Industrial decarbonization via hydrogen: A critical and systematic review of developments, socio-technical systems and policy options

Industrial decarbonization is a daunting challenge given the relative lack of low-carbon options available for “hard to decarbonize” industries such as iron and steel, cement, and chemicals. Hydrogen, however, offers one potential solution to this dilemma given that is an abundant and energy dense f...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy research & social science 2021-10, Vol.80, p.102208, Article 102208
Main Authors: Griffiths, Steve, Sovacool, Benjamin K., Kim, Jinsoo, Bazilian, Morgan, Uratani, Joao M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropogenic emissions
Climate change
Climate mitigation
Hydrogen
Industrial decarbonization
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Industrial decarbonization is a daunting challenge given the relative lack of low-carbon options available for “hard to decarbonize” industries such as iron and steel, cement, and chemicals. Hydrogen, however, offers one potential solution to this dilemma given that is an abundant and energy dense fuel capable of not just meeting industrial energy requirements, but also providing long-duration energy storage. Despite the abundance and potential of hydrogen, isolating it and utilizing it for industrial decarbonization remains logistically challenging and is, in many cases, expensive. Industrial utilization of hydrogen is currently dominated by oil refining and chemical production with nearly all of the hydrogen used in these applications coming from fossil fuels. The generation of low-carbon or zero-carbon hydrogen for industrial applications requires new modes of hydrogen production that either intrinsically produce no carbon emissions or are combined with carbon capture technologies. This review takes a sociotechnical perspective to examine the full range of industries and industrial processes for which hydrogen can support decarbonization and the technical, economic, social and political factors that will impact hydrogen adoption.
ISSN:2214-6296
2214-6326
DOI:10.1016/j.erss.2021.102208