Current Status and Economic Analysis of Green Hydrogen Energy Industry Chain

Abstract

Under the background of the power system profoundly reforming, hydrogen energy from renewable energy, as an important carrier for constructing a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system, is a necessary way to realize the objectives of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. As a strategic energy source, hydrogen plays a significant role in accelerating the clean energy transition and promoting renewable energy. However, the cost and technology are the two main constraints to green hydrogen energy development. Herein, the technological development status and economy of the whole industrial chain for green hydrogen energy “production-storage-transportation-use” are discussed and reviewed. After analysis, the electricity price and equipment cost are key factors to limiting the development of alkaline and proton exchange membrane hydrogen production technology; the quantity, scale and distance of transportation are key to controlling the costs of hydrogen storage and transportation. The application of hydrogen energy is mainly concentrated in the traditional industries. With the gradual upgrading and progress of the top-level design and technology, the application of hydrogen energy mainly including traffic transportation, industrial engineering, energy storage, power to gas and microgrid will show a diversified development trend. And the bottleneck problems and development trends of the hydrogen energy industry chain are also summarized and viewed.