Executive Summary: Low-carbon hydrogen transport, storage and production
Cutting Costs, Increasing Efficiencies, Imperative To Hydrogen Competitiveness
Need for overcoming technical challenges in midstream, the weak link in hydrogen supply chain
- Supportive policy environment in the U.S., the EU and other geographies, including financial incentives, and contracting structures, help drive demand for low-carbon hydrogen
- Low-carbon hydrogen costs still 2-3X more than alternatives, uncertainty in policy, end use cases delay investment decisions
- Hydrogen pyrolysis and green hydrogen production most attractive to investors, but natural hydrogen emerging
- Pyrolysis – using plasma to reduce CO2 (Aurora Hydrogen), proprietary catalysts, different waste feedstocks (Plagazi)
- Natural hydrogen – subsurface imaging (GE Tech), separation technologies, cultivating new hydrogen deposits (Koloma)
- Green hydrogen – Membraneless electrolyzers, reducing shunt currents, using seawater (sHYP), higher current densities (Verdagy)
- Pyrolysis – using plasma to reduce CO2 (Aurora Hydrogen), proprietary catalysts, different waste feedstocks (Plagazi)
- Midstream costs can add 50% to the landed costs; Ammonia and pipeline transport cheapest; but innovation also in:
- Liquid hydrogen: inorganic LHC, e.g., siloxane from silica (HySiLabs), or LOHC, e.g., toluene-based (Hydrogenious), liquefaction-ondemand, no pre-cooling (GenH2)
- Solid hydrogen: metallic hydrides (Lavo), e.g., magnesium hydride (Hydrexia), potassium borohydride (KBH4), etc.
- Compressed hydrogen: pistonless compression, metal hydrides compression (H2 Cyrus)
- Liquid hydrogen: inorganic LHC, e.g., siloxane from silica (HySiLabs), or LOHC, e.g., toluene-based (Hydrogenious), liquefaction-ondemand, no pre-cooling (GenH2)
- Reducing costs and solving technical midstream challenges will be key for hydrogen to become competitive
Innovation in Low-Carbon Hydrogen Value Chain
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