i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 6 ( 2 0 2 1 ) 2 1 2 6 1 e2 1 2 7 3

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

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Insights into low-carbon hydrogen production

methods: Green, blue and aqua hydrogen

Minli Yu a,b,*, Ke Wang b, Harrie Vredenburg b

a
College of Economics and Management, Changzhou Institute of Technology, Changzhou, 213032, China
b
Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, Calgary, T2N1N4, Canada

highlights

The insights into different low-carbon hydrogen production methods.

Low-carbon hydrogen includes green hydrogen, aqua hydrogen and blue hydrogen.

A new low-carbon hydrogen (aqua hydrogen) is introduced.

Insights into green hydrogen, aqua hydrogen and blue hydrogen.

article info abstract

Article history: The primary aim of this study is to provide insights into different low-carbon hydrogen
Received 14 December 2020 production methods. Low-carbon hydrogen includes green hydrogen (hydrogen from
Received in revised form renewable electricity), blue hydrogen (hydrogen from fossil fuels with CO2 emissions
28 March 2021 reduced by the use of Carbon Capture Use and Storage) and aqua hydrogen (hydrogen from
Accepted 3 April 2021 fossil fuels via the new technology). Green hydrogen is an expensive strategy compared to
Available online 2 May 2021 fossil-based hydrogen. Blue hydrogen has some attractive features, but the CCUS tech-
nology is high cost and blue hydrogen is not inherently carbon free. Therefore, engineering
Keywords: scientists have been focusing on developing other low-cost and low-carbon hydrogen
Low-carbon hydrogen technology. A new economical technology to extract hydrogen from oil sands (natural
Green hydrogen bitumen) and oil fields with very low cost and without carbon emissions has been devel-
Blue hydrogen oped and commercialized in Western Canada. Aqua hydrogen is a term we have coined for
Aqua hydrogen production of hydrogen from this new hydrogen production technology. Aqua is a color
Challenges halfway between green and blue and thus represents a form of hydrogen production that
does not emit CO2, like green hydrogen, yet is produced from fossil fuel energy, like blue
hydrogen. Unlike CCUS, blue hydrogen, which is clearly compensatory with respect to
carbon emissions as it captures, uses and stores produced CO2, the new production method
is transformative in that it does not emit CO2 in the first place. In order to promote the
development of the low-carbon hydrogen economy, the current challenges, future di-
rections and policy recommendations of low-carbon hydrogen production methods
including green hydrogen, blue hydrogen, and aqua hydrogen are investigated in the paper.
© 2021 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

