The future of energy in all countries of the world is a very important and strategic goal that all workers in the field of global energy are focused on, as traditional and known non-renewable energy sources are rapidly depleting, and the world is looking for safe alternative energy sources within the next fifty years. At most, all global oil and natural gas supplies will be exhausted indefinitely.
The energy business is going through a unique period in this century, with three distinct difficulties. The first is the dominance of petroleum and fossil fuels in feeding industries and modes of transportation; global oil consumption is approaching 100 million barrels per day, and it is continuing to rise, despite the Corona pandemic, other factors, and the current Russian-Ukrainian crisis, as evidenced by the movement of global markets from current supply and demand operations, and the second is the seriousness of global attempts to address climate change.
Beginning in the middle of this century, a hybrid phase is projected to develop, in which oil will continue to be consumed, particularly once it has been processed to remove carbon dioxide. This will result in the ongoing use of green oil, but with a drop in demand and, as a result, a fall in price. Natural gas usage is predicted to continue, especially if carbon dioxide is removed from it, but new fuels that are favorable to the zero-emissions stage are expected to develop at the same time.
Many types of research are currently underway to find the optimal fuel, and it is expected that new discoveries will be made about twice as fast as what is currently available, especially at this scientific stage with interest in artificial intelligence, and the focus is now on hydrogen as a future fuel., which means that we are in the process of a hybrid phase of energy fuels compatible with each other.
Hydrogen, its many forms, and the emergence of interest in it
Hydrogen is used to create power and propel automobiles by burning it instead of gasoline in car engines, or by combining it with oxygen in fuel cells. Over 90 million tons of hydrogen are produced each year, all from fossil fuels that send pollutants into the atmosphere. Today, the hydrogen sector utilizes 5% of natural gas output and 2% of coal production, resulting in about 800 million tons of CO2 emissions each year. The comparison is made to the yearly emissions of Germany, Europe’s largest economy.
Water is the only by-product of hydrogen combustion, which is why scientists have been tempted by hydrogen as a carbon-free energy source for decades. However, traditional hydrogen production processes, which rely on exposing fossil fuels to steam, are far from carbon-free; the hydrogen produced in this way is known as gray hydrogen, and if carbon dioxide is removed, it is known as blue hydrogen.
Green hydrogen is a unique kind of hydrogen. It is created via electrolysis, which uses machinery to break down water into hydrogen and oxygen with no additional by-products. Electrolysis often consumes a substantial amount of electrical energy, making it impractical to manufacture hydrogen using such devices. However, the situation has changed as a result of two factors: first, there is a large surplus of renewable electricity in the electricity distribution networks; instead of storing excess electricity in large groups of batteries, it can be used in the electrolysis process required for water, and then stored as hydrogen; and second, the electrolysis machines are experiencing an increase in their efficiency. However, as worldwide worries about climate change grow, the historic moment for hydrogen in the energy industry looks to be approaching.
Companies are working hard to build electrolysis machines that can generate green hydrogen for the same price as gray and blue hydrogen, a goal that experts believe will be achieved in the coming years. According to Bloomberg News, Media and Financial Information (BNEF), integrating electrolyzers directly into renewable energy projects will bring the cost of gray hydrogen down to the same level within 10 years, and 20-40 percent lower by 2050
The planet will be saved by green hydrogen.
Bloomberg wonders why hydrogen is being hailed as the world’s fossil-fuel savior, and the answer is because its combustion produces just water vapor rather than the greenhouse gases created by burning fossil fuels.
Storing hydrogen
Green hydrogen may be added to natural gas and burnt in thermal power plants or central heating, and it can also be utilized as a precursor to other energy carriers, such as ammonia and synthetic hydrocarbons, according to theory and science. Fuel cells may be used to power automobiles and ships directly, and they can readily replace the industrial hydrogen generated each year from natural gas, which amounts to nearly 10 million tons per meter in volume in the United States alone.
The main challenge in satisfying the expected large number of potential markets is delivering the green hydrogen product to them. Storing and transporting flammable gas is difficult and time-consuming, and it takes up a lot of space. Steel pipes may not be efficient in transportation operations, so large quantities of large hydrogen pipelines with special and standard specifications are required.
But, despite these obstacles, why is green hydrogen gaining popularity now?
It is well known that one of the most effective ways to reduce carbon emissions is to electrify the entire energy system and use unconventional energy, also known as renewable or clean energy. However, electrifying the entire energy system will be difficult and expensive, or at the very least, it will be more expensive to mix renewable generation and low-carbon fuels, and green hydrogen is one of the potential low-carbon fuels.
It is well known that hydrogen is far from ideal as a fuel and energy source due to a number of factors, including its low density, which makes it difficult to store and transport over long distances, and its flammability, which can be a difficult problem to solve, as evidenced by a massive explosion at a Norwegian hydrogen filling station in mid-2019. But, obviously, all other low-carbon fuels have their own set of issues, not least of which is cost, and since the majority of them need green hydrogen generation, why not stay with the original?
In general, hydrogen is now widely utilized in the industry across the world, thus the technical challenges of storage and delivery are unlikely to be insurmountable and an impediment to its portrayal as a global savior. It has potential uses in a variety of fields, including heating and long-term energy storage, as well as transportation.
