Technical Committee Production Engineering

Short study - Provision of hydrogen with low GHG footprint (possibilities - state of development - costs).

Hydrogen is already a key component in the energy and chemical sectors. Its importance will continue to grow in the coming years as part of the necessary reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (→ H2 strategy). The most economical and currently most widely used way to generate H2 is by reforming natural gas (gray H2).
In the current economic policy discussion, water electrolysis using electricity from renewable sources is particularly favored as a sustainable option for H2 production (green H2). However, H2 can also be produced from fossil natural gas with a greatly reduced greenhouse gas footprint. To do this, the carbon chemically bound in the raw material must be captured and permanently deposited (blue H2).
As part of the project, key parameters were determined for the various production routes, e.g. yield, energy demand and efficiency, greenhouse gas reduction potential or costs. Modular calculation models with a medium level of detail were developed for this purpose. The aim was to enable a comparable procedure and approach for all process chains.
The research showed that blue H2 can also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 80 %. Blue H2 is more expensive to produce than gray but less expensive than green H2, the cost of which is largely determined by the price of electricity. Against the background of a still limited availability of renewable electricity and the further growing demand for electricity in the course of sector coupling, the production of blue H2 is a reasonable and possibly necessary alternative to achieve the climate targets.