Green hydrogen could be the fuel of the future

The rise in global temperature worries scientists: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the highest scientific authority on the subject, is adamant about the environmental and humanitarian catastrophe which would imply an increase of more than 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels. In her last report, she reaffirmed that, in order not to exceed this limit before the end of the century, it is necessary to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The energy sector is responsible for 73.2% of these greenhouse gas emissions in the world, This is why one of the big challenges in achieving climate goals is to make the transition to another energy matrix.

The writer Jules Verne, in a fragment of his novel The mysterious island, predicted what may be today one of the keys to successfully carrying out this transition: “I believe that one day water will be a fuel, that the hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it, used alone or together, will provide an inexhaustible source of energy and light, with an intensity that coal cannot; Since the coal reserves will be exhausted, we will be warmed by the water. Water will be the coal of the future. Indeed, hydrogen is now becoming a possible response to the pressing need to decarbonize the economy.

In dialogue with Infobae, Gabriel Correa Perelmuter, mechanical engineer and doctor in energy, researcher at CONICET and specialist in energy storage using hydrogen and secondary batteries, described the current and future fuel situation.

– What are we talking about when we talk about hydrogen?

– Hydrogen is a chemical element which, in addition to being very light, has many very interesting properties and is the most abundant element in our universe.. 75% of our universe is made up of hydrogen, is an element that gives life to our nature. It is generally associated with oxygen, as in the case of water, also with carbon, in the case of hydrocarbons. That is to say, it is the most abundant molecule in the universe, but it is not available on its own, so energy must be used to produce it.

– What role does hydrogen play in the energy transition, so necessary to face the climate crisis?

– It is very important for its ability to store large amounts of energy. One of the reasons that renewables have not penetrated as much is that today we do not have the technological capacity to be able to store in batteries. Renewable energies are variable, they depend on climatic conditions. The solar depends on the period of sunshine that we have during the day, like the wind, they are seasonal. For that It is imperative to be able to store energy at times when there is no production of renewable energies, where hydrogen becomes essential. As it is a high calorific fuel, it can be used to replace fossil fuels, which, in addition, if it were the case for the production of green hydrogen, it would be a renewable and clean fuel. It can also be used for some industries where decarbonation cannot be achieved directly by renewables, as it does not require any process requiring electricity.

– In addition to green hydrogen, we also speak of gray or blue hydrogen, on what does this distinction depend?

– There are different ways of producing hydrogen. The green hydrogen It is the one produced by the separation of the molecules that make up water, into oxygen on the one hand and hydrogen on the other hand, in a process called electrolysis. The electrical energy required by this process can come from renewable sources. There are other modes of production, for example the remaining heat produced by nuclear processes could be used to produce hydrogen, called pink hydrogen.

Perelmuter explained that “currently 96% of global hydrogen production is made from fossil fuels and it is mainly achieved through a process called methane reforming. The methane gas particle contains hydrogen and carbon. In other words, the raw material is a hydrocarbon, so the process by which this hydrogen is obtained has a very important impact from the point of view of emissions and the sustainability of the resource. This hydrogen is called gray hydrogen or blue hydrogen in the event of carbon capture. It is a process which is today much cheaper than electrolysis; here, as in everything, the environmental variable, the economic variable and the energy variable are at play. Essentially, we are targeting green hydrogen produced by electrolysis and renewable energies, otherwise it follows the same logic of emission and use of fossil fuels that our energy system has today ”.

– Green hydrogen uses water as an input, how does its use as a transitional element impact the water resource?

– There is a reverse process to electrolysis called fuel cells. From hydrogen, electricity and water can be produced again, closing the circuit. Not the same amount of water, there are losses, but through this process, it can retain a large part of the water resource. In a macro view, it can be an interesting system because it starts with electricity and water as input and electricity and water are obtained as a by-product. In any case, the impact on water resources is very low, it is absolutely meager compared to other activities that are practiced today. The calculations we have made show that it would take less than 0.1% of the average flow of water that crosses the Limay basin today.

– Are there capacities to develop this technology in the country?

– Argentina had a very good production in the scientific and technological field, from the end of the 90s to the beginning of the 2000s there was a global boom and there were many research groups that were dedicated to the ‘hydrogen. Then it started to deflate from 2010 to 2020 due to the penetration of lithium batteries as a form of large reservoirs of energy. Recently Hydrogen has been redesigned as a strategic resource. I am convinced that nour scientific and technological system can really contribute to an energy transition process in this particular sector and you need to equip it with the necessary tools to be able to do it. We also have a large production of natural gas in our country and uThe possibility is to use hydrogen mixed with CNG. This would give us the opportunity not to generate differentiated hydrogen infrastructures, which would allow an internal decarbonation process from hydrogen much cheaper and much faster.

-What advantages and disadvantages does lithium have compared to hydrogen?

– Lithium in batteries, which is already a mature technology and will be important for the next 10 years. This technology is very heavily exploited in the central countries but the mineral resource necessary for the production of lithium is found in very fragile regions from a social and environmental point of view. The International Energy Agency (IEA) said that if the zero emission projections for the year 2040 are met, achieving the energy transition goals will increase the pressure on hydrogen use more than 42 times. A much more in-depth discussion must be given, which will allow agreement on the use of this resource to support an energy transition in the region and not in the central countries, because what is currently done is to export the raw material and import the batteries. Lithium and hydrogen probably coexist for some time. In my opinion, Hydrogen will eventually prevail because of its own characteristics, its ability to store large amounts of energy, and because it can carbonize areas of industry that electric power cannot.

– What potential do we have as a country to compete in the international hydrogen market?

Argentina has enormous potential because it has cheap renewable energies, an exceptional strategic resource that allows the production of green hydrogen to be very competitive, at a cost that can be equal to fossil alternatives.. What most studies show us is that Argentinian and Chilean Patagonia probably have the cheapest hydrogen production costs in the world, which gives Argentina a significant comparative advantage over other countries, which also encourages the idea of ​​local technology generation. From my perspective, the worst thing we can do is think of a model where we import technology from outside and use our renewable resources (such as water) to produce hydrogen and l ‘export only as a commodity. Hydrogen can be exported and Argentina can be very competitive in the international market, but it has to be done as long as a local market develops and we can have technological sovereignty.

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