* Corresponding author. College of Economics and Management, Changzhou Institute of Technology, Changzhou, 213032, China.
E-mail address: yuml2018@163.com (M. Yu).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.04.016
0360-3199/© 2021 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
21262 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 6 ( 2 0 2 1 ) 2 1 2 6 1 e2 1 2 7 3
Introduction
As an inherent requirement to reduce global greenhouse gas
emissions, the energy transition has become a great challenge
for the next 30 years [1]. Hydrogen can be efficiently converted
into energy for transportation and industrial uses without
emissions of CO2, is considered a clean energy to be used
widely and contribute to sustainable energy systems, and is
one of the most promising solutions to solve the present-day
climate change problems [2,3]. Hydrogen has received exten-
sive attention as a clean energy carrier from both researchers
and policy-makers [4], and it is likely to be an important part of
the energy mix in a low-carbon energy future [5].
The hydrogen energy industry chain includes upstream
hydrogen production, midstream storage and trans-
portation, and downstream applications (hydrogenation
stations and fuel cell applications). At present, although
there are still many key technologies to be developed, the
midstream storage and transportation and downstream
applications have made great progress, and hydrogen fuel
cells have begun to be commercialized. However, research
on the production of hydrogen has thus far been lacking. In
order to make hydrogen an important part of the energy
market, significant research on hydrogen production is
required [6].
Hydrogen can be produced from many different renew-
able and non-renewable sources, with widely varying costs
and carbon dioxide emissions. At present, most of the
hydrogen is still produced worldwide via conversion of fossil
fuels, such as steam reforming of natural gas, resulting in a
large amount of carbon dioxide emissions [2,7]. Hydrogen
supplied from fossil fuels generates a large amount of
emissions, which is not environmentally or climate friendly
[8]. So it is important to shift towards production of low-
carbon hydrogen. There is a growing international
consensus that low-carbon hydrogen will play an important
role in the world's transition to a sustainable energy future
[9]. And low-carbon hydrogen is gaining higher interest by
energy researchers. For example, Ishaq and Dincer [10]
investigate low-carbon hydrogen production methods by
examining three renewable energy sources. However, fossil-
based hydrogen is still more cost-effective compared to low-
carbon hydrogen [11]. The hydrogen transition pathway from
renewables is an expensive strategy as it employs costly
production and end-use technologies [12] and the high cost
hinders its market dissemination [13]. So a key premise of
the hydrogen economy is a cost-effective low or zero-carbon
hydrogen supply and an inexpensive and affordable way to
produce such hydrogen energy [14].
In order for hydrogen to have a key role in future low-
carbon energy systems, its production needs to be suffi-
ciently low in carbon emissions in addition to its economic
viability [15]. A number of researchers have explored how to
reduce the cost of hydrogen production and the emission of
carbon dioxide. Valente et al. [16] argue that hydrogen pro-
duction must be dominated by low-impact feedstock and
renewable energy sources in order to reduce the impact on the
environment. Haghi et al. [17] point out that the advantage of
increasing underground hydrogen storage is that it not only
reduces the cost of hydrogen, but also reduces the emission of
carbon dioxide. Im-orb et al. [18] posit that electrolysis tech-
nology is a clean technology, which can produce hydrogen
from water via electrochemical reactions. Yadav and Banerjee
[19] find that currently solar hydrogen production from the
high-temperature steam electrolysis method is not competi-
tive, and the cost can be reduced to 6e8$/kg if the component
costs are reduced by 2030. Mehrpooya et al. [20] indicate that
water electrolysis is probably the most environmentally
friendly hydrogen production technology combined with
renewable energy generation. El-Emam and Ozcan € [11] argue
that lower electricity prices from nuclear and geothermal
energy allow them to be used for low-cost hydrogen genera-
tion. However, most hydrogen production methods are still
immature due to high production cost or low efficiency [21]. To
meet the growing demand for hydrogen, new hydrogen pro-
duction technologies with high efficiency, low carbon emis-
sions and low cost are needed [22]. This can make hydrogen
production more low-carbon and affordable for different
types of end-user needs [23]. Therefore, it is crucial to develop
low-carbon and low-cost hydrogen in both the short and long
term [24].
Low-carbon hydrogen generally includes green hydrogen
(hydrogen from renewable electricity) and blue hydrogen
(hydrogen from fossil fuels with CO2 emissions reduced by the
use of Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage). Green
hydrogen is carbon free and is rapidly developing from pilot to
commercial-scale operation in many parts of the world [25],
but compared to fossil-based hydrogen, it is still high cost [11].
Blue hydrogen is not inherently carbon free and the CCUS
technology is high cost [26]. Now a new technology developed
in Western Canada promises to make fossil-energy-based
hydrogen carbon free. This new technology for extracting
hydrogen from oil sands (natural bitumen) and conventional
oil fields at low cost and without carbon emissions is being
commercialized by Proton Technologies Canada Inc. Aqua
