Hydrogen Energy: Germany’s Propeller to Climate Neutrality
Germany’s National Hydrogen Strategy
Hydrogen produced on the basis of renewable energies, also called green hydrogen, and its reaction products, offer the opportunity to promote climate action in those areas where there are no technological alternatives or more efficient solutions for decarbonisation, such as the steel industry or aviation. In the fight against climate change, hydrogen made with renewable electricity (green hydrogen) is increasingly regarded as the solution for the decarbonisation of industry sectors with particularly high emissions, such as heavy industry and aviation. Green hydrogen is also regarded as an alternative to the support for carbon capture and storage (CCS), which is required when producing hydrogen from natural gas.
Germany has ambitions to become a leader in green hydrogen associated technologies, and the German Government recently published its National Hydrogen Strategy (NWS) setting out its plans to fulfil these ambitions. The national hydrogen strategy will provide a double boost to Germany — for its climate action measures and the sustainable development of its industry. The production of green hydrogen deals well with fluctuating electricity volumes from green power plants and can thus play a key role in completing Germany’s energy transition.
Production of Hydrogen in Germany
About 20 billion standard cubic metres of hydrogen is currently being produced in Germany annually. Only 5% of this is green hydrogen with the other 95% mainly produced from fossil fuels such as natural gas or coal; industry players are aiming to change this in particular by building the required plants (power-to-gas plants, electrolysis plants, hydrogen liquefiers) over the next years.
Transport and storage of Hydrogen in Germany
Hydrogen can be transported a number of ways like via pipelines, tankers and trucks. North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has a 240 kilometres (km) long hydrogen pipeline already suitable for transport over longer distances. Various industry partners are planning to construct a 130 kilometres long hydrogen pipeline from Lingen to Gelsenkirchen in NRW. Recently, German Transmission System Operators (TSOs) unveiled a plan to roll out a hydrogen starting grid (H2-Startnetz) by 2030 to connect demand priorities in NRW and Lower Saxony with green gas projects for hydrogen production in northern Germany. By the end of 2030, investments of about €660 million will be required to implement the network. Of the planned 1,200km, about 1,100km should be available for the transport of hydrogen with the conversion of existing natural gas pipelines, which leaves only about 100km that would have to be built.
Salt caverns are suitable for storing larger quantities of hydrogen. Germany has cavern storage facilities with a total working gas volume of 10.6 billion standard cubic metres for hydrogen of which 3.8 billion standard cubic metres are located in NRW.
German gas companies want a rapid switch to green hydrogen
Despite the German government and the gas companies having common goals with respect to hydrogen, they are locked in a tricky conflict. German gas utilities and transport lobbies are of the opinion that the Government is hampering a rapid transition to using carbon-free hydrogen by proposing a phased-in approach for transporting the fuel to consumers.
The government’s aim is to ensure that green hydrogen will eventually flow directly to hard-to-electrify industries such as steelmaking and chemicals. But the gas lobby wants green hydrogen to flow via its existing natural gas grids immediately to ensure a more rapid shift to the new fuel, and also to benefit from grid usage fees. The industry wants to integrate the new alternative fuel into the existing infrastructure, which also includes gas storage caverns.
Germany planning Green Hydrogen ties with Russia
German industries consumes around 55 terawatt hours (TWh) of “grey” hydrogen made from fossil fuels each year. While all its industries, including home heating, use up to 1,000 TWh of natural gas, where Russia is Germany’s single biggest supplier. Germany aims for carbon neutrality by 2050 under climate goals but sees natural gas as a bridging technology, as it exits nuclear and coal power.
According to the Russian Economy Minister Peter Altmaier, Germany is in close talks with Russia about the potential of Green hydrogen production and transport. Altmaier said, Russia could work with Germany in the production and transportation of green hydrogen; as Germany hopes to develop on a large scale by sending renewable power from wind and sunshine through electrolysis to make synthetic fuel for the industry, energy and transport sectors.
Requirements for Germany’s effective transition to hydrogen energy
If hydrogen is to help decarbonize economies in the coming decades, Germany’s next government will have to take a number of measures, some of which will be unpopular, energy experts said in a webinar on Friday.
According to economist Felix Matthes, there was no single instrument that would ensure the fuel thrives as a carbon-neutral alternative for industries currently relying on fossil fuels. To eliminate the competitive advantage of fossil fuels, he said, energy taxes should be shifted away from electricity, hydrogen production should be subsidised, transportation costs should be reduced, and carbon prices should be raised without crashing other industries. He projected that Germany would need roughly 60 TWh of hydrogen by 2030 to meet only some of the decarbonization needs of steel, chemical and heavy transport industries.
