Hydrogen key to a carbon-free energy system
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Ad van Wijk
Abstract
Hydrogen has a key role to play as a carbon-free energy carrier alongside electricity. Hydrogen can be transported worldwide by ship and pipeline and can be stored underground in large volumes. This makes it possible to deliver cheap renewable energy, especially solar and wind, cost efficiently at the right time and place to the customers. Next to this systemic role, hydrogen is important to decarbonize energy use in hard to abate sectors in industry, mobility, electricity balancing, and heating. Future hydrogen systems will have similar characteristics as present day natural gas systems. Large-scale multi-GW renewable hydrogen production plants at good resources sites will produce a minimum of 1 million tonnes hydrogen. Hydrogen infrastructure can be realized by re-using the gas infrastructure, pipelines, and salt cavern storage, without major adaptations. As a transition, hydrogen produced from fossil fuels at the resource sites with Carbon Capture and Storage directly in the field below, can bring low-carbon hydrogen volume in the system. Such an approach can establish a fast, cheap, and reliable transition to a sustainable energy system, whereby hydrogen will fully replace natural gas, coal, and oil. The conversion technology used today is based on combusting technologies: boilers, furnaces, engines, and turbines. These combustion technologies can be easily and are fast adapted to combust hydrogen. In future, however, combustion technologies will be replaced by electrochemical conversion technologies including heat pump technologies. These technologies offer the promise to be cheaper, moreefficient with no harmful emissions to the air, land, or water. A smart symbiosis between electricity and hydrogen as zero-carbon energy carriers with electrochemical and heat pump technologies, will establish a clean, costeffective, reliable, fair, and circular energy system.
Abstract
Hydrogen has a key role to play as a carbon-free energy carrier alongside electricity. Hydrogen can be transported worldwide by ship and pipeline and can be stored underground in large volumes. This makes it possible to deliver cheap renewable energy, especially solar and wind, cost efficiently at the right time and place to the customers. Next to this systemic role, hydrogen is important to decarbonize energy use in hard to abate sectors in industry, mobility, electricity balancing, and heating. Future hydrogen systems will have similar characteristics as present day natural gas systems. Large-scale multi-GW renewable hydrogen production plants at good resources sites will produce a minimum of 1 million tonnes hydrogen. Hydrogen infrastructure can be realized by re-using the gas infrastructure, pipelines, and salt cavern storage, without major adaptations. As a transition, hydrogen produced from fossil fuels at the resource sites with Carbon Capture and Storage directly in the field below, can bring low-carbon hydrogen volume in the system. Such an approach can establish a fast, cheap, and reliable transition to a sustainable energy system, whereby hydrogen will fully replace natural gas, coal, and oil. The conversion technology used today is based on combusting technologies: boilers, furnaces, engines, and turbines. These combustion technologies can be easily and are fast adapted to combust hydrogen. In future, however, combustion technologies will be replaced by electrochemical conversion technologies including heat pump technologies. These technologies offer the promise to be cheaper, moreefficient with no harmful emissions to the air, land, or water. A smart symbiosis between electricity and hydrogen as zero-carbon energy carriers with electrochemical and heat pump technologies, will establish a clean, costeffective, reliable, fair, and circular energy system.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Series editor preface VII
- About the series editor IX
- Contents XI
- List of contributors XXI
- Hydrogen: Presents Accomplishments and Far-Reaching Promises 1
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Forewords
- Foreword 9
- Foreword 15
-
Extended Introductions
- Hydrogen: why the times to scale have come 29
- Hydrogen key to a carbon-free energy system 43
- The European hydrogen strategy 105
- Introduction to the hydrogen books 117
- Geopolitics of hydrogen 127
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Volume I: Hydrogen production and energy transition
- 1 An overview of today’s industrial processes to make hydrogen and future developments’ trend 137
- 2 Catalytic autothermal reforming for hydrogen production: from large-scale plant to distributed energy system 171
- 3 An overview of recent works on Ni silica-based catalysts for the dry reforming of methane 193
- 4 CO2 hydrogenation by plasma-assisted catalysis for fuel production: power-to-gas application 213
- 5 Development perspective for green hydrogen production 251
- 6 Hydrogen production from biomass pyrolysis 279
- 7 Gasification of biomass and plastic waste 303
- 8 Water electrolysis as an environmentally friendly source of hydrogen 331
- 9 Electrolysis for coupling the production of pure hydrogen and the valorization of organic wastes 359
- 10 Renewable power-to-hydrogen systems and sector coupling power-mobility 381
- 11 Photoelectrocatalytic H2 production: current and future challenges 401
- 12 Biological water splitting 427
- 13 Fuel processing for fuel cells and energyrelated applications 469
- 14 Emergent-based well-being design for a hydrogen-based community: social acceptance and societal evolution for novel hydrogen technology 493
- 15 Eni’s projects in Italy for hydrogen production 519
- Conclusions and Recommendations: “The Future of Hydrogen” 543
- Index 551
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Series editor preface VII
- About the series editor IX
- Contents XI
- List of contributors XXI
- Hydrogen: Presents Accomplishments and Far-Reaching Promises 1
-
Forewords
- Foreword 9
- Foreword 15
-
Extended Introductions
- Hydrogen: why the times to scale have come 29
- Hydrogen key to a carbon-free energy system 43
- The European hydrogen strategy 105
- Introduction to the hydrogen books 117
- Geopolitics of hydrogen 127
-
Volume I: Hydrogen production and energy transition
- 1 An overview of today’s industrial processes to make hydrogen and future developments’ trend 137
- 2 Catalytic autothermal reforming for hydrogen production: from large-scale plant to distributed energy system 171
- 3 An overview of recent works on Ni silica-based catalysts for the dry reforming of methane 193
- 4 CO2 hydrogenation by plasma-assisted catalysis for fuel production: power-to-gas application 213
- 5 Development perspective for green hydrogen production 251
- 6 Hydrogen production from biomass pyrolysis 279
- 7 Gasification of biomass and plastic waste 303
- 8 Water electrolysis as an environmentally friendly source of hydrogen 331
- 9 Electrolysis for coupling the production of pure hydrogen and the valorization of organic wastes 359
- 10 Renewable power-to-hydrogen systems and sector coupling power-mobility 381
- 11 Photoelectrocatalytic H2 production: current and future challenges 401
- 12 Biological water splitting 427
- 13 Fuel processing for fuel cells and energyrelated applications 469
- 14 Emergent-based well-being design for a hydrogen-based community: social acceptance and societal evolution for novel hydrogen technology 493
- 15 Eni’s projects in Italy for hydrogen production 519
- Conclusions and Recommendations: “The Future of Hydrogen” 543
- Index 551
