Challenges remain for clean hydrogen to help global decarbonization

　　Clean hydrogen has long been called the panacea for decarbonizing the industry
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However, industry institutions and professionals said that clean hydrogen can indeed help the world to achieve decarbonization, and its own development momentum is rapid, but the development of clean hydrogen still faces challenges such as scale and cost, and its development still has many difficulties to overcome.

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　　Momentum is building

　　According to statistics from the International Hydrogen Energy Commission, as of now, 41 countries around the world have issued national hydrogen strategies
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According to these strategies, global hydrogen demand is expected to increase by more than 3.
5 times by 2050, from 75 million tons per year in 2021 to 255 million tons per year in 2050
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ExxonMobil believes that by 2050, the potential market size of global carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen will reach about 4 trillion US dollars and 1.
5 trillion US dollars respectively, and hydrogen energy will account for 22% of global energy demand
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Relying on hydrogen energy, between now and 2050, can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80 billion tons per year, equivalent to 11% of the total emission reduction required to limit global warming to 1.
5 °C
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　　Among various types of hydrogen energy, clean hydrogen is developing rapidly
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According to the hydrogen market monitoring report of S&P Global Commodities Insights, the current global clean hydrogen production is about 2 million tons per year, and by 2030, the global clean hydrogen production capacity will be close to 30 million tons per year
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Anne Roba, manager of the Future Energy Roadmap team at S&P Global Commodities Insights, said: "It is planned that there will be 7 million tons per year of clean hydrogen projects in operation around the world by 2025.

If completed as planned, these projects will account for the global hydrogen 9% of supply
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　　According to the estimates of the International Hydrogen Energy Commission, in 2021 alone, more than 130 large-scale clean hydrogen projects will be announced around the world, and the total number of large-scale clean hydrogen projects that have been announced in the world is close to 400
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Total global investment in hydrogen by 2030 will reach $500 billion
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David Burns, vice president of clean hydrogen at Linde, said: “Five or six years ago, we were thinking about a 6 megawatt production facility
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Now we are building a 24 megawatt production facility
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Our goal is to gigawatt scale by 2030.

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　　Experts believe that the next eight years will be a critical period to achieve the net zero goal of the Paris Agreement, and industrial gas leaders - Air Liquide of France, Linde of Germany and Air Products of the United States all intend to invest $10 billion in the next 10 years or more money for clean hydrogen
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　　Production cost is the key

　　Industry insiders generally believe that although the development of clean hydrogen is good, the cost issue is still an important constraint to the development of the industry
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Even with a carbon tax, it would take 10 years for the cost of green hydrogen to approach that of grey hydrogen, Linde's Burns said
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"Electricity accounts for the largest cost of clean hydrogen production, with about 75 percent of the cost of clean hydrogen coming from renewable electricity
," Burns said
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　　In 2021, the U.
S.
Department of Energy announced its “111” plan to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by more than 80 percent within a decade, to the $1-per-kg mark for gray hydrogen
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Burns, however, believes that such cost reductions are unlikely to happen unless government policies, incentives and penalties can reduce upfront production costs or increase demand
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Burns agrees: "Clearly, we need a combination of policy, incentives and penalties
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It's important to set a realistic price for carbon emissions
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"

　　Mike Graff, CEO and Chairman of Air Liquide Americas, said: "In order to realize the full potential of the hydrogen economy and further accelerate the development and deployment of low-carbon, renewable hydrogen, it is most important for governments to formulate new policies as soon as possible.
policies to promote market growth and penetration, and provide incentives for the use of hydrogen in multiple energy sectors such as transport and storage
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　　Infrastructure is also lacking

　　Despite the rapid development of clean hydrogen, its overall development is still in its infancy and still faces challenges from lack of infrastructure
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For more than 100 years, the infrastructure of the oil and gas industry has been well established
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However, due to pressing climate and geopolitical issues, the development of clean hydrogen cannot be slow and gradual, but only rapid and leapfrog, which brings new challenges to the supporting work of its related infrastructure
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The degree of completeness of supporting facilities directly affects the scale and production cost of the industry
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　　In addition to scaling to reduce costs, the clean hydrogen industry also requires rapid development of electrolyzer capacity
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Electrolyzers are critical infrastructure for the thousands of gigawatts of clean hydrogen capacity needed to reach carbon neutrality, but the industry is finding that there is currently a lack of electrolyzer capacity and no standardized production
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In order to achieve the proper cost-effectiveness and clean hydrogen production capacity required for a carbon-neutral society, electrolyzers need to be standardized and produced on a large scale
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No bottlenecks are expected in electrolyser manufacturing, but continued disruptions to the supply chain for key materials will put pressure on timelines for clean hydrogen supply
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According to the S&P Global Hydrogen Production Assets Database, Europe is far ahead in terms of electrolyser capacity, accounting for nearly 15 GW of the 19 GW of new electrolyzer capacity announced globally by 2025, helping Europe to stay ahead of the curve in green hydrogen development.
global leadership
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