Hydrogen

Photo Credit : Alain Charles Publishing

The Hydrogen panel session at ADIPEC 2022.

Hydrogen: reality, promise and prospect

With the mantra of ADIPEC 2022 being “maximum energy, minimum emissions”, the technologies and challenges of decarbonisation were at the heart of the event. Hydrogen, one of pivotal fields in ADIPEC’s newly-introduced Decarbonisation Zone and Conference, received a strong focus.

ACCORDING TO DATA from the Hydrogen Council, global hydrogen demand will grow from 90mn metric tons (MT) to 140mn MT by 2030 and then 660mn MT in 2050 in the pursuit of netzero ambitions. At a Hydrogen Strategic Panel titled “Hydrogen: reality, promise and prospect”, chaired by Daryl Wilson, executive director of the Hydrogen Council, industry leaders debated the role of hydrogen in meeting future energy demand, challenges in scaling up projects and the latest developments for investment, infrastructure and policy frameworks.

Panellists highlighted the growing demand for hydrogen, particularly to decarbonise heavy industry. AnjaIsabel Dotzenrath, EVP gas and low carbon energy at bp, explained that bp plans to invest 50% of capex into new transition growth engines by the end of the decade, hydrogen being one of these. Decarbonising its assets is one pillar of its hydrogen development; bp’s Rotterdam refinery will have an electrolyser fuelled by offshore wind, which will produce hydrogen to decarbonise the refinery, as well as producing biofuels and aviation fuels; an illustration of how bp’s capabilities as an integrated energy company enables it to combine different energy vectors. The second pillar is industrial clusters, such as Teeside. Here, bp is partnering with ADNOC to decarbonise the full cluster in a blue concept, taking the CO2 and putting it into depleted storage offshore, capitalising on bp’s strengths and capabilities as an oil and gas company. The third example is green export hubs, such as the Australian renewable energy hub, which will have 2530GW wind and solar capacity once fully built. This will focus on the decarbonisation of the mines, with the next phase focusing on ammonia exports to Asia to help decarbonise the power sector there.

“There is a lot of customer demand; the key is getting the right policies in place,” Dotzenrath commented. Given the complexity of projects, the capital and technology expertise required, the process safety risks associated with hydrogen and the issues associated with the trade and transport of hydrogen, “the experience of companies such as ours is needed to make this a reality,” she said. “Green and blue hydrogen is a very complex business…it will be the next LNG business, and we will see