Brazil is attempting to become a worldwide player in the manufacture of H2V (hydrogen plus green), a clean fuel that has the potential to satisfy the needs of the electrical and automotive industries while having a minimal environmental effect.
EDP Brasil, one of the country’s largest energy corporations, expects to begin operations in a pilot plant for the manufacture of H2V in So Gonçalo do Amarante, Ceará, before the end of the year. The hydrogen will be created via electrolysis of water, which is a chemical technique that employs an electric current to breakdown water into its parts, hydrogen (H, creating H 2) and oxygen (O, generating O 2), which are already present in the water molecule (H twoO).
Hydrogen is considered green when it is produced using renewable energy sources such as wind, sun, or biomass. The EDP facility will be powered by solar energy and will be capable of producing 22.5 kilos (kg) of hydrogen per hour. R$ 41.9 million is set aside for the investment.
Hydrogen is sometimes referred to as the “future fuel” because of its enormous calorific value, which is nearly three times that of diesel, gasoline, and natural gas. It does not release greenhouse gases when converted into energy and used to power a combustion engine or any other use (GHG). When residual hydrogen in the atmosphere comes into touch with oxygen, it forms water vapor.
Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, is rarely found alone on Earth, but it is found in a wide range of compounds, including water, fossil fuels, and other forms of biomass. In many circumstances, the procedure of obtaining the gas is dependent on the activities involved. Steam reforming, a chemical reaction of hydrocarbons, most often natural gas, with water, is the most prevalent of them. Because the conversion process releases CO 2 into the atmosphere, the hydrogen created in this way is referred to as ash, or blue when the carbon dioxide produced during its creation is caught and stored geologically.
Green hydrogen produced at the Ceará pilot plant will be utilized to partially replace coal in the Pecém Thermoelectric Power Plant (UTE Pecémpower )’s supply. “It’s a research and development [R&D] initiative that will allow us to better comprehend the energy gain afforded by hydrogen, which has an energy power more than four times that of coal,” explains EDP operations manager Cayo Moraes.
The H2V pilot plant will also enable the business to assess the fuel’s technical, regulatory, and economic viability. The unit is expected to offer the required subsidies for the state’s decision on the deployment of an industrial-size facility. Hydrogen might be sold to European energy firms, used to manufacture automobile fuel, or supplied to industrial enterprises in this situation.
Experts in the energy sector see the project as the start of a series of initiatives aimed at generating green hydrogen in the country. Ceará’s administration has already signed 14 memorandums of understanding with commercial companies who want to produce the fuel in the state. “Perhaps not everyone succeeds. However, if half of the agreements are implemented, Ceará will have the equivalent of an Itaipu in operation between 2025 and 2030,” says Roseane Medeiros, executive secretary of Industry at the State of Ceará’s Secretariat for Economic Development and Labor (Sedet). The Itaipu hydroelectric plant, the country’s biggest, has a capacity of 14 gigawatts (GW).
Rio Grande do Norte, Piau, Pernambuco, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, and Rio Grande do Sul are among the states that have signed memorandums with electricity generators. It’s a global race to attract green hydrogen production projects. Chile, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, South Korea, Australia, and China are among the nations that have declared national plans to promote technology research and H2V manufacturing.
Minimal involvement
According to the Hydrogen Council, which brings together leaders from the world’s top gas producers, there are 520 hydrogen plant projects across the world. If validated, they will necessitate US$ 160 billion in investments. According to the organization, global production of the fuel would approach 600 million tons per year (mt/year) by 2050, accounting for 22% of global energy consumption, allowing for a 20% decrease in global GHG emissions. The International Renewable Energy Agency’s (Irena) predictions are more conservative. According to her, the industry will create 409 mt/year in 2050, accounting for 12% of world energy consumption, according to the entity’s estimations.
Hydrogen’s contribution to the global energy matrix is currently insignificant. In industrial activities such as oil refining, fertilizer manufacturing, steel mills, and the chemical sector, nearly all of the hydrogen generated, a little over 100 million tons per year, is utilized for chemical reasons.
Water electrolysis, which is also proposed for the Ceará pilot plant, is expected to be the most common H2V generation technology in the future years, according to experts. This strategy will be achieved primarily by facilities that have electrolyzers (equipment that performs the electrolysis process) that are powered by renewable energy sources, guaranteeing that the entire process is GHG-free.
According to Irena’s paper “Geopolitics of the Energy Transformation: The Hydrogen Factor,” one of the primary impediments to a bigger global supply of green hydrogen is the requirement for technological maturity increases in the hydrogen production chain. Another factor is the high cost of production and logistics.
