Hydrogen will be part of creating a world that is no longer reliant on fossil fuels. When burnt, hydrogen produces no carbon emissions and has the potential to make the decarbonisation of energy production a reality.
Hydrogen atoms can be found in water, natural gases, plants, and animals, but are always part of other compounds. Hydrogen has an energy density three times that of heavy fuel oil and approximately hundred times that of Lithium-ion batteries, meaning significantly more energy can be stored in a set volume. There are a vast number of potential applications for hydrogen.
The goal of the UK Government’s hydrogen strategy is to facilitate low-carbon hydrogen production and thus allow hydrogen to be used, for example, as a heat provider in manufacturing processes or as feedstock for chemical production.
In turn, this will help to:
- Decarbonise the manufacturing sector
- Reduce the UK’s reliance on energy from overseas resources
Industrial processes such as the production of steel, cement, and paper contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. Steel making alone contributes to nearly 10% of all human-made greenhouse gas emissions. Pioneering processes to introduce hydrogen into the production process to replace carbon (e.g. for converting iron ore into metallic iron in steelmaking) are in development.
Equally, existing processes that require hydrogen as a feedstock in manufacturing fertilisers, hydrogen in plastics, hydrogen for oil refining), can now begin to source hydrogen from greener, more sustainable production processes (e.g. green hydrogen) rather than carbon-intensive methods.
Developments in the hydrogen sector
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