BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 16
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
By 2040, hydrogen demand in fuel/HVC production, iron & steel, ammonia and industrial process heat is expected to grow exponentially to 836 TWh per year, Trend reports with reference to the European Hydrogen Backbone report.
“Northwest Europe and parts of Southern Spain, Italy and France continue be the largest demand region. There is also a growing hydrogen demand in Eastern Europe, e.g., in Romania. By 2050, hydrogen demand in industry grows further and is expected to be spread across Europe and total demand is estimated to reach 1,200 TWh per year.
Today, industry is the largest user of hydrogen, in particular in the chemical (e.g. ammonia) and petrochemical sectors. However, almost all of it is grey hydrogen leading to substantial GHG emissions. Green and blue hydrogen can replace the existing use of grey hydrogen and be a promising enabler of decarbonisation in other industry sectors. The steel industry could significantly reduce emissions by switching to hydrogen-based steelmaking. Hydrogen can also replace the existing use of fossil energy carriers in medium- and high-temperature processes (e.g. in glass, cement and pulp and paper) and replace fossil feedstocks in the chemical sector (e.g. high value chemicals),” reads the report.
“In the sectors of production of ammonia, high value chemicals, iron & steel and fuels, hydrogen, primarily used as feedstock, is crucial for decarbonisation. By 2050, these sectors could make up around 80 percent of hydrogen demand in industry with the remaining hydrogen demand coming from industrial heat. To better understand where and by when hydrogen is required in those energy-intensive industries installationspecific decarbonisation roadmaps were created. The bottom-up pathways are informed by company announcements, sector decarbonisation roadmaps and interviews with relevant stakeholders. Although there is a risk of relocation, both within and outside of Europe, due to high costs for decarbonisation, we assume that policy measures are put in place that prevent relocation and carbon leakage.”
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