FAQs for Hydrogen

How do we make Hydrogen?

Hydrogen is typically produced in one of two ways: The first is called electrolysis, where we use electricity and a technology called an electrolyser to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. The second is called reformation, where we extract hydrogen from a HydroCarbon such as natural gas, biogas or coal.

Isn’t Hydrogen expensive?

Hydrogen is an unusual fuel because it can be produced and used for many different forms of energy. Today a driver in the UK would pay the same to fill up their hydrogen car from the least efficient hydrogen production and vehicle refueling stations as they would for a normal diesel sedan, but that would not be as cheap as the same amount of energy sourced from natural gas to heat your home.

At its most basic, green hydrogen’s cost is driven by electricity. If you were to take power at the UK wholesale price of £45MWh and convert it to hydrogen, it would costs roughly £59MWh[1]. That would be 2x current UK natural gas prices if you add no climate taxes, but it would be comparable to coal, fuel oil and other no gas heating solutions, while over 50% less than the full grid electricity price and over 3x cheaper than petrol or diesel.

Everyone wants a simple answer to cost – but even in the modern energy system there isn’t one. In the UK residential electricity tariffs can vary from 12p kWh to over 50p kWh! So if you want to know the cost of a green hydrogen solution for your business – the only answer is to contact us.

[1] Assuming a 70% efficient electrolyser

How do we use hydrogen?

There are several ways to use hydrogen. The best known way to use hydrogen is with a technology called a fuel cell. These come in various different shapes and configurations, with fuel cells today already powering drones, planes, ships, residential homes, datacentres, hospitals and military bases. Fuel cells combine hydrogen with oxygen across a membrane and generate electricity, heat and water. These can be used to provide motion for mobility applications, or power for stationary uses.

Hydrogen can also be combusted. Most gas grids, including the UKs, have historically had blends of hydrogen in them. Indeed in the 1970’s the UK consumed over 700,000 tonnes of hydrogen for energy (mostly heat) use in its gas grid, or roughly 50% of what was then called “town gas”. Today hydrogen combustion pilots in residential and industrial sites are active across the UK and internationally. Protium works with several suppliers to provide hydrogen combustion technologies such as burners, boilers and CHP systems that can utilise green hydrogen to meet our clients energy needs.

For more details on these, please get in touch with the team.

Why hydrogen now?

The falling cost of renewable electricity is allowing businesses to rapidly decarbonise the power system, but investments are needed to integrate and store this abundant, low-cost renewable power and to use it to displace fossil fuels. Some heat, industry and transport demand for fossil fuels can be electrified, but the rest will require green fuels – and hydrogen will play the leading role in transforming green electrons into green molecules.

Investors, consumers, companies and governments will not tolerate business as usual, and neither will the planet. Climate Change is the existential crisis facing mankind, and failure to act will mean a collapse of the eco-system and economy that we live in. Hydrogen is one of several solutions that is urgently needed to help address this challenge.

The technology is well established, scalable and has extensive industry and government support. Working alongside batteries, heat pumps, carbon capture and energy efficiency it is a crucial solution in the net zero toolkit.

Is hydrogen safe?

There is a wide body of evidence, standards, literature and processes that exist to ensure the production, storage and use of hydrogen is safe. Annually the world produces over 110 million tonnes of hydrogen, and it is estimated that two tonnes of hydrogen in pressurised cannisters is transported in the UK each day.

Within the UK hydrogen has been produced for over 80 years, and has been used for industry and within our gas grids. The UK is even home to dedicated hydrogen salt caverns, that store huge amounts of hydrogen for industrial users.

What are policy makers doing to support hydrogen?

The UK government has set a minimum target of 5GW of new hydrogen capacity, and over 42TWh of new hydrogen production, by 2030. This will be supported by various measures that are expected in the UK hydrogen strategy paper due in Spring 2021.

The government also has various policy and financial support mechanisms for capex and opex of hydrogen solutions in transportation and manufacturing sectors. For more details, please contact the Protium team.

Can’t we just use batteries?

Energy storage is really hard. Did you know that according to Gasunie, one salt cavern in Zuidwending[1] can store the same amount of energy as 13 million German homes each with a 13.5kWh home battery pack?

Put another way – in a normal climate year a currently like Germany needs 60TWh of energy storage. To meet this with battery electric systems alone would require more than 100 battery packs per household in Germany!

[1] Up to 60 million tonnes M3 of hydrogen or 0.18TWh