Sustainable hydrogen production is a challenge in greening Dutch industry

Sustainable hydrogen production is a challenge in greening Dutch industry

The Netherlands has formulated hard goals to ultimately have a sustainable energy and raw materials system by 2050. Hydrogen is already used on a large scale in industry for all kinds of processes, but in the coming years the challenge will be to produce hydrogen sustainably and apply it in new ways in industrial processes. During the Hydrogen online knowledge days on 2 and 3 June, an event of the FHI Industrial Automation sector, various companies will dive deeper into this topic and provide visitors to the webinars with concrete solutions. You can register free of charge.

By: Dimitri Reijerman

The hydrogen currently used is primarily extracted from natural gas. This so-called 'grey hydrogen' causes CO2 emissions: in the Netherlands approximately 13 megatons annually, or 8 percent of the total emissions in the Netherlands. There are two approaches to designing hydrogen production in a sustainable manner.

First of all, there is blue hydrogen. The released CO2 is captured and stored underground. This is a climate-neutral way of production. A second way is to make hydrogen from water. Electrolysis is used for this. This process requires a lot of electricity, but by using green electricity from solar or wind energy it is possible to produce green hydrogen.

To transition to a sustainable application of hydrogen in Dutch industry, the central government has set objectives in the Climate Agreement. According to the agreement, the Netherlands can produce approximately 75,000 tons of hydrogen from water in 2025 by realizing an electrolysis capacity of 500 megawatts. By 2030, production capacity must increase to sixfold, approximately 3 to 4 gigawatts.

Various industrial processes can be greened with this sustainably produced hydrogen. It can serve as a raw material for chemical products (ammonia/ethanol), for industrial processes that require a lot of heat (steel industry) and as a fuel for, for example, heavy transport (inland shipping, trucks). But there are more applications: storing energy with hydrogen for times when there is a shortage of wind or solar energy and heating buildings or entire neighborhoods.

The production of more blue hydrogen can be achieved most quickly in the short term. Concrete investments have now been announced. For example, in the large-scale Porthos project, the government has promised billions in subsidies for underground storage of CO2 in the port of Rotterdam. These subsidies create a business case for companies that are currently mainly involved in fossil products to significantly reduce their emissions.

The production of green hydrogen is looking at the longer term. This is partly because insufficient green energy is still being produced. Additional offshore wind farms in particular are desperately needed. However, there are already plans to make concrete investments in the large-scale production of green hydrogen. The Danish green energy giant Ørsted, which developed half of the Borssele wind farm off the Zeeland coast, has plans to build an electrolysis factory with a capacity of 1 gigawatt in Zeeland. And in the north of the country, Groningen wants to develop into the hydrogen region of the Netherlands. The Hydrogen Valley program must have a fully functioning, green hydrogen chain in place by 2025.

To further stimulate the dreamed green hydrogen revolution within the industry, the central government wants to help the business community in more ways. For example, it is being investigated whether the existing natural gas network can be used for the transport of hydrogen to industrial areas.

However, there are still some obstacles along the way: the transition to green hydrogen production costs a lot of capital. For example, electrolysers with much greater power must be developed. Hydrogen can also be inefficient as an energy carrier, because multiple conversions are made with a low efficiency. In addition, a lot of innovation is still needed to completely redesign existing processes in, for example, the chemical industry.

Another pain point is that the Netherlands still produces far too little green energy to enable large-scale hydrogen production in a sustainable manner. That is why we should also look at importing hydrogen from countries where green hydrogen can currently be produced much cheaper.

All in all, hydrogen offers enormous opportunities for Dutch industry to take steps towards the objectives in the Climate Agreement. At the same time, a lot of adaptability and inventiveness will be required.

During the Hydrogen online knowledge days on 2 and 3 June, an event of the FHI Industrial Automation sector, various companies will dive deeper into this topic and provide visitors to the webinars with concrete solutions. You can register free of charge.