Leakage ‘will partially offset benefits’ of hydrogen based economy: UK studies.
[S&P Global] Leakage of hydrogen into the atmosphere during production, storage, distribution and use will partially offset some of the benefits of a hydrogen-based economy, a UK government-commissioned report said April 8.In a British Energy Security Strategy, published April 7, the government doubled its 2030 target for low carbon hydrogen production to 10 GW, with at least half coming from electrolytic processes.
The report by Cambridge University, the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and the University of Reading said:
Minimisation of leaks needs to be a priority if hydrogen is adopted as a major energy source.
The study says the global warming potential (GWP) of hydrogen is much higher than previously understood.
“Our estimate of the hydrogen GWP for a 100-year time horizon is 11 ± 5 [11 times that of carbon dioxide], which is more than 100% larger than previously published calculations,” it said.
A third of this potential arises due to the stratospheric response to increased atmospheric concentrations of hydrogen, which was not considered in previous studies.
“A 1.5 ppm increase in hydrogen leads to about a 5% decrease in ozone mixing ratios. For the largest hydrogen emissions considered in this study, polar lower stratospheric ozone mixing ratios also show statistically significant reductions,” it said.
Use of hydrogen, however, provides an opportunity to reduce not only emissions of carbon dioxide, but also associated emissions of methane, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and oxides, the study said.
As reducing all these emissions provided climate and air quality benefits, “maximising these reductions should be a further policy priority,” the study said.
A separate government-commissioned study also published April 8 by Frazer-Nash Consultancy said there were technologies available to reduce key emissions of hydrogen from electrolysis production and fuel cell end use.
“If these are widely adopted the dominant emission source is likely to be a gas distribution network repurposed to transport 100% hydrogen,” it said.
Existing natural gas leakage form the UK gas transmission system, meanwhile, was “very uncertain and this in turn gives a high uncertainty to the NTS hydrogen emission predictions,” the study said.
At the top end of estimates, transmission leakage was comparable to distribution leakage, “although expectations from industry are that it is significantly less,” it said.
Boris Johnson , UK Prime Minister, in a foreword to the energy security strategy said:
We’re going to produce vastly more hydrogen, which is easy to store, ready to go whenever we need it, and is a low carbon superfuel of the future.
The government is to publish roadmaps later in April for hydrogen and carbon capture, use and storage. Thanks for staying up to date with Hydrogen Central.
S&P Global Commodity Insights assessed the price of UK hydrogen (autothermal reforming with CCS) at GBP4.99/kg ($6.51/kg) April 7, down from GBP10.05/kg a month earlier.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Global warming potential ‘higher than thought’
- Reduced stratospheric ozone mixing ratios
- Distribution ‘dominant source’ of leaks
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Leakage ‘will partially offset benefits’ of hydrogen-based economy: UK studies, April 8, 2022