Matthes has estimated a gap of 20 TWh between the in-house production of green hydrogen and the actual requirement in Germany. This gap would need to be filled with ‘blue’ hydrogen derived from natural gas, a contested topic in both Berlin and Brussels.
“Nor will we import this via pipeline, rather we will produce it on the coast with natural gas because the cost of transporting natural gas over long distances is substantially cheaper than transporting hydrogen”, he said.
Matthes urged policymakers to embrace contracts for difference (CfDs) to boost production capacity. The UK has used these to promote renewable and nuclear energy. They oblige the government to pay operators if wholesale power prices fall below an agreed strike price and compel operators to reimburse the government if the reverse occurs.
Arnd Koefler, chief technology officer for German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp, said the next German government should quickly decide which sectors to prioritise for hydrogen, given its limited supply and varying benefits across industry. He estimated the removal of 10% of carbon emissions in the German steel industry would require around 300,000 tonnes of hydrogen, the equivalent of 10 TWh.
Hydrogen as a fuel
Hydrogen fuel is a zero-carbon fuel burned with oxygen. It can be used in fuel cells or internal combustion engines. It is now being used in commercial fuel cell vehicles, such as passenger cars, and has been used in fuel cell buses for many years. It is also used as a fuel for spacecraft propulsion. Hydrogen is a clean fuel that, when consumed in a fuel cell, produces only water. Hydrogen can be produced from a variety of domestic resources, such as natural gas, nuclear power, biomass, and renewable power like solar and wind. These qualities make it an attractive fuel option for transportation and electricity generating applications. It can be used in cars, in houses, for portable power, and in many more applications.
Hydrogen is an energy carrier that can be used to store, move, and deliver energy produced from other sources. Today, hydrogen fuel can be produced through several methods, the most common ones being natural gas reforming (a thermal process), and electrolysis. Other methods include solar-driven and biological processes.
Production of Hydrogen
· Thermal Processes — Thermal processes for hydrogen production typically involve steam reforming, a high-temperature process in which steam reacts with a hydrocarbon fuel to produce hydrogen. Many hydrocarbon fuels can be reformed to produce hydrogen, including natural gas, diesel, renewable liquid fuels, gasified coal, or gasified biomass. Today, about 95% of all hydrogen is produced from steam reforming of natural gas.
· Electrolytic Processes — Water can be separated into oxygen and hydrogen through a process called electrolysis. Electrolytic processes take place in an electrolyser, which functions much like a fuel cell in reverse — instead of using the energy of a hydrogen molecule, like a fuel cell does, an electrolyser creates hydrogen from water molecules.
· Solar-Driven Processes — Solar-driven processes use light as the agent for hydrogen production. There are a few solar-driven processes, including photobiological, photoelectrochemical, and solar thermochemical. Photobiological processes use the natural photosynthetic activity of bacteria and green algae to produce hydrogen. Photoelectrochemical processes use specialized semiconductors to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. Solar thermochemical hydrogen production uses concentrated solar power to drive water splitting reactions often along with other species such as metal oxides.
· Biological Processes — Biological processes use microbes such as bacteria and microalgae and can produce hydrogen through biological reactions. In microbial biomass conversion, the microbes break down organic matter like biomass or wastewater to produce hydrogen, while in photobiological processes the microbes use sunlight as the energy source.
Uses of Hydrogen
- Hydrogen use today is dominated by industry, namely: oil refining, ammonia production, methanol production and steel production. Virtually all of this hydrogen is supplied using fossil fuels, so there is significant potential for emissions reductions from clean hydrogen.
- In transport, the competitiveness of hydrogen fuel cell cars depends on fuel cell costs and refueling stations while for trucks the priority is to reduce the delivered price of hydrogen. Shipping and aviation have limited low-carbon fuel options available and represent an opportunity for hydrogen-based fuels.
- In buildings, hydrogen could be blended into existing natural gas networks, with the highest potential in multifamily and commercial buildings, particularly in dense cities while longer-term prospects could include the direct use of hydrogen in hydrogen boilers or fuel cells.
- In power generation, hydrogen is one of the leading options for storing renewable energy, and hydrogen and ammonia can be used in gas turbines to increase power system flexibility. Ammonia could also be used in coal-fired power plants to reduce emissions.
References:
https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-fuel-basics
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=6182a7ff-ddc2-453b-9b6c-ca27f5b27b95
https://www.iea.org/reports/the-future-of-hydrogen
https://fuelcellsworks.com/news/german-gas-lobby-wants-more-rapid-switch-to-green-hydrogen/
https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-germany-idUSL8N2KM38Z
https://www.montelnews.com/en/story/german-experts-detail-wish-list-for-cheaper-hydrogen/1201041
