electricity + heat
H2O H2 + 1/2 O2
However, as a result of high consumption costs and poor hydrogen output rates,
hydrogen production is still not financially feasible. Many academics have been seeking
for options having low-cost electrocatalysts and lower energy usage in order to improve
overall efficiency.
H2O molecules are the reactant in electrolysis operations, dissociating into hydrogen
and oxygen in an oxidation-reduction process under the effect of electricity and heat.
Based on the operating parameters, the electrolyte and electrolyzer employed, and the
ionic agent present (OH, H+, O2), this process can be divided into three types: alkaline
electrolysis (AEL), proton-exchange membrane electrolysis (PEMEL), and solid oxide
electrolysis (SOEL).
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A) Alkaline Water Electrolysis: (AEL)
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C) solid oxide electrolysis (SOEL):
Since a kilogram of hydrogen has the energy equivalent of three kilograms of nat gas,
the overall price of Green Hydrogen usually includes expenses, investment costs, and
the cost of electrolysers, which is around two to three times that of blue hydrogen.
There are several technological and commercial hurdles, including as the narrow
capability of hydrogen utilization in diverse industries, Electrolyzers are very
expensive, and Inadequate availability of relevant technology for large-scale Green
Hydrogen production
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CONCLUSION
GH serves as one of the most attractive renewable and sustainable energy transporters,
producing just water as a byproduct and generating no carbon. Hydrogen is primarily
used in commercial processes such like fertilizer application, petroleum refinery
operations, the petrochemical and chemical manufacturers, and fuel cells due to its
many appealing characteristics as an energy carrier, including a high efficiency (which
is more and over twice that of classic solid fuels). The advancement of renewable
hydrogen manufacturing technologies is a critical step toward achieving a sustainable
life on this planet; the use of environmentally friendly resources for energy creation is
critical. Even though renewable production of hydrogen technologies have made
significant advances recently, increasing their feasibility as a large-scale energy
generation method, greater efficiency is still required for them to be economical with
current hydrogen manufacturing techniques based on fossil fuels.
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References
1. Leonardo Vidas and Rui Castro: Recent Developments on Hydrogen Production
Technologies: State-of-the-Art Review with a Focus on Green-Electrolysis, 1
December 2021.
2. Robin Singha, Neha Tiwaria, R.K.Vijb and Ramesh K. Gudurua: A Critical Review on
Green Hydrogen>“Path to hydrogen competitiveness A cost perspective,” 2020.
[Online]. Available: www.hydrogencouncil.com.
3. “Hydrogen: the future fuel to achieve net zero? | National Grid
Group.”https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/journey-to-net-zero-
stories/hydrogen-future-fuel-achieve-net-zero(accessed Oct. 25, 2021).
4. G. Shi, J. Liu, B. Chen, Y. Bao, and J. Xu, “Phase-controlled growth of cubic phase CuO
nanoparticles by chemical vapor deposition,” Physica Status Solidi (A) Applications
and Materials Science, vol. 214, no. 10, Oct.2017, doi: 10.1002/pssa.201700041.
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