Utility Week

14 | MAY 2022 | UTILITY WEEK Gas Analysis Who needs blue hydrogen? Is blue hydrogen a bridge to green hydrogen, as its proponents claim, or a distraction? Soaring natural gas prices have thrown the question into stark relief, says Tom Grimwood. T he war in Ukraine has forced politi- cians across the West to rapidly reas- sess their reliance on Russian oil andgas. This will be no easy task. According to the International Energy Agency, the EU imported 155 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia in 2021 – close to 40% of its total gas consumption. On paper, the UK is less exposed to Rus- sian gas, but it will be competing with neigh- bouring countries for supplies and will have to pay higher prices to secure them. This new scenario will have signi† cant implications for the UK's plans going for- ward, in particular concerning the use of hydrogen as a low-carbon alternative to nat- ural gas. The government has previously commit- ted to a twin-track approach to the develop- ment of hydrogen – supporting both "blue" hydrogen, produced by reforming natural gas and capturing the carbon emissions from the process, and "green" hydrogen, produced by electrolysing water using renewable power. In its British Energy Security Strategy (see p8) the government raised its hydro- gen production target from 5GW to 10GW by 2030, of which at least 5GW will be green hydrogen. Although there is no minimum for blue hydrogen capacity, the door has still been le' open to signi† cant capacity. Richard Lowes, senior associate at the Regulatory Assistance Project, says this makes no sense: "It just seems absolutely crazy that you'd do an energy security strat- egy, which is about reducing gas imports, and you'd have something in there that would increase gas demand." He continues: "If you're replacing some- thing that's using gas right now with blue hydrogen, it will not only increase gas demand, because you need more primary energy to make that hydrogen, but it's also likely that it will be imported, because we're importing more and more gas every year." The website for Equinor's proposed Sal- tend H2H autothermal reforming plant – an anchor project for the Zero Carbon Humber industrial cluster – quotes a minimum e› - ciency † gure of 80%. Lowes says 5GW of blue hydrogen produc- tion capacity would equate to around 8% of the UK's total demand, which in 2020 stood at 811TWh, according to the latest Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) from the Department for Business, Energy & Indus- trial Strategy (BEIS). As well as increasing gas demand, Lowes says the reforming process would add extra costs, as would the carbon capture and storage needed to make it low carbon. He says blue hydrogen remains "nothing more than desk-based analysis and modelling" and so the scale of these additional costs is uncertain. He also notes that the imperfection of the carbon capture process and fugitive emis- sions from natural gas production mean that, unlike green hydrogen, blue hydrogen is not zero carbon. One of the arguments of blue hydrogen proponents is that it can act as a bridge to green hydrogen, allowing production to be scaled up quickly and networks and gas users to carry out the necessary conversions. As large volumes of surplus renewable gen- eration became available and electrolyser costs came down, blue hydrogen could grad- ually be replaced with green hydrogen. However, Lowes says this argument has been undermined by the recent gas price rises, which have made blue hydrogen look "hugely expensive". He says investing in blue hydrogen as a bridge now amounts to a "huge leap of faith". Question marks His sentiments are shared by Colm Britch- † eld, a researcher for the environmental think-tank E3G: "Soaring gas prices – for which Russia's invasion of Ukraine is partly responsible – end whatever economic case there may have been for blue hydrogen. "There were already question marks about how a£ ordable blue hydrogen would prove to be, but the fact gas prices have risen so sharply – and are likely to remain elevated – makes the investment case excep- tionally di› cult to make. The UK should take Europe's lead and shi' its focus to green hydrogen." Britch† eld is particularly critical of the proposition that blue hydrogen be used to facilitate the conversion of domestic heat- ing to hydrogen boilers: "The government should move on from the distraction that is hydrogen for heating and press ahead with "While it is important to reduce our reliance on natural gas, we can't turn the taps off overnight. CLARE JACKSON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE NEWLY FORMED TRADE ASSOCIATION HYDROGEN UK

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