hydrogen is a term we have coined for production of zero
carbon hydrogen from fossil fuel energy via this new
hydrogen production technology.
In this study, a comprehensive insight into low-carbon
hydrogen production is provided as a global energy transi-
tion pathway. The low-carbon hydrogen production methods
investigated are green, blue and aqua hydrogen. The study is
organized as follows: (i) Low-carbon hydrogen production
methods, which gives the details about different low-carbon
hydrogen production methods, especially the new aqua
hydrogen. (ii) The current challenges for low-carbon hydrogen
production, which describes the challenges in producing
different low-carbon hydrogen. (iii) The future directions and
policy recommendations, which gives future directions and
policy recommendations to different low-carbon hydrogen
production methods for a fully developed low-carbon
hydrogen economy. In the end, conclusions from the
research are provided.
Low-carbon hydrogen production methods
Low-carbon hydrogen includes green hydrogen, blue
hydrogen and aqua hydrogen (Fig. 1). Green hydrogen relies
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 6 ( 2 0 2 1 ) 2 1 2 6 1 e2 1 2 7 3
Fig. 1 e Low-carbon hydrogen production methods.
on renewable energy sources, while blue hydrogen and aqua
hydrogen rely on non-renewable energy sources. Hydrogen
from renewables (green hydrogen) does not emit carbon.
Fossil fuel-based hydrogen combined with CCUS (blue
hydrogen) can avoid large amounts of carbon dioxide.
Compared with blue hydrogen, the carbon dioxide produced
by aqua hydrogen remains in the ground while the hydrogen
is produced and has no impact on the environment. There-
fore, green, blue and aqua hydrogen will be the key to
decarbonizing large sectors of the global economy. With a
rapid increase in the number of policies and projects
worldwide, low-carbon hydrogen is enjoying unprecedented
political and business momentum.
Green hydrogen
One option of zero-carbon hydrogen is hydrogen production
from renewables (green hydrogen). In the short term, renew-
ables alleviate oil and gas related geopolitical tensions [27].
With the increase of electricity generation from renewables
and its temporarily cheap excess capacity due to solar and
wind intermittency, new prospects for hydrogen have
emerged, especially due to the rising demand to solve the
problem of long-term storage of excess electricity [3]. To
achieve a sustainable hydrogen economy, the increased use of
renewable energy to produce hydrogen is important according
to Yadav and Banerjee [19]. Currently, relatively mature
renewable energy hydrogen production technologies include
water electrolysis and biogas steam reforming. Green
hydrogen production can be based on electrolysis exploiting
renewable electricity (solar, hydro, wind) or on biofuels such
21263
as biogas (Fig. 1). From a Life Cycle Assessment perspective,
electrolysis using hydro or wind generated electricity is one of
the best hydrogen production technologies [28].
Hydrogen generation by water electrolysis is cheaper than
the production of synthetic natural gas [29], but the energy
consumption is still large [30] and by 2030 the production
could become cost competitive with currently predominant
methods [25]. Electrolysis technology or electrolysis cells
include three types, namely alkaline electrolysis cells (AEC),
proton exchange membrane electrolysis cells (PEMEC) and
solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOEC). SOEC can generate
hydrogen with the highest efficiency and co-electrolyze car-
bon dioxide [31,74]. SOEC is a promising technology due to its
superior energy conversion efficiency [18]. Biogas can be used
as a raw material to produce low-carbon hydrogen, and the
reforming processes include steam reforming (SR), dry
reforming (DR), dry oxidation reforming (DOR), partial oxida-
tion reforming (POR), and autothermal reforming (ATR) [32].
Renewable energy hydrogen production technologies to be
matured include thermochemical water decomposition,
biomass gasification and pyrolysis, biomass supercritical
water gasification, etc. Hydrogen generation assisted with
solar energy is an environmentally friendly technology and
thermochemical cycles also have potential for green hydrogen
generation [2]. The thermochemical pyrolysis and gasification
are economically feasible methods that provide the highest
potential for large-scale applications in the near future [33].
Biological methods are a promising pathway but need further
research to increase their productivity [34]. Ethanol is also a
potential candidate for hydrogen as it is a renewable and an
available liquid source [35].
21264 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 6 ( 2 0 2 1 ) 2 1 2 6 1 e2 1 2 7 3
Blue hydrogen
Another option for low-carbon hydrogen is the production of
hydrogen from fossil fuels with CCUS (blue hydrogen) [36].
Blue hydrogen is less costly than green hydrogen [75]. Many
countries have proposed to promote the development of blue
hydrogen technology. Blue hydrogen is an economically ad-
vantageous and feasible method that can be implemented in
industry [37], which can enable fossil fuel resources to
continue to be used with CO2 reduction. Blue hydrogen offers
a sustainable prospect for fossil fuel producers such as Can-
ada, Iran, Norway, Qatar, the Russian Federation and the
United States [38]. Blue hydrogen is a transition energy carrier
[37] that can utilize existing infrastructure and assets, which
can be cheaper than alternative energy sources [36]. So blue
hydrogen can achieve climate goals at acceptable cost and
increase energy diversity, especially in a low-carbon economy
[38].
Since 2000, nine facilities have started capturing carbon
