There can be no doubt that hydrogen will play an important role in the transition to a Net Zero energy system, as shown in IEA’s Net-Zero Emissions by 2050 Roadmap.

Demand should grow six-fold by 2050 and its use should expand to new sectors, including long distance transport, shipping, aviation, new uses in heavy industry or power generation.

But for all the optimism surrounding hydrogen’s take up, there are wide-ranging uncertainties across policy, technology, power and mobility. So where is the industry standing now, and what are the main obstacles that need to be overcome?

Crises spur hydrogen interest 

The Ukraine conflict, rising energy costs and increased emphasis on decarbonisation have provided more impetus to hydrogen and clean energy technologies.

Currently 680 projects are in deployment, accounting for $240bn in investment to 2030, according to McKinsey.

It’s been a year of country collaborations and we can expect more to come to the fore, for example Egypt and Norway recently unveiled plans to establish a 100MW green hydrogen plant on the Red Sea, as part of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh; the Canada-Germany Hydrogen Alliance, officially launched in Newfoundland in August, aims to export Canadian hydrogen by 2025.

However the resounding, recurring message is the momentum must be accelerated in order to reach Net Zero goals.

Accelerating policy and finance

By most yardsticks, 2022 will go down as a positive year for hydrogen – primarily thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, which has been hailed as a ‘game changer’ through its production and tax credits.

But while the US has been setting the pace, with Europe not far behind with RePowerEU, there needs to be greater policy coherence, with country-by-country efforts to decarbonise evaluated against priorities.

Financial support is needed to scale renewables and energy storage technologies faster. Funding and subsidies are required for all sources of energy that don’t produce carbon dioxide (CO2), covering storage and distribution as well as production.

“As the world’s energy problems mount, a push towards embracing alternative and sustainable energy is crucial, and the hydrogen economy presents solutions that will be key to the future of energy,” said Gerardo Familiar Calderon, Head of Hydrogen Economy Venture at The Chemours Company.

“It will take a total worldwide effort from governments, industry, and communities to bring future emission goals to fruition. Still increased collaboration has everyone involved in the hydrogen economy hopeful for what the future holds.”

According to a recent GlobalData report, the development of the hydrogen market would make an impact in the second half of this decade, as currently just a small capacity is operating and the rest is still in various stages of development.

Standards is another key point, ensuring novel solutions perform at the right level, and above all, promote safety and quality – and they need to be leveraged globally.

“Government and industry must work together to ensure existing regulations are not an unnecessary barrier to investment,” notes the IEA.

“Trade will benefit from common international standards for the safety of transporting and storing large volumes of hydrogen and for tracing the environmental impacts of different hydrogen supplies.”

Ramping up green hydrogen

Hydrogen is already with us at industrial scale globally, but its production is responsible for annual CO2 emissions equivalent to those of Indonesia and the UK combined.

Harnessing this existing scale on the way to a clean energy future requires both the capture of CO2 from hydrogen production from fossil fuels and greater supplies of hydrogen from clean electricity. Industrial ports could become the ‘nerve centres’ for scaling up the use of clean hydrogen.

Drive down costs, build up infrastructure 

Producing hydrogen from low-carbon energy is costly at the moment. IEA analysis finds that the cost of producing hydrogen from renewable electricity could fall 30% by 2030 as a result of declining costs of renewables and the scaling up of hydrogen production.

Hydrogen prices for consumers are highly dependent on how many refuelling stations there are, how often they are used and how much hydrogen is delivered per day. Tackling this is likely to require planning and coordination that brings together national and local governments, industry and investors.

Introducing clean hydrogen to replace just 5% of the volume of countries’ natural gas supplies would significantly boost demand for hydrogen and drive down costs.

Fuel cells, refuelling equipment and electrolysers (which produce hydrogen from electricity and water) can all benefit from mass manufacturing.

Underpinning any cost-cutting drive will be increased support in R&D.

Develop fuel cell technologies supply chain

One of the most significant challenges is the need to quickly and exponentially scale a supply chain that makes technology available to mass markets. Significant investments and partnerships are needed to allow for this growth.

“To date, technology has been insufficient to maintain the power required by the fuel cell reaction for the lifetime, particularly for heavy-duty vehicles,” said Calderon.

“There is also the degradation mechanisms for fuel cell lifetime reduction, which recent advancements and testing show Nafion™ materials mitigating. Another challenge we face is the need to continue to build the hydrogen economy infrastructure, in communities, nationally and globally.”

Nafion™ proton exchange membranes (PEM) and dispersions serve as the benchmark materials in three key areas: water electrolysers for hydrogen production, flow batteries for energy storage, and fuel cells for transport and stationary applications. 

Lessons from the successful growth of the global LNG market can be leveraged in the development of hydrogen shipping trade routes.

With declining costs for solar PV and wind generation, building electrolysers at locations with excellent renewable resource conditions could become a low-cost supply option for hydrogen, even after taking into account the transmission and distribution costs of transporting hydrogen from (often remote) renewables locations to the end-users, notes the IEA.