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Hydrogen production and conversion to chemicals: a zero-carbon puzzle?

  • Mario Marchionna EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: November 14, 2023
Pure and Applied Chemistry
From the journal Pure and Applied Chemistry Volume 96 Issue 4

Abstract

Hydrogen is currently used as an intermediate product in the chemical (mostly ammonia and methanol) and refining industries. It is produced mostly from natural gas in large scale plants using steam methane reforming, a very mature technology. Hydrogen produced from natural gas has a high carbon footprint, considering that about 6–9 tons of CO2 are co-produced (and emitted to the atmosphere) per ton of produced hydrogen, depending on natural gas composition. For this reason, hydrogen produced from fossil fuels is nowadays named as “grey” hydrogen. The current production of hydrogen is responsible of about 2.5 % of CO2 emissions worldwide. For hydrogen remaining in business, and then becoming a factor in the energy transition period and later, decarbonizing its production is a must. Partially decarbonized hydrogen produced from fossil fuels, through CO2 capture, is named “blue” hydrogen. A completely different path is followed for the production of fully decarbonized, or “green” hydrogen. This path is already commercially available, though on a smaller scale than required for wide industrial application. It is the electrolysis of water, i.e. the use of electric power from renewable sources to break the water molecule into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen. Pros & cons of these two options will be critically examined.

Keywords: Hydrogen; carbon capture and storage; electrolysis; renewable energy; ammonia; Avogadro Colloquia 2022
Corresponding author: Mario Marchionna, Saipem SpA, Via Luigi Russolo 5, Milano, Italy, e-mail:

  1. Research ethics: Not applicable.

  2. Author contributions: The author has accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  3. Competing interests: The author states no conflict of interest.

  4. Research funding: None declared.

  5. Data availability: Not applicable.

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Received: 2023-09-01
Accepted: 2023-10-23
Published Online: 2023-11-14
Published in Print: 2024-04-25

© 2023 IUPAC & De Gruyter

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. In this issue
  3. Preface
  4. Avogadro Colloquia in Rome on “Vision and Opportunities of a Sustainable Hydrogen Society”
  5. Conference papers
  6. H2 in the energy transition
  7. Watching atoms at work during reactions
  8. Hydrogen production and conversion to chemicals: a zero-carbon puzzle?
  9. Rethinking chemical production with “green” hydrogen
  10. Hydrogen as an energy carrier: constraints and opportunities
  11. Shaping the future of green hydrogen: De Nora’s electrochemical technologies for fueling the energy transition
  12. In-situ and operando Grazing Incidence XAS: a novel set-up and its application to model Pd electrodes for alcohols oxidation
  13. Hydrogen storage and handling with hydrides
  14. Advanced polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis for power to gas applications
  15. Inkjet printed acrylate-urethane modified poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) flexible conductive films
  16. Cu(II) complexes using acylhydrazones or cyclen for biocidal antifouling coatings
  17. Randomly cross-linked amphiphilic copolymer networks of n-butyl acrylate and N,N-dimethylacrylamide: synthesis and characterization
  18. Roles of electrostatics and intermolecular electronic motions in the structural and spectroscopic features of hydrogen- and halogen-bonded systems
  19. The accurate assessment of the chemical speciation of complex systems through multi-technique approaches
https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2023-0901
Keywords for this article
Hydrogen; carbon capture and storage; electrolysis; renewable energy; ammonia; Avogadro Colloquia 2022

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. In this issue
  3. Preface
  4. Avogadro Colloquia in Rome on “Vision and Opportunities of a Sustainable Hydrogen Society”
  5. Conference papers
  6. H2 in the energy transition
  7. Watching atoms at work during reactions
  8. Hydrogen production and conversion to chemicals: a zero-carbon puzzle?
  9. Rethinking chemical production with “green” hydrogen
  10. Hydrogen as an energy carrier: constraints and opportunities
  11. Shaping the future of green hydrogen: De Nora’s electrochemical technologies for fueling the energy transition
  12. In-situ and operando Grazing Incidence XAS: a novel set-up and its application to model Pd electrodes for alcohols oxidation
  13. Hydrogen storage and handling with hydrides
  14. Advanced polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis for power to gas applications
  15. Inkjet printed acrylate-urethane modified poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) flexible conductive films
  16. Cu(II) complexes using acylhydrazones or cyclen for biocidal antifouling coatings
  17. Randomly cross-linked amphiphilic copolymer networks of n-butyl acrylate and N,N-dimethylacrylamide: synthesis and characterization
  18. Roles of electrostatics and intermolecular electronic motions in the structural and spectroscopic features of hydrogen- and halogen-bonded systems
  19. The accurate assessment of the chemical speciation of complex systems through multi-technique approaches
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