Green hydrogen, renewable energy’s future, and its predicted role
Governments and major countries recognize the importance of developing green hydrogen technology, as evidenced by funding commitments and the enactment of regulations and policies. For example, the US Department of Energy pledged more than $100 million over five years to support research into hydrogen and fuel cell technology last year. The US government has also stated that green hydrogen should be available at the same cost as conventional hydrogen within a decade. Green hydrogen is also a key component of the European Green Deal’s aims to achieve a carbon-neutral economy by 2050, which would necessitate strong decarbonization measures. Many businesses are working to meet the objective of keeping global warming below two degrees Celsius this century, and green hydrogen can play a big role in this equation, confirming the need to act now to make it the most important source of clean energy for the world’s future.
What is the price of green hydrogen?
Green hydrogen generation is still expensive, with the International Energy Agency estimating the cost of green hydrogen at $3.75 per kilo in a 2019 report, compared to $0.90 to $3.20 for reformed methane production. With steam, lowering electrolyte costs would be critical to lowering the price of green hydrogen, but this would take time and effort, and the International Energy Agency stated in its report that electrolyte costs could fall by nearly half by 2040, from about $840 total per Kilowatt of capacity today, and also the feasibility study for green hydrogen production requires very large and very large quantities of cheap renewable electricity due to the processes of liquification and electrolysis.
What is the amount of green hydrogen produced?
Green hydrogen now represents less than 1% of global hydrogen production yearly, according to a Wood Mackenzie analysis, with output booms projected in the coming years, as green hydrogen electrolyzer projects more than almost quadrupled in late 2020, to reach 8.2 gigawatts.
Hydrogen has a wide range of applications in the industry
As a direct source of energy, hydrogen can be mixed with natural gas in existing natural gas networks, especially in densely populated areas, and many studies have shown that hydrogen can be used directly and mixed with natural gas by up to 20% without requiring changes to existing infrastructure and gas networks.
The importance of hydrogen in energy storage in regions rich in solar and wind energy, where electricity generation is much cheaper than electricity generated from fossil fuels, and prices of green hydrogen produced by electrolysis are very close to those of gray hydrogen; renewable sources whose production is dependent on changing climatic factors, such as wind speed or sunshine, and the cost of storing them by other methods, such as batteries, can be maximized by using this e. Because hydrogen is liquefied, kept in specialized tanks, and transported or exported over large distances, it may also act as a transporter for energy produced from renewable sources.
Hydrogen in transportation and transportation, hydrogen is used as a fuel for planes, cars, and trains that run on hydrogen fuel cells, and whose concept of work is based on an electrochemical reaction that occurs inside the cell to produce energy that is used in zero-emission modes of transportation, and there is still competition between cell manufacturers. Fuels of all sorts cut costs and boost efficiency, while also reducing volume and spreading speed. Due to its low density, which reduces weight, and the quick time necessary to fill it compared to the charging period of batteries used in electric automobiles, hydrogen as a fuel is one of the most promising possibilities for moving trucks.
Green hydrogen may play a key part in decarbonization initiatives, especially in consumer-intensive industries like iron, steel, chemicals, long-distance transportation, shipping, and aviation, where direct power is difficult to come by. Green hydrogen can also aid in the development of a technology-based energy system. It employs novel technologies and is the most potent type of energy storage, particularly for renewable energy sources that are difficult to store or need expensive batteries, limiting their utilization.
Egypt’s Serious Efforts to Produce Green Hydrogen
Many Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Morocco, have begun to explore hydrogen energy. The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Energy Complex has accepted the green hydrogen project to create hydrogen from a CSP field with a capacity of 1.3 megawatts, with a total capacity of 5,000 megawatts. Morocco and Germany have signed an agreement for the production of green hydrogen with the goal of conducting research and investment projects by 2035, with investments totaling 14 billion dollars, as Morocco’s privileged location qualifies it to link Africa, Europe, and the Middle East through the availability of transport networks and pipelines. And there’s the necessary infrastructure, which includes two projects:
Egypt is not far from the global energy situation, but it reflects it very realistically, in which the same dilemma deepens in a very dangerous manner, as Egypt is one of the largest countries in the region in terms of population, and thus it faces a significant increase in energy demand as a result of the acceleration of population growth and economic expansion, and this poses great ambitions and challenges to ensure the maintenance of safety.
Egypt’s economic development is reliant on the energy industry, which accounts for 13% of the country’s GDP. Egypt has recognized the critical role that hydrogen can play in the Egyptian energy industry, as well as its importance in establishing Egypt’s worldwide position as a regional hub for all types of energy. The Egyptian government formed a special committee with the participation of concerned authorities, national and international actors, to develop a national strategy for optimally exploiting hydrogen and to discuss all forms of cooperation to get the most out of Egypt’s capabilities in hydrogen production, storage, transportation, and export, particularly with Europe.
In collaboration with the Egyptian Sovereign Fund, the Norwegian renewable energy company Scatec, and Vertiglobe, which is owned by the Dutch Orascom and ADNOC companies, the Egyptian government signed an agreement to produce green hydrogen in Egypt in quantities ranging from 50 to 100 megawatts as a feedstock for the production of green ammonia.
To summarize, green hydrogen is gaining international and global attention in the current period because it is a clean fuel that can help support current global efforts to reduce global carbon emissions, and current Egyptian infrastructure, such as natural gas networks, offers great opportunities to create and expand demand for hydrogen, particularly hydrogen. Green, in which the cheapest renewable energy sources are used and emissions are reduced, and policies and laws that promote hydrogen blending in gas networks, taking into consideration the blending constraints in natural gas networks, may be implemented.
It can be said that the global bet on increasing the economic feasibility of using green hydrogen is contingent on the support of the global innovation system, which supports lowering the investment and operational costs of producing this clean fuel, making it a more appealing future for end-users in various economic activities.
