Orange hydrogen is the new green

Maintaining global warming well below 2 °C, as stipulated in the Paris Agreement, will require a complete overhaul of the world energy system. Hydrogen is considered to be a key component of the decarbonization strategy for large parts of the transport system, as well as some heavy industries. Today...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature geoscience 2022-10, Vol.15 (10), p.765-769
Main Authors: Osselin, F., Soulaine, C., Fauguerolles, C., Gaucher, E. C., Scaillet, B., Pichavant, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/106
704/106/694/682
704/2151/209
Carbon
Carbon sequestration
Clean energy
Climate change
Coal
Decarbonization
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Earth System Sciences
Electrolysis
Energy
Energy transition
Exploitation
Geochemistry
Geology
Geophysics/Geodesy
Global warming
Green hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen production
Hydrogen-based energy
Natural gas
Paris Agreement
Perspective
Raw materials
Reforming
Renewable energy
Sciences of the Universe
Transportation systems
Water injection
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Summary:Maintaining global warming well below 2 °C, as stipulated in the Paris Agreement, will require a complete overhaul of the world energy system. Hydrogen is considered to be a key component of the decarbonization strategy for large parts of the transport system, as well as some heavy industries. Today, about 96% of current hydrogen production comes from the steam reforming of coal or natural gas (labelled black and grey hydrogen, respectively). If hydrogen is to become a solution, then black and grey hydrogen need to be replaced by a low-carbon option. One method that has received much attention is to produce so-called green hydrogen by coupling water electrolysis with renewable energies. However, green hydrogen is expensive and energy-intensive to produce. Here, we explore an alternative option and highlight the benefits of rock-based hydrogen (white and orange) compared with classic electrolysis-based technologies. We show that the exploitation of native hydrogen and its combination with carbon sequestration has the potential to fuel a large part of the energy transition without the substantial energy and raw material cost of green hydrogen. Enhancing natural subsurface hydrogen production through water injection could make a substantial contribution to achieving the low-carbon energy transition that is required to limit global warming.
ISSN:1752-0894
1752-0908
DOI:10.1038/s41561-022-01043-9