Green Hydrogen and Ammonia: value chain and regulatory context insights

Do you want to know what was discussed during last month’s Green Hydrogen Breakfast in Hamburg?

Niek Schumacher reflects on the hype around hydrogen and how its business case could be made green. As you might remember from chemistry lessons at school, hydrogen is both the lightest element in the periodic table and constitutes 75% of the mass of the universe. And despite being such an innocuous little molecule, it is about to play a third major role in the energy revolution. The recent hype around hydrogen as the Holy Grail of the energy transition is mainly thanks to its incredible versatility; enabling it to replace fossil fuels in mobility, heating and electricity generation and serve as a low-carbon feedstock for industrial processes. Though hydrogen is currently not playing the role some might foresee it having in the future, it is important to note that the petrochemical and fertilizer industry are already consuming enormous volumes of the stuff. Unfortunately for Mother Nature, this hydrogen is produced using natural gas, a process which causes significant carbon emissions. On a global scale this so-called grey hydrogen is responsible for almost 2% of worldwide emissions, more than the carbon emissions in the UK.