dioxide from fossil fuel-based hydrogen production for in-
dustrial use. These projects are located in North America,
France, Japan, etc. Currently, one of the CCUS projects in
operation in Western Canada is Quest Carbon Capture and
Storage, a facility built by Royal Dutch/Shell dedicated to the
production of blue hydrogen [38]. The Quest Carbon Capture
and Storage Project is the world's first commercial-scale CCUS
project. In the first year of operation, one million tons of car-
bon dioxide were captured and stored ahead of schedule [39].
From 2015 to 2020, the Quest Carbon Capture and Storage
Project has stored five million tons of carbon dioxide. The
company with storage facilities has a natural advantage in the
CCUS field [40].
Aqua hydrogen
Canada is the fourth-largest natural gas producer and has the
world's third largest oil reserves. According to the Paris
Agreement on Climate Change, Canada has promised to
reduce methane emissions by 40%e45% in the oil and gas
sector. In order to achieve this goal, Canada's oil and gas in-
dustry has begun to accelerate the development of low-carbon
technologies to reduce carbon pollution and create new value-
added products in the existing oil and gas sector. Hydrogen is
a primary carbonless energy carrier to promote a low-carbon
economy. Canada is one of the larger hydrogen producers in
the world today, making about three million tonnes a year
using steam methane reformation of natural gas [41]. Western
Canada dominates Canadian hydrogen production due to its
large fossil fuel resources. Canada's largest hydrogen plants
are located in Western Canada [42]. However, the production
of hydrogen from fossil fuels without CCUS produces carbon
dioxide.
The University of Calgary and Proton Technologies, both
based in Western Canada, have developed a new technology
for extracting hydrogen from oil sands (natural bitumen) and
conventional oil fields without carbon emissions. It involves
injecting oxygen into heavy oil reservoirs or oil sands deep
underground. Then a chemical reaction occurs, a sponta-
neous form of oxidation that releases heat. When the under-
ground temperature exceeds 350  C, molecules such as heavy
oil and water begin to split. Despite such heat, the reaction is
controllable due to the depth of these reservoirs, the local
transience of temperature, and the presence of water. The
resulting pure hydrogen gas is extracted and brought to the
surface, while the carbon oxides are buried underground.
Such hydrogen could be a zero-carbon way to enhance the
recovery of energy from Canada's oil and gas resources [43].
Fig. 2 describes how a geothermal reservoir induces gasi-
fication and water gas shift reactions to generate aqua
hydrogen. Via the water gas shift reaction, the oxygen is often
bound with carbon in the form of carbon oxides, and the
hydrogen gas is produced. Then the aqua hydrogen is
extracted to surface by using membranes in production wells.
The membranes are made of a palladium alloy and carbon
oxides are rejected underground while hydrogen dissolves in
palladium [44]. The aqua hydrogen extraction method is being
tested near Kerrobert, Saskatchewan. In the February 2021,
Proton Technologies separated aqua hydrogen again at the
project. The technology is capable of turning a high-carbon
product like bitumen into zero-carbon hydrogen [45,76].
Although blue hydrogen and aqua hydrogen are produced
from fossil fuel energy, they are essentially different. The
CCUS of blue hydrogen is a compensatory carbon negative
process, and the purpose is to reduce the carbon dioxide in the
production of hydrogen. Therefore, the technology used in
blue hydrogen is a kind of pollution control technology and
blue hydrogen is the outcome of a compensatory process. The
technology behind aqua hydrogen, however, represents a
transformational technology. The aqua hydrogen technology
allows economically unrecoverable oil reserves to instead
generate hydrogen, without bringing anything to the surface
except hydrogen [46]. The aqua hydrogen technology break-
through is to place oxygen into a sealed fuel deposit between
grains of rock, use unswept petroleum as fuel and the ground
as the reaction vessel. The oxidation result is a lot of H2 gets
separated from H2O in place. H2 come to surface with a
downhole H2 filter, leaving CO2 in the ground. The aqua
hydrogen technology is highly efficient because all energy
conversion occurs underground [44,77,78]. The emergence of
aqua hydrogen is a revolution, which not only promotes the
development of zero carbon hydrogen production technology,
but also has an important impact on society and the economy.
As the aqua hydrogen is carbon-free, some people also call it
green hydrogen. Aqua is a color halfway between green and
blue and thus we use aqua hydrogen to represents the
hydrogen production that does not emit CO2, like green
hydrogen, yet is produced from fossil fuel energy, like blue
hydrogen.
Fig. 3 illustrates life cycle stages for aqua hydrogen. The
first stage is aqua hydrogen production and separation. Firstly,
atmospheric air is separated into nitrogen and oxygen by air
separation units (ASU). Then, oxygen is sent down into an
underground reservoir, heats the reservoir to a temperature
sufficient to cause one of hot gasification, water - gas shift and
aquathermolysis reactions to occur within the reservoir, and
generates synthesis gas [78]. Lastly, aqua hydrogen is pro-
duced to surface by using hydrogen - only membranes in
production wells with carbon and other gases remaining
within the reservoir. The second stage is aqua hydrogen
compression and transportation. Aqua hydrogen on the
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 6 ( 2 0 2 1 ) 2 1 2 6 1 e2 1 2 7 3 21265

