The focus on hydrogen is a function of the fact that when combusted its only emissions are water which makes it very attractive environmentally as a replacement for natural gas. The obvious opportunities for hydrogen are as a fuel for transport (in combination with modified engines or fuel cells) and as a potential replacement for natural gas.
The key issue with hydrogen is that whilst abundant it is usually combined with another element that we don’t want or need. Significant amounts of energy are also required to release hydrogen from its host substances, which makes production of hydrogen challenging and expensive. In the short-term hydrogen will probably be created from the electrolysis of water and via thermal treatment of natural gas (blue hydrogen) but as technology advances, simpler solutions will be develop to increase the availability of hydrogen.
Hydrogen can be mixed with natural gas. To produce and deliver hydrogen at scale will require a significant development and investment of the existing gas infrastructure.
CHP plants are able to run on a hydrogen / gas mix and can also be converted to run on pure hydrogen if required.
Evonic are technology agnostic, and select the most appropriate solution to all our projects.