The recently published Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment report emphasizes that strong and sustained reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) would limit climate change."Hydrogen is a strong candidate to replace fossil fuels in transport and industry,” says Paolo Pisciella, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) adding that Norway is well-positioned to become an exporter of hydrogen.
Every year during a week in August, the Arendal Week festival in Norway addresses the big questions of today and tomorrow. This year’s programme includes researchers from SINTEF, one of Europe’s largest independent research organizations, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim who are highlighting hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels.
Hydrogen production could also provide thousands of jobs in Norway.
Studies show that around 80 percent of the expected future production of hydrogen will be used for transport, while the remaining 20 percent will be used by industry, said Paolo Pisciella, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, (NTNU) Energy Transition Initiative, in the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management (IØT).
Pisciella draws particular attention to ocean transport over longer distances as an application that cannot make use of energy from batteries. Hydrogen or biofuels are the most likely alternatives for long-distance transport.
Making this shift will help reduce greenhouse gases, said Paolo Pisciella.
Norway is also particularly well-equipped to tackle one major obstacle for hydrogen that is still largely produced by steam reforming natural gas, and this process is not exactly an environmentally friendly solution.
Norway will be particularly competitive due to its large supply of renewable energy. Today, hydrogen is mostly produced by steam reforming, a chemical process to break down hydrocarbons, especially natural gas, he explained.
Norway is competitively well-poised due to its large supply of renewable energy and the planned expansion of wind power.
This means that we can produce hydrogen both from electrolysis based on electricity and from steam reforming by using natural gas but also implement carbon capture and storage. In both cases, one of the prerequisites for large-scale production is to have the capacity to produce even more energy in the future, said Paolo Pisciella.
The researcher believes it is important to recognize that there is great resistance to expanding wind power on land and also to carbon capture and storage (CCS).
The ready availability of both natural gas and energy puts Norway in a very important position as an exporter of hydrogen to the rest of Europe. But it is important to be technically prepared before this can happen, said Paolo Pisciella.
Paolo Pisciella notes that CCS has to be as energy-efficient as possible. As larger amounts of hydrogen are exported, the need for the capture and storage of CO2 also increases.
CCS plus increased production using electrolysis could sharply increase the need for more energy. This could in turn increase the price of energy, which would negatively affect parts of the industry, especially the most energy-intensive part.
To gain a better understanding of the economic aspects and impacts of a Norwegian transition to hydrogen, Pisciella is currently working on a forthcoming article called “Economic analysis of a transition towards a zero-emission maritime sector based on hydrogen. Do we need an incentive mechanism?”
