- Greenhouse gas emissions from green hydrogen production are actually far higher than stated, when taking into account the manufacturing of electrolysers, wind turbines and solar panels, as well as H2 leakage and long-distance transportation, according to a new study.
Large-scale introduction of green hydrogen is envisioned to play an important role in reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. The production and transport of green hydrogen itself is, however, not free from emissions. The study assesses the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions for 1,025 planned green hydrogen facilities, covering different electrolyser technologies and renewable electricity sources in 72 countries.
The authors demonstrate that the current exclusion of life-cycle emissions of renewables, component manufacturing and hydrogen leakage in regulations gives a false impression that green hydrogen can easily meet emission thresholds. Evaluating different hydrogen production configurations, they found median production emissions in the most optimistic configuration of 2.9 kg CO2 equivalents (CO2e) kg H2−1 (0.8–4.6 kgCO2e kg H2−1, 95% confidence interval). Including 1,000 km transport via pipeline or liquid hydrogen shipping adds another 1.5 or 1.8 kgCO2e kg H2−1, respectively. They conclude that achieving low-emission green hydrogen at scale requires well-chosen production configurations with substantial emission reductions along the supply chain.
Link to full paper HERE
Author: Bryan Groenedaal
