Green Hydrogen and Its Role in Decarbonization
By Helge Vandel Jensen, Director of Business Development, Danfoss Drives
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and slowing the rate of global warming has reached a critical stage. In order to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, decarbonization and electrification are essential. But direct electrification is a challenge in some sectors, including aviation, shipping and heavy industries such as steel and cement. In those hard-to-abate sectors, green hydrogen can be a sustainable alternative for lowering carbon emissions and reducing energy usage. As an emerging technology, hydrogen offers great potential as a clean source of fuel.
Hydrogen Production and Storage
Green hydrogen is produced through a process called water electrolysis, where electricity splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. In order for hydrogen to be called “green”, the power supply must stem from renewable sources. Green hydrogen can have a carbon footprint from 0.5 to 6.6 kg of CO2e per kg of H2 and is one of the most promising options to supply low-emission hydrogen in the future. While electrolysis is currently quite expensive, the International Renewable Energy Agency suggests that reducing the cost of electrolyzers can reduce the long-term investment costs by up to 80 percent. As such, making early investments in efficient electrolysis can help to lower the lifetime cost.
But the timing of when we produce hydrogen is important. If we produce hydrogen when the supply of renewable energy exceeds demand, we can store the hydrogen for future use. To stabilize the grid and enable the use of renewable sources, large battery storage systems are expected to be installed in the coming years. But batteries are unable to store energy for weeks or months in large volumes.
Hydrogen can provide a solution to bridge these gaps and ensure we have enough energy for hours of peak demand and seasonal variations. Hydrogen electrolyzers offer the flexibility to increase load and produce more hydrogen when electricity is cheap and reduce the load on days and times when electricity needs are at their highest. This is key to phasing out fossil fuel plants and enabling full decarbonization.
Hydrogen can be stored in large amounts in underground caverns, just like natural gas. Having a hydrogen pipeline and storage system enables the transportation of hydrogen over long distances between large producers and large consumers. Hydrogen is very expensive to transport in tube trailers and pressurized tanks on trucks. This puts a natural limit to the geographic range hydrogen can be transported economically. It is typically less expensive to transport hydrogen in pipelines over distances of hundreds of miles than to transfer the same amount of energy as electricity. In order to utilize hydrogen to its fullest potential, we will need to develop the infrastructure for storage and transport.
U.S. Investment in Hydrogen
In the fall of 2023, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act included a $7 billion investment to establish seven regional clean hydrogen hubs across the U.S., with the goal of developing a national clean hydrogen network in order to advance the decarbonization of the hard-to-abate sectors. As part of the initiative, the Department on Energy created H2 matchmaker, an online resource to connect hydrogen suppliers with users in order to develop an infrastructure for production, storage and transportation.
When fully operational, the hubs will produce three million metric tons of green hydrogen annually, replacing the current carbon-intensive production processes. Of the $7 billion allocated to the hubs, roughly two-thirds are associated with electrolysis-based production, while the remaining one-third will support other forms of hydrogen production.
The hubs represent a promising commitment to implementing hydrogen on a large scale and are an important step toward decarbonization and the effective use of renewable energy sources.
Applications of Hydrogen
Hydrogen, when readily available, will enable the decarbonization of industries in which direct electrification cannot be done efficiently. Steel and cement production require extremely high temperatures – so high, in fact, that electric furnaces cannot yet produce them efficiently. And while we are seeing positive technological developments for electrifying high-temperature processes, these are not currently operating at scale, leaving us with few options other than fossil fuels. In industries such as aviation and marine, electric motors actually can produce enough power, but they also require batteries, which are far too heavy and require too much space to be practical.
In rail transportation, it may be too expensive to go from diesel-powered locomotives to electric trains due to the cost of building the electric infrastructure along the train lines. Battery-powered passenger trains are available but there are no heavy goods trains powered by batteries only. However, trains with electrical drive systems powered by hydrogen fuel cells and batteries are good solutions to decarbonize the train transport sector.
The data center industry in North America is growing rapidly and uses large amounts of electricity to process and store data as well as keep the equipment cool to ensure reliable operation. Data centers, which employ diesel-powered generators for backup power, are another sector where hydrogen-powered fuel cells can be used, in the event of an electrical power failure.
Danfoss Hydrogen Solutions
Danfoss has invested in product development and innovation to support the scaling of hydrogen. Our high-pressure pumps, AC to DC power converters, AC motor drives, pressure and temperature sensors, heat exchangers and oil-free Turbocor and semi-hermetic BOCK compressors power an energy-efficient electrolysis process. Our AC to DC converters provide an efficiency of over 98% with less than 3 percent harmonic distortion. Available in outdoor or indoor-rated enclosures, they feature an adjustable power factor and meet grid compliance requirements. The technologies to support efficient hydrogen electrolysis are available; the next step is to invest in production to produce hydrogen on a large scale.
With necessary investment, hydrogen can provide a pathway to full decarbonization. In order to take full advantage of its potential as a sustainable fuel source in hard-to-abate sectors, the public and private sector need to work together to set the right regulatory and economic framework for an efficient large-scale rollout of hydrogen. Public support is needed at the local, regional, and national level to address regulatory barriers and improve implementation plans. Similarly, we must stimulate more international cooperation and cross-industry collaboration and synergies. Hydrogen has its complications, and those need to be addressed to unlock the full potential of a hydrogen economy.
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Green Hydrogen and Its Role in Decarbonization