The cost of a kilo of gray hydrogen, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), is slightly over $1, making it competitive with natural gas. Blue hydrogen costs around $2.3 per kilogram on average. Green hydrogen costs between $3 and $8 per kilo, depending on the energy source and region of the world where it is generated. Irena believes that as the global renewable energy market expands and production scale improves, green hydrogen will become competitive with blue hydrogen in 2030, and that production prices will approach those of gray hydrogen over the following decade.
Brazil, according to the National Energy Expansion Plan (PDE 2031) developed by the Energy Research Company (EPE), an organization affiliated with the Ministry of Mines and Energy, is able to manufacture green hydrogen at a lower cost than the global average. Since there is yet no effective manufacturing, the anticipated cost of H2V in the nation is between US$ 2.2 and US$ 5.2 per kilo.
“Hydrogen will become more well known as a result of need. We are in the midst of an environmental crisis, and the world has realized that relying on fossil fuels to generate electricity and power vehicles is no longer an option,” says engineer Paulo Emlio Valado de Miranda, director of the Hydrogen Laboratory at the Alberto Luiz Coimbra Graduate and Research in Engineering at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Coppe/UFRJ) and president of the Brazilian Hydrogen Association (ABH2).
Electrolyzers
Increasing the efficiency of electrolyzers is one way to lower the cost of hydrogen generation. Researchers from the Federal University of So Carlos’ Center for the Development of Functional Materials (CDMF-UFSCar), one of FAPESP’s Research, Innovation and Diffusion Centers (Cepid), investigate materials capable of lowering energy consumption in the chemical breakdown process. As the project’s research director, chemist Lcia Helena Mascaro Sales, says, noble metals, particularly platinum, are among the greatest catalytic materials — chemicals that speed up chemical processes in electrolysis. Nickel, cobalt, and molybdenum can also be employed in iron alloys or as sulfides with excellent results.
The UFSCar team is investigating the usage of materials like titanium oxide modified with molybdenum sulfide or other nickel, copper, molybdenum, and iron alloys. “We have proved on a laboratory scale that it is feasible to considerably cut energy usage in water electrolysis,” Mascaro explains. Shell, a co-sponsor with FAPESP in another research project on dense energy carriers in which Mascaro is a participant, is interested in testing the catalysts produced at pilot facilities in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Houston, Texas.
Professor Adriana Nunes Correia of the Department of Analytical and Physical-Chemistry Chemistry at the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) is also exploring metallic materials capable of enhancing efficiency and lowering electrolyzer expenses. The study concept, which is currently in its early stages, is to employ microbial electrolysis cells to create hydrogen from home sewage or industrial effluents utilizing microorganisms as biocatalysts. The concept is to convert the sewage’s chemical energy into an electric current, allowing the gas to be extracted. “The approach would allow us to manufacture hydrogen while also treating organic waste,” explains Correia.
Green hydrogen research is also being conducted at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR). Helton José Alves, a chemist and the coordinator of the Laboratory of Materials and Renewable Energies, is working on new technical approaches for producing the fuel. Acidogenic bacteria are used by one of them to digest leftover biomass from industrial effluents.
Two publications were published in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy as a consequence of the work. The research focuses on producing hydrogen from brewery effluent. “The main benefit is that it lowers manufacturing costs and conserves water resources,” explains Alves. The manufacturing method would be recommended for the generation of hydrogen as an energy option for the industry that produces the wastewater.
Dry reforming of biogas is another method for producing hydrogen that has been researched. According to Alves, the system envisions generating synthesis gas, a combination of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, from methane and carbon dioxide contained in biogas. At temperatures between 700 and 800 degrees Celsius, the process takes place in reactors using nickel-based metallic catalysts. The synthesis gas is then refined to obtain hydrogen. “In 2022, we want to deploy a prototype plant capable of producing 1 kilogram of hydrogen per hour in collaboration with partners,” says Alves. The dry method, unlike the traditional natural gas steam reforming system, does not require water.
The research of hydrogen generation techniques that do not rely on clean water in their operations is extremely important, and it is being actively followed by industry specialists. According to Irena, it will need between 7 billion and 9 billion cubic meters of water per year to generate 409 million tons of green hydrogen yearly and provide 12 percent of the world’s energy demand in 2050. The amount represents less than 0.5% of current freshwater usage. It may appear insignificant, but in a world where this resource is growing rare, it is a significant amount.