Fig. 2 e Process to produce aqua hydrogen from underground geothermal reservoirs Source [44].

Fig. 3 e Life cycle stages for aqua hydrogen.

surface is compressed and transported to where it is stored
through pipelines. Aqua hydrogen can be transported using
either hydrogen pipelines or existing natural gas pipelines.
Regular existing natural gas pipelines can handle 15% of
hydrogen in a gas mixture. Some countries, such as Germany
and the Netherlands, have already implemented hydrogen-
enriched natural gas in regular natural gas pipelines. Aqua
hydrogen can be widely used in many industries such as steel
or cement production. It can be used in a fuel cell to replace
more polluting fossil fuels. It can also be blended with fossil
fuels (e.g. natural gas or coal dust) to reduce the carbon in-
tensity of electricity production.
As shown in Fig. 3, the costs for aqua hydrogen include the
hydrogen production cost, hydrogen separation cost,
hydrogen compression cost and hydrogen transportation cost.
The most important is the hydrogen production cost.
Currently Proton Technologies is producing aqua hydrogen for
demonstration purposes and plans to build a 500 tonnes per
day aqua hydrogen facility, while beginning to sell smaller
volumes of hydrogen later this year.
21266 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 6 ( 2 0 2 1 ) 2 1 2 6 1 e2 1 2 7 3
Table 1 e The basic parameters of aqua hydrogen production.
Unit
Manufacturer
Operating Temperature ( C)
Compressor efficiency
CO2 emission
Heavy oil
Hydrogen production capacity
Plant lifetime
Internal rate of return, %
Capital costs Air separation units
H2 purification
Hydrogen pipeline
Production wells
Operating costs Facility insurance cost
Labor cost
Administration cost
Electricity cost
Water cost
Oil cost
Aqua hydrogen cost
We obtained the basic parameters of aqua hydrogen pro-
duction from Proton Technologies (Table 1). If a small heavy
oil field has 32 million tonnes of heavy oil and an oxidation
mass ratio of 1:3.45 kg heavy oil: oxygen, it takes 110 million
tonnes of oxygen to oxidize 32 million tonnes of heavy oil. If
the project had a life span of 50 years, it would require 6000
tonnes of oxygen a day. It is estimated that the project can
produce about 500 tonnes of hydrogen per day [46]. Then, we
assume the small heavy oil field and air separation units can
be utilized to produce 500 tonnes of hydrogen per day for 20
years. The capital costs are overwhelmingly dominated by the
capital cost of air separation units for oxygen required for the
process. Remaining costs mainly consist of hydrogen pro-
duction wells, and a variety of offtake choices such as
hydrogen compression into natural gas pipelines or tube-
trailers, liquification for transport, ammonia production
cost, hydrogen compatible power generators, and so on. The
project does not plan to store hydrogen on site in the baseline,
but has a 4.2 MW power purchase agreement with SaskPower,
Saskatchewan’s government-owned electricity utility, and
may pipe hydrogen directly to the Ermine natural gas power
station 18 km away, or elsewhere to mix with natural gas for
making lower cost power. Although geological formations in
the area are appropriate to salt-cavern aqua hydrogen storage
and are under evaluation to coincide with the 500 tonnes/day
aqua hydrogen production demonstration, capital costs
initially do not include hydrogen storage cost, which are as
low as possible in the near term. The estimated capital cost is
approximately US$340 million, including the cost of the air
separation units, H2 purification cost, hydrogen pipeline cost,
and production well cost. The costs of facility insurance, labor,
administration, electricity, water and oil are considered in the
operating costs. Since water pre-exists within every oil field,
and in this process non-potable oilfield water is the main
source of H2, water cost is not a factor and can be negligible.
Usually most of the oil is still in the ground when an oil field is
abandoned. Aqua hydrogen technology uses abandoned oil
Parameter
Proton Technologies
Exceeds 350  C
80%
Zero carbon oxides to atmosphere
32 million tonnes
500 tonnes per day
20 years
10
US$ 245 Million
US$ 65 Million
US$ 20 Million
US$ 10 Million
US$ 0.03Million/year
US$1.37Million/year
US$0.40Million/year
Cost is considered to be negligible
Cost is considered to be negligible
Cost is considered to be negligible
US$ 0.23/kg
fields to produce hydrogen, so the cost of oil as process fuel
already inside the porous reactor (the oil field) is also negli-
gible. Therefore, the operating cost is about US$ 1.8 Million/
year, mainly including facility insurance cost, labor cost, and
administration cost. Assuming that the internal rate of return
is 10%, we can calculate that the cost of aqua is about US$ 0.23/
kg. The process of aqua hydrogen is a carbon-free hydrogen at
a cost well below current green hydrogen technologies [41].
The current challenges for low carbon hydrogen
production
Green hydrogen produced by electrolysis using renewable
electricity, blue hydrogen from fossil fuel sources with CCUS
technology, and aqua hydrogen from fossil fuel sources
without CO2 emissions can all potentially be part of the low-
carbon economy. However, there are some challenges in the
production of these three types of low-carbon hydrogen
currently, which are likely to affect the future decarbonization
goals.
The challenge for green hydrogen
The key premise of the low-carbon hydrogen economy is the
cost-effective supply of hydrogen. However, green hydrogen is
currently associated with high costs. At present, green
hydrogen production technology has not been available with
reasonable efficiency and cost as it needs a complex multi-
component system [47,79]. From Table 2, we can see the cost
of green hydrogen from renewable electricity is about
US$2.28e7.43/kg, which is higher than black and grey
hydrogen and higher than blue hydrogen. CESAR (Canada
Energy Systems Analysis Research), a non-profit energy and
sustainability think-tank, has estimated that a hydrogen price
of less than US$2.6/kg H2 was needed to be cost competitive
with whole-sale diesel price [48]. The cost of green hydrogen is
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 6 ( 2 0 2 1 ) 2 1 2 6 1 e2 1 2 7 3 21267

