Breaking the hard-to-abate bottleneck in China’s path to carbon neutrality with clean hydrogen

Abstract

Countries such as China are facing a bottleneck in their paths to carbon neutrality: abating emissions in heavy industries and heavy-duty transport. There are few in-depth studies of the prospective role for clean hydrogen in these ‘hard-to-abate’ (HTA) sectors. Here we carry out an integrated dynamic least-cost modelling analysis. Results show that, first, clean hydrogen can be both a major energy carrier and feedstock that can significantly reduce carbon emissions of heavy industry. It can also fuel up to 50% of China’s heavy-duty truck and bus fleets by 2060 and significant shares of shipping. Second, a realistic clean hydrogen scenario that reaches 65.7 Mt of production in 2060 could avoid US$1.72 trillion of new investment compared with a no-hydrogen scenario. This study provides evidence of the value of clean hydrogen in HTA sectors for China and countries facing similar challenges in reducing emissions to achieve net-zero goals.

Modulation for RuO2/TiO2 via Simple Synthesis to Enhance the Acidic Oxygen Evolution Reaction

“…57 Table S2 shows a large R s of around 25−30 Ω for all of the samples because of the liquid electrolyte (0.1 M HClO 4 ). 58 A similarly large R s is also found in previous reports using HClO 4 as the OER electrolyte. 20,59 T250 achieved the lowest charge-transfer resistance of 2.31 Ω cm 2 among the as-prepared samples, implying fast electron transfer kinetics, which further supported the lowest Tafel slope value.…”

“…Fossil fuels, a kind of finite and unsustainable carbon energy, have been used to a massive extent to increase prosperity and improve the lifestyle of our human society in past decades . Another aspect is that it will result in an energy shortage and goes against the urgent goals of global carbon neutrality. − To overcome these issues and realize an energy transition, one of the most promising replacements of fossil fuels is expected to be green hydrogen, which can be produced by water electrolysis using clean but intermittent electricity generated from wind, solar, and tide energy. − And the proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer (PEMWE) has long been considered a suitable technology for large-scale water electrolysis . However, the overall performance of PEMWE is still hindered by the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), a complex four-electron-coupling reaction, which accounts for sluggish reaction kinetics and thus high overpotential. − Therefore, appropriate electrocatalysts are essential toward OER to reduce the overpotential and promote water splitting efficiency.…”

Pursuing carbon neutrality in China should enhance the resilience of its nitrogen-phosphorus coupled cycling network and also benefit food security

“…Emissions of N would also be reduced along with the reduction of fossil fuels in many sectors such as power generation, iron and steel making, and road transportation sectors. For example, hydrogen ironmaking technology would reduce the N emissions from coking in the traditional ironmaking process 63,64 . However, compared with N flows in the maritime shipping sector 30 , these numbers could be ignored and are not considered in this study.…”

Ion-injection bipolar membrane electrodialysis realizes 8+ mol/L caustic soda conversion from the brine stream

“…The global demand for caustic soda can reach more than 8200 kt/yr 14 , but the demand for polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the main product consuming chlorine, is only 4700 kt/yr 11,12 . On that account, the uneven demands of alkali and chorine have become the major hurdle for the development of the chlor-alkali process, especially with more stringent regulations on environmental protection and the advocation of maximum resource utilization 15 .…”