Green Hydrogen: From Production to Industry Applications and Technological Advancements - Insights from energy system modelling

Hydrogen is projected to play a pivotal role in achieving a net-zero world. However, today hydrogen production is a CO₂ intensive process, accounting for about 2% of global CO₂ emissions. Clearly, we cannot scale up towards a hydrogen economy by continuing with greenhouse gas-emitting processes. The technologies required to produce low-carbon hydrogen, i.e., reforming with CO₂ capture as well as water electrolysis, are available today at the required commercial scale. However, the large-scale production of low-carbon hydrogen is hindered by system limitations, notably the unavailability of CO₂ transport and storage networks for the former and insufficient renewable electricity for the latter. Furthermore, without widespread carbon-neutral H₂ production, there is a corresponding lack of demand, leading to a mutually reinforcing barrier. Energy system studies, which integrate the analysis of various technologies alongside electricity and gas networks, as well as other relevant industrial processes, play a crucial role in providing possible optimal deployment strategies and resolving the intricate interplay between supply and demand dynamics. Moreover, when technologies are adequately represented, system studies offer important insights on the required performance of new technologies, for example on the necessary technical parameters or on the costs that make them viable.

In this keynote, I will touch upon a few topics in this domain. I will start discussing the potential role of green hydrogen to reduce emissions, costs and curtailed energy in the North Sea region (onshore and offshore) as projected in the year 2030 based on the ENTSO-E 10-years network development plan. Investment into electrolyzer, hydrogen storage and hydrogen pipelines (new and repurposed) will be compared with non-hydrogen scenarios, and will therefore provide a quantitative evaluation on the role of hydrogen as enabler of cross-sector coupling. After this, I will discuss the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of integrating electrolysers into existing ammonia production processes, and compare alternative options, such as electric steam methane reformer with carbon capture. I will discuss critical thresholds where electrolysers become a preferred option for hydrogen production in ammonia synthesis. Finally, I will discuss the role of energy system modelling in supporting electrochemical technology development, in particular fuel cells and electrolysers.