Table 2 e Summary of hydrogen production costs for different technology options.

US$/kgH2
Methods Energy Source Location H2 cost Reference
Black hydrogen (without CCUS) Coal Canada 1.35 [54]
Grey hydrogen (without CCUS) Natural gas Canada 1.31 [54]
Canada 0.67e1.05 [55]
Blue hydrogen (with CCUS) Coal Canada 1.60e2.05 [54]
Natural gas Canada 1.62e1.83 [54]
Canada 0.99e1.36 [55]
Green hydrogen Renewable electricity Canada 7.39 [56]
Canada 2.56e6.84 [57]
Canada 2.28e3.69 [55]
Japan 5.5 [58]
Europe 2.24e7.84 [59]
Australia 4.78e7.43 [60]

Note: Different currencies are involved and converted at current exchange rates.

generally too high to enable it to be widely deployed. Ac-
cording to some estimates, the green hydrogen price may not
fall low enough until the 2030s [80,81].
The price of green hydrogen is influenced by different
factors. The first factor is the cost of electrolysis, the process of
producing hydrogen from water using renewable energy.
Currently, the total capacity of global electrolysis is limited.
The practical realization of electrolysis has high production
cost [49] and large energy requirements [50]. Mature technol-
ogies can reduce hydrogen cost, especially when integrated to
electrolysis-based technologies [11], electrolysis-based in-
novations will be needed in the future.
The second most critical factor affecting the cost of green
hydrogen is the price of green electricity used in the electrol-
ysis process. The cost of green electricity is the most impor-
tant component of the price of green hydrogen. The sharp
drop in the cost of solar and wind power can lower the price of
green hydrogen [85], and low-cost green electricity will lead
more potential end users to pay close attention to green
hydrogen [36]. However, green electricity prices are still too
high currently. In the long run, reducing the cost of renewable
electricity is the key to the large-scale application of green
hydrogen. Scaling up wind and solar power generation is
important to reduce the cost of renewable electricity.
The growth of wind turbines and photovoltaic power gen-
eration systems has significant advantages [51]. However, the
move towards wind energy usually arouses some degree of
concern and even opposition from local residents. In Ontario,
a Canadian province, the health impact, property devaluation,
and injustice through the planning and siting process have
received the most attention [52]. In addition, the percentage of
wind energy on the grid remains a challenge. Due to the high
capital cost of wind infrastructure, hydrogen production using
wind power is an expensive option for climate-focused gov-
ernments to promote [17]. The wind resource available de-
pends on weather conditions, such as wind speed, wind
direction, temperature and air pressure. This makes wind
power uncertain and has significant effect on the cost of green
hydrogen [53]. Solar energy is the most abundant and long-
lasting energy, but intermittency is a tricky problem. More-
over, due to additional component requirements, it increases
the cost of generated hydrogen [11].
The challenge for blue hydrogen
The price of blue hydrogen is mainly driven by the price of coal
or natural gas. In addition, the price of blue hydrogen is
affected by the cost of capturing, reusing or storing carbon
dioxide. From Table 2, we can see the cost of blue hydrogen in
Canada ranges from 0.99 to 2.05, which is higher than black
hydrogen and grey hydrogen. Currently, the development of
blue hydrogen as a transition solution faces some challenges:
the CCUS technology is immature, the CCUS technology is
high cost and carbon dioxide capture efficiency is low.
Firstly, large-scale blue hydrogen is facing the challenge of
immature CCUS technology. There are some successful CCS
projects, but in general, it is challenging [40]. According to the
Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute’s 2018 global CCS
report, there are now 43 large CCS projects worldwide, 18 of
them are running. Among them, there are 10 in the United
States, 3 in Canada, 2 in Norway, 1 in China, and the remaining
3 in the rest of the world. The CCUS technology is still in the

