So-called “blue hydrogen,” according to environmentalists, is no less hazardous to the environment than the natural gas from which it is collected.
According to a group of international scientists from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen, Switzerland, and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, this is incorrect. Bluewater has the potential to help mitigate climate change. It happens when steam is introduced into a reactor containing hot natural gas. This produces hydrogen as well as carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. This is separated and crushed into deep geological formations, such as in exploited natural gas reserves, a procedure carried out on a huge scale in Norway, for example. When cleaning freshly extracted natural gas, CO 2 is produced.
Hydrogen is often regarded as the key to emission-free transportation and heat production. It would be fantastic if the gas could be generated using green power and electrolysis. However, green hydrogen is still prohibitively expensive, and green power, particularly from the wind, sun, and water, is in short supply. That is why natural gas should be used to make it.
However, a study published in August by researchers from Cornell and Stanford universities in the United States concluded that, despite the final storage of CO 2, blue hydrogen for heat generation is not only not better for the climate, but is also 20 percent worse than natural gas if used directly as an energy source. This is mostly because gas seeps into the atmosphere through leaks along the natural gas supply chain, from borehole extraction through pipeline or ship transportation to hydrogen generation. Because natural gas, or its major component methane, has a greenhouse impact 30 times larger than CO 2, even little leaks can throw the climatic balance of the hydrogen derived from it into disarray.
Mijndert van der Spek, Professor at the Research Center for Carbon Solutions in Edinburgh, and Christian Bauer from the PSI Laboratory for Energy System Analyzes collaborated with colleagues from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, who have special models with which they can analyze processes such as CO 2 – Deposition in detail. “We incorporated the findings into our life cycle assessment models,” Bauer explains. As a result, whether blue hydrogen is healthy for the environment or not is determined by where natural gas is harvested and how well leaks are avoided. If it originates from Norway, for example, leaks result in almost little loss. The blue hydrogen will then be almost as environmentally favorable as the green, according to Bauer.
