The Green Hydrogen and the EU Gaseous Fuel Diversification Risks

Abstract

Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical element on the Earth, and it has really a wide variety of applications, starting from use in refining, petrochemical industry, steel manufacturing, and ending with use in energy production and renewable gas (hereinafter – RG) blending for gradual replacement of natural gas in all sectors of the national economy. Being practically emission-free, if produced in sustainable way or from renewable energy sources (hereinafter – RES), hydrogen is regarded as one of the most promising energy sources for decarbonisation of practically the entire segment of industrial and energy production. Growing pressure of the European climate neutrality targets has triggered special interest in production, use, storage and transportation of hydrogen – especially the green one, which can be used in at least four fundamental ways: as a basic material, a fuel, an energy carrier and an energy storage medium. In the context of sector coupling, however, hydrogen facilitates decarbonisation of those industrial processes and economic sectors in which carbon dioxide (hereinafter – CO2) emissions can either not be reduced by electrification or this reduction would be minimal and linked to very high implementation costs. At the same time, development of an extensive hydrogen economy is the key to the achievement of the European climate protection targets, with the European Commission’s (hereinafter – EC) Hydrogen Strategy, a framework created in 2020 to develop and promote sustainable hydrogen economy in the European Union (hereinafter – EU), in its centre. Green hydrogen also will take its legitimate place in the gaseous fuel diversification risk management strategy, as this gaseous fuel is not only one of the most perspective future energy sources, but also one of the most volatile and demanding sources. In the process of gaseous fuel diversification in the EU and worldwide, new logistical chains and supply – demand networks of green hydrogen will emerge. Therefore, adequate addressing of potential challenges of this new regional and global production, delivery and consumption framework will be of utmost importance for secure, safe and predictable functioning of future energy systems.

Reconfiguring European industry for net-zero: a qualitative review of hydrogen and carbon capture utilization and storage benefits and implementation challenges

“…Third, the emergent literature discusses risks and implementation challenges in depth, including environmental consequences, 44,48 geopolitical risks, 49 commercial risks, 50 contingency plans 51 and uncertainties. 52 We thus ask: what are the most significant barriers and challenges facing hydrogen and CCUS implementation?…”

Evolving Concept of Energy Communities in the European Union

“…This can lead to significant cost savings and increase the percentage of green energy [16], as well as provide an opportunity for alternative energy system organisation and management methods in the future: smart energy transmission, distribution and metering [17], [18], digital twinning, introduction of green energy sources, for example, gases, in conventional energy distribution and transmission networks [19]- [22]. In future, it could also help minimise impact of energy delivery disruptions during local energy crisis that could occur in practically every centralised and extended energy delivery network [23].…”

Efficient Heat Recovery from Hydrogen and Natural Gas Blend Combustion Products

“…Mass of dry combustion product in kg for one kmol of hydrogen and natural gas blend (4) Molecular mass of dry combustion product (5) For a humidity ratio of combustion product (kg of water steam per kg of dry combustion product), one can show that (6) Water steam amount in flue gas after 1 kmol of hydrogen and natural gas blend combustion (7) However, amount of water steam in kg already known from chemical reaction (8) If flue gas is treated in condenser (cool down to temperature t, which is lower than dew point) and it becomes possible to calculate amount of condensate per kmol of hydrogen and natural gas blend (9) Water steam saturated pressure can be described by number of empirical equations: Antoine, Tetens, Arden Buck, Goff-Gratch equations etc. In the present paper we use Tetens formula as it is simple and accurate (in range of 10 C to 100 C deviation from table value is within 0.5 %): (10) whereupon Eq.…”

“…In order to support further spread of hydrogen in different industries, more than thirty countries worldwide already have developed the national framework documents -strategies and roadmaps, for promotion of hydrogen as fuel and energy carrier. As for Europe, the European Hydrogen Backbone project initiates the creation of continent-wide hydrogen transportation and storage infrastructure [4].…”