In order to reduce the dependency on nuclear and fossil fuels and to avoid greenhouse gas emissions, a comprehensive restructuring of the current energy system and a move away from the use of conventional energy sources will be necessary over the next few decades.
Hydrogen and fuel cell technology could become one of the most important alternative energy and drive sources in the next decade and is considered a key component of the energy transition. Power-to-gas technologies enable renewable energy sources to produce green hydrogen through the electrolytic splitting of water.
The greatest potential of hydrogen for achieving the climate neutrality target lies in those areas of application and sectors that are particularly difficult to decarbonise or for which no other realistic technology alternatives are available, such as heavy goods traffic, industrial energy and raw material generation or parts of the heating sector.
Hydrogen differs according to its origin in different types:
• Green hydrogen: Manufactured by electrolysis using exclusively renewable energy sources
• Gray hydrogen: Manufactured from fossil fuels
• Blue hydrogen: Production from fossil primary energy sources, the resulting CO2 is bound by separation, stored (carbon capture and storage) or kept in a closed circuit
• Turquoise hydrogen: Production via thermal cleavage of methane (methane pyrolysis) instead of CO2 solid carbon is created
Global demand for hydrogen, which has so far been produced conventionally, has more than tripled since 1975 and continues to grow. With the expansion of the production of regeneratively produced hydrogen and its use as an energy source in all energy consumption sectors, European companies are forecast to achieve sales of up to 65 billion euros in Europe in the hydrogen sector by 2030. With the expected future market growth, a significant reduction in today’s costs for hydrogen is also expected, which will make the technology increasingly economically competitive.
CO2-free hydrogen can be used in particular to generate energy with fuel cells and as a raw material in all major energy consumption sectors as a greenhouse gas-free energy supplier. The main energy consumption sectors include the following:
• mobility: In mobility, hydrogen is particularly suitable as a fuel for transport and heavy goods traffic as well as in municipal traffic (e.g. buses, trains, trucks, commercial vehicles and special vehicles)
• Industrial use: Hydrogen is already an important industrial product and has been used in various industrial processes for years (e.g. in the synthesis of ammonia and methanol, in the refining of crude oil and metallurgical manufacturing processes). A switch from hydrogen production to electrolysis can not only reduce the use of natural gas in industry, but also industrial CO2-Reduce emissions. However, a reliable and continuous supply as well as storage options are essential.
• Generation of heat and electricity from hydrogen: Hydrogen as an energy carrier for heat generation is particularly attractive for countries that have an existing natural gas infrastructure, because a certain proportion of this can already be added to the natural gas network.
• Hydrogen for network stabilization or Sector coupling: Hydrogen can be used as a flexible energy carrier for renewable energies in all sectors and thus enable sector coupling as a central element of the energy transition.
>>Further information on hydrogen in Austria
Hydrogen Austria – the Austrian hydrogen cluster, powered by BMDW and Country Tyrol
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