Why the promise of green hydrogen-based energy transition is flawed?

In the Union Budget 2022, our Hon’ble Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Hydrogen Energy Mission, and subsequently the Green Hydrogen Policy was notified by the Government. Not only the Indian Government, but big corporates and energy giants too are now betting on and investing huge sums of money and efforts into projecting Green Hydrogen as the “next big factor” that will enable the nation’s renewable energy transition, particularly for its automobile sector. For instance, French giant conglomerate Total Energies recently joined hands with India’s Adani Group’s Adani New Industries Ltd (ANIL) to jointly invest $50 billion into green hydrogen initiatives in order to work towards building a capacity of 1 million tonnes yearly green hydrogen production by 2030. But, there’s another “lesser-told” side of this story!

Why green (and other types of) hydrogen may not lead us towards greener pastures!

A few months earlier, the European Commission took the strategic decision to leave out “hydrogen mobility” from its rebranded clean hydrogen partnership. The news did not come as a big surprise since the world has witnessed the success of conventional Li-ion batteries across all segments of electric vehicles in recent years. Although, it does raise a question if the role of hydrogen is overblown to reach the targets of carbon neutrality by 2050? The answer to that could be either yes, or maybe yes. But in both cases, one would wonder why so? Let’s try to find out in the next few paragraphs.

Green hydrogen production is a very energy-intensive process where we need to split a stable molecule of water in an electrolyser to produce hydrogen and oxygen gases. The produced hydrogen gas can only be stored by liquifying it below -250°C or maintaining high pressure conditions. Because of inefficiencies in the process, the ‘well-to-wheel efficiency’ (energy recovered vs. energy supplied) comes out to be lower than 30 per cent. Compare this to a battery where you can recover ~99% of energy stored/supplied to it during charging. Moreover, transportation of hydrogen is often a safety nightmare, as hydrogen molecules tend to diffuse into the structure of steel tank and make it brittle which can potentially cause serious accidents.

Another aspect one needs to take into account is the financial aspect, especially for a price sensitive market like India. One needs to remember that the costs involved in producing green hydrogen at scale are on the higher side. Also, when it comes to electric vehicles, Lithium-ion batteries can maintain consistent performance until they need recharging and gives an overall better performance compared to hydrogen fuel cells. It would possibly take several years for hydrogen to become the most used source of energy and it will require massive capital outlay. Further, blue hydrogen – hydrogen produced by reforming natural gas and steam and sequestering the CO2 produced in the process – will be the major source of hydrogen fuel for a long time to come until green hydrogen production reaches a certain scale and its prices comes down sharply to compete with blue hydrogen. Cornell and Stanford university researchers published in one of their studies last year that using blue hydrogen as a fuel cause 20% more greenhouse gas emissions than producing heat directly by burning the natural gas. It has since then challenged the strategy of various nations who are going all gung-ho about hydrogen economy to meet the goals of Paris Agreement and forced them to recalibrate their strategy and positioning on clean hydrogen.

The alternatives

Agora Energiewende in a recent report put forward a concept of “no-regret hydrogen” to emphasise on the idea of using hydrogen only as a last reserve for decarbonation in any application. Surely, there are many industries such as steel plants, ammonia production and other refineries that require hydrogen to reduce the GHG emissions.

However, when there are better substitutes available to achieve the same targets, we should invariably take those paths just like we ended up choosing Li-ion batteries against hydrogen fuel cells for e-mobility application. Similarly, the industries and refineries that are looking to offset natural gas and use hydrogen for heat generation purposes can instead shift to heat pumps for relatively lower quality heat (~200°C) or electric arc furnaces when high quality heat is required (~1000°C). This list can go on and on for various other applications where similar strategies can be implemented instead of choosing green hydrogen as a default option for decarbonisation.

In conclusion

After all, on this planet we have limited energy available to cater our needs so let’s use it wisely and more efficiently. We need to remember well that wishful thinking against the laws of the nature can and certainly will land us in huge trouble! To build a clean and green future, governments and private players must work hand in hand. While there is a lot of conversation around green hydrogen currently, we however need to consider the various other options available to us today, and then need to analyse each options based on viability and affordability in the long run.