Table 3 e CO2 intensity of hydrogen production.

kg CO2/kg H2
Black hydrogen Grey hydrogen Blue hydrogen Blue hydrogen (Natural gas
(Coal with CCUS, 90% capture rate) with CCUS, 90% capture rate)
20 8.5 2.4 1

Source [36].
21268 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 6 ( 2 0 2 1 ) 2 1 2 6 1 e2 1 2 7 3
early stages of technical maturity with high operating energy
consumption, requiring large-scale applications in the future.
Carbon dioxide transport is a necessary condition for the
large-scale development of CCUS, but the carbon dioxide
transport link is weak at present [61].
Secondly, the CCUS technology is faced with high cost. At
the initial stage of the project, the investment cost is very
high, and all of them are sunk costs, which discourages most
enterprises. Although the current capital cost of a blue
hydrogen plant plus CCUS is about half the cost of an elec-
trolytic cell plant. But over time, as the cost of renewable en-
ergy falls and carbon prices rise, the price of green hydrogen
will fall, making blue hydrogen less competitive. The long-
term reduction of renewable energy costs and the prospect
of developing complementary renewable infrastructure
strongly oppose investment in CCUS [62]. The high cost of the
current CCUS technology make it far from being mature in
commercial applications [26].
Carbon dioxide capture efficiency is another key challenge
for blue hydrogen. The carbon dioxide emissions of hydrogen
produced from fossil fuel sources can be reduced through
CCUS technology, therefore having a significantly lower car-
bon footprint. From Table 3, we can see CO2 intensity of
hydrogen production from natural gas or coal with CCUS is 1
or 2.4 kg CO2/kg H2. Blue hydrogen has lower carbon emissions
than black hydrogen and grey hydrogen. But it still has carbon
dioxide emissions as there are still some residual emissions
that cannot be directly eliminated. The production of blue
hydrogen is not zero carbon with an estimated 5%e15%
leakage. The SMR (steam methane reforming) process can be
implemented with CO2 capture at a maximum of 85e90%.
Autothermal reforming (ATR) has a larger CO2 capture po-
tential and there are indications that CO2 capture can be
greater than 90% [37]. Blue hydrogen has a great deal of un-
certainty about the potential environmental impacts [63].
Large-scale blue hydrogen production will release millions of
tons of emissions each year. Therefore, there is vocal envi-
ronmentalist concern in Europe, Australia, and elsewhere
because of emissions related to blue hydrogen.
The challenge for aqua hydrogen
Canada is one of the most energy-intensive and carbon-
intensive economies in the world [64]. Canada has 2 trillion
barrels of oil in place and 170 billion barrels of oil reserves.
Thus, 8.5% of Canada's oil in place is considered economi-
cally recoverable reserves [46]. By using the aqua hydrogen
production technology, Canada could strengthen its global
leadership in hydrogen by combining its abundance of oil
sands with its geological CO2 storage capacity. And it will
also create jobs and boost economic growth. Although aqua
hydrogen technology has multiple key advantages for the
future low-carbon hydrogen economy, it is a new technology
and is still in a pilot production stage. The development of
aqua hydrogen as a transition solution may face three main
challenges.
The first one is challenge in large-scale production. Since
aqua hydrogen is a new low-carbon technology, it is still in a
small production stage. How to carry out large-scale produc-
tion is an important problem for the development of aqua
hydrogen. The scale up of aqua hydrogen needs to promote
the aqua hydrogen technology, increase the investment in
aqua hydrogen production and develop aqua hydrogen in-
dustry infrastructure. However, at present, the scale of aqua
hydrogen production is affected by the lack of understanding
of aqua hydrogen technology, the insufficient investment in
aqua hydrogen production and the shortage of infrastructure
construction of the aqua hydrogen industry. The barriers to
large-scale production of aqua hydrogen need to be resolved.
The second challenge is environmental concern. Aqua
hydrogen is produced underground, and the water-gas shift
reaction in the production wells is above 350  C. The public may
be concerned about the possible impact of this high tempera-
ture on the environment. The production of aqua hydrogen
leaves all carbon dioxide underground. Although geological
carbon dioxide storage is an effective way to reduce carbon
emissions, its safety and environmental risks are issues worthy
of attention. The potential hazards of CO2 geological storage
may include increasing the acidity of water, breaking the orig-
inal ecological balance, leaking CO2 into the atmosphere, and
affecting the health of people around. Therefore, before aqua
hydrogen is widely adopted, it would have to go through a full
life-cycle assessment of social benefits and risk.
The last challenge is public resistance. This challenge is
related to the environmental concern. Since the public
generally don’t know much about the aqua hydrogen pro-
duction technology, they may worry about the environmental
impact. In addition, green hydrogen is widely considered as
the promising hydrogen production method. Therefore, the
public would prefer to produce green hydrogen. There may be
public resistance to aqua hydrogen. Public resistance is likely
to become a major barrier in the promotion of aqua hydrogen
technology. The aqua hydrogen technology’s advocates need
to raise social acceptance of aqua hydrogen production.
Future directions and policy recommendations
Future directions
The main pathway to low-carbon hydrogen production
Hydrogen is zero emission in the utilization stage, but it has
some negative effects on the environment during its produc-
tion stage from fossil fuels [65]. In order to make hydrogen a
real clean energy, production needs to be more environmen-
tally friendly. Green hydrogen is an environmentally friendly
energy carrier. It can serve as temporary storage for (excess)
green electricity. Producing green hydrogen from wind and
solar power is seen as an important route to renewable energy
system. Therefore, many countries are aiming to develop
carbon-free green hydrogen from renewable electricity. For
example, Germany, France and Spain, are all spending tens of
billions of euros on green hydrogen. Although green hydrogen
still faces many challenges, it is the main pathway to low-
carbon hydrogen production in the future.
The transition pathway to low-carbon hydrogen production
The cost of producing low-carbon hydrogen from renewable
electricity is high, and prices may not come down sufficiently
for some time. Fossil fuel hydrogen will be the transition route
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 6 ( 2 0 2 1 ) 2 1 2 6 1 e2 1 2 7 3
Fig. 4 e Hydrogen production costs for different technology options in Canada. Note: The data are from Tables 1 and 2.
for producing low-carbon hydrogen until the cost of green
hydrogen drops enough. According to the European Union, this
could take a decade or more [66]. Therefore, hydrogen produc-
tion will continue to rely on fossil fuel energy. Blue hydrogen
and aqua hydrogen can be used as a transition pathway to low-
carbon hydrogen production in the coming decades.
Blue hydrogen is very widely regarded as superior to diesel
and gasoline with respect to environmental impact and cost.
Accordingly, blue hydrogen is expected to contribute strongly
toward the transition to zero-carbon hydrogen, as it can grow
consumer demand for hydrogen based on cost, while
hydrogen infrastructure such as retail fueling stations ex-
pands, and economies continue to have uses for natural gas.
Therefore, before the cost of green hydrogen is reduced
significantly, it can be used as a transition to the development
of low-carbon hydrogen economy in the near future.
In the past few decades, hydrogen-related technologies
have developed rapidly [67]. Aqua hydrogen is a new low-
carbon hydrogen technology. Aqua hydrogen is CO2 free,
and the cost, in a pilot project setting, is low. As there is no fuel
cost if late-life oil fields are selected, no surface construction
of a reaction vessel, and no compression cost to re-inject CO2.
Aqua hydrogen is anticipated to have a much lower produc-
tion cost than blue hydrogen and green hydrogen. From Fig. 4,
we can see aqua hydrogen has the lowest cost compared with
blue hydrogen and green hydrogen, even lower than black
hydrogen and grey hydrogen. This is because black hydrogen
and grey hydrogen are affected by the price of raw materials.
However, aqua hydrogen in the pilot project setting uses
abandoned oil fields and has almost no raw material cost.
Although the cost of green hydrogen and blue hydrogen
will fall through scale, it is unlikely to reach the low cost of
aqua hydrogen. Aqua hydrogen has the potential to play a
significant role as the world transitions to lower carbon,
especially in situations where low-cost fossil fuel reserves,
storage sites and natural gas pipeline systems e natural gas
pipelines can accommodate hydrogen- or large power lines
exist. As an intermediate step, aqua hydrogen plays an
important role to develop low-carbon hydrogen economy, and
it has more advantages than blue hydrogen. Aqua hydrogen,
since it is produced by a transformative rather than
compensatory low-carbon technology, might represent a
permanent pathway to low-carbon hydrogen production in
the future and retain a share of the energy mix in countries
21269
with hydrocarbon resources or those to whom it can be
transported economically.
Policy recommendations
Green hydrogen
The larger the scale of green hydrogen production, the lower its
cost. Therefore, it is necessary to vigorously promote hydrogen
production from renewable energy, which will promote the
cost reduction of green hydrogen production more quickly. The
two key factors for the development of green hydrogen are the
reduction of electrolysis costs and the reduction of green
electricity prices. In view of the excessively high cost of elec-
trolysis, it is necessary to find ideal materials for the produc-
tion of electrolytic cells, and to establish a large-scale
electrolysis supply chain system. It will reduce the cost of
electrolysis through the selection of materials and the estab-
lishment of a large-scale supply system. In view of the exces-
sively high price of green electricity, it is necessary to rely on
government policy support and financial subsidies to promote
the large-scale development of renewable energy such as
offshore wind energy, onshore wind energy, and solar energy,
to increase the utilization rate of power generation, and reduce
the price of green electricity. Governments should develop
energy policy frameworks to optimize investment on renew-
able energy [82]. Demand-side constraints have been identified
as a significant barrier to the successful development of
renewable energy projects [68]. Therefore, it is also necessary
to increase the public's recognition and acceptance of renew-
able power projects, expand the demand for renewable power,
and promote the development of renewable power projects.
Blue hydrogen
In the long run, fossil hydrogen with CCUS can achieve low
emissions at a relatively low cost. However, there are many
uncertainties regarding the potential environmental impact
and feasibility of CCUS [63]. Nowadays, the use of CCUS tech-
nology to reduce carbon emissions faces severe technical
challenges. CO2 capture efficiency is one key factor of CCUS
deployment [83], the process of CCUS can only capture and
store 80e95% CO2. The immaturity and high cost of the current
CCUS technology make it far from being mature in commercial
applications. In response to the immaturity and high cost of
CCUS technology in the development of blue hydrogen, it is
21270 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 6 ( 2 0 2 1 ) 2 1 2 6 1 e2 1 2 7 3
necessary to increase the research on CCUS technology
through the industry-university-research cooperation, and to
promote the sharing of technological achievements. It is also
necessary to increase government support and guidance for
CCUS technology, and to actively promote CCUS demonstra-
tion projects towards large-scale industrialization and
commercialization. The cost of the CCUS technology should
decrease over time [84]. In response to the problem of low
carbon dioxide capture efficiency in the development of blue
hydrogen, it is necessary to ensure that the risks in the CO2
storage process are controllable to avoid the risks of CO2
leakage to the ecological environment and human activities.
Therefore, blue hydrogen production needs to be monitored
and validated to account for uncaptured emissions and stored
carbon dioxide retention. Moreover, technological innovation
is needed to make carbon dioxide a valuable raw material [61].
Aqua hydrogen
Aqua hydrogen may offer the potential for fossil fuel driven
low-carbon hydrogen at a very low cost. Since aqua hydrogen
technology is a new technology, it is necessary to formulate
investment strategy and promote commercial investment. The
critical challenges to the use of aqua hydrogen is the large-
scale production, environmental concern and the public's
acceptance. As aqua hydrogen faces the challenge of large-
scale production, it calls for adequate funding and technol-
ogy demonstration. It is necessary to increase public funding
and private investment to promote the large-scale practical
application. In addition, it is necessary to carry out the
demonstration of aqua hydrogen technology by increasing the
demonstration projects, and accumulate project construction,
operation and management experience. With regard to envi-
ronmental concerns about aqua hydrogen, it is necessary to
strengthen the evaluation of environmental impact. Before the
aqua hydrogen technology is wildly adopted, a full life-cycle
assessment of the environmental impact is required. It could
lead to improved acceptability through improving trust in the
hydrogen technology and providing quantitative information
about the risk [69,70]. Therefore, it needs to show the public
what is actually going on with the aqua hydrogen projects to
improve public acceptance of aqua hydrogen. It is also neces-
sary to publicize the technical value and environmental impact
of aqua hydrogen to the public through mass media to enhance
the public's acceptance of aqua hydrogen.
Conclusions
In general, the continuous use of fossil fuels such as oil, gas,
and coal leads to the environmental problems like greenhouse
effects [71] and air pollution. Given the consensus on climate
change and the ambition of the Paris Climate Accord to limit
global temperature rise well below 2  C, hydrogen is receiving
increased attention as an energy carrier in the future carbon-
limited world [1]. As a clean fuel, hydrogen can provide all the
requirements and characteristics of a clean and reliable en-
ergy carrier as an appropriate alternative to fossil fuels [72].
Although hydrogen can be a large part of the clean energy
shift, it is a secondary source of energy, generated from
various sources including fossil fuels and renewable energy.
The environmental performance of the hydrogen production
processes is highly dependent on the form of main source.
Low-carbon hydrogen production will be a key to decarbon-
izing large sectors of the global economy.
In this paper, low-carbon hydrogen is defined as hydrogen
that is produced from zero-carbon processes such as from
renewable energy (green hydrogen), or produced from oil res-
ervoirs with a new technology (aqua hydrogen). Additionally,
low-carbon hydrogen also refers to hydrogen produced from
fossil fuels with the process of carbon capture, utilization and
storage (blue hydrogen). This study gives insights into the three
low-carbon hydrogen production methods, analyzes the chal-
lenges of different low-carbon hydrogen development, and
puts forward future directions and recommendations.
At present, the three types of low-carbon hydrogen pro-
duction technologies are not mature. In the future, it is
necessary to increase the research and development of low-
carbon hydrogen technology, expand low-carbon hydrogen
production, and increase the development of low-carbon
hydrogen production infrastructure, which will allow low-
carbon hydrogen to become a widely used energy commod-
ity [73]. In order to enable low-carbon hydrogen to play a key
role in the decarbonization of the future energy system, policy
makers should provide long-term policy to reduce uncertainty
and risks for producers, increase production of low-carbon
hydrogen and establish distribution systems.
Aqua hydrogen is produced underground, so there are no
expensive processing and waste streams like with refineries.
The carbon dioxide remains buried in the ground with zero
carbon oxides to the atmosphere. And the fuel used to pro-
duce aqua hydrogen is free. Therefore, aqua hydrogen tech-
nology might have the lowest cost and the least polluting
method to produce low hydrogen on a large scale. Therefore,
in the transition to green hydrogen, it is necessary to give
priority to the development of aqua hydrogen.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The authors of this paper would like to thank the Proton
Technologies Canada Inc. for the support with aqua hydrogen
data. Also, the authors would like to thank the funds provided
by China’s Jiangsu Government Scholarship for Overseas
Studies.
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