Water availability and water usage solutions for electrolysis in hydrogen production

Simões, Sofia; Catarino, Justina; Picado, Ana; Lopes, Tiago F.; Berardino, Santino Di; Amorim, Filipa; Gı́rio, Francisco M.; Rangel, C. M.; Leão, Teresa Ponce de

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128124

Cited by 110 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Furthermore, there are additional climate and other environmental concerns associated with the deployment of hydrogen that need to be better understood quantitatively. These include the diversion of renewably produced electricity to produce green hydrogen when a potentially more effective decarbonization pathway would be to use the renewable electricity directly to offset fossil fuel use (Ueckerdt et al, 2021); emissions of nitrogen oxides from combusting hydrogen, which is a health concern for local communities (Lewis, 2021); local water availability for green hydrogen production (Beswick et al, 2021;Simoes et al, 2021); and CCUS efficiency and permanence for blue hydrogen (Saadat and Gersen, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate consequences of hydrogen emissions

2022

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Abstract. Given the urgency to decarbonize global energy systems, governments and industry are moving ahead with efforts to increase deployment of hydrogen technologies, infrastructure, and applications at an unprecedented pace, including USD billions in national incentives and direct investments. While zero- and low-carbon hydrogen hold great promise to help solve some of the world's most pressing energy challenges, hydrogen is also an indirect greenhouse gas whose warming impact is both widely overlooked and underestimated. This is largely because hydrogen's atmospheric warming effects are short-lived – lasting only a couple decades – but standard methods for characterizing climate impacts of gases consider only the long-term effect from a one-time pulse of emissions. For gases whose impacts are short-lived, like hydrogen, this long-term framing masks a much stronger warming potency in the near to medium term. This is of concern because hydrogen is a small molecule known to easily leak into the atmosphere, and the total amount of emissions (e.g., leakage, venting, and purging) from existing hydrogen systems is unknown. Therefore, the effectiveness of hydrogen as a decarbonization strategy, especially over timescales of several decades, remains unclear. This paper evaluates the climate consequences of hydrogen emissions over all timescales by employing already published data to assess its potency as a climate forcer, evaluate the net warming impacts from replacing fossil fuel technologies with their clean hydrogen alternatives, and estimate temperature responses to projected levels of hydrogen demand. We use the standard global warming potential metric, given its acceptance to stakeholders, and incorporate newly published equations that more fully capture hydrogen's several indirect effects, but we consider the effects of constant rather than pulse emissions over multiple time horizons. We account for a plausible range of hydrogen emission rates and include methane emissions when hydrogen is produced via natural gas with carbon capture, usage, and storage (CCUS) (“blue” hydrogen) as opposed to renewables and water (“green” hydrogen). For the first time, we show the strong timescale dependence when evaluating the climate change mitigation potential of clean hydrogen alternatives, with the emission rate determining the scale of climate benefits or disbenefits. For example, green hydrogen applications with higher-end emission rates (10 %) may only cut climate impacts from fossil fuel technologies in half over the first 2 decades, which is far from the common perception that green hydrogen energy systems are climate neutral. However, over a 100-year period, climate impacts could be reduced by around 80 %. On the other hand, lower-end emissions (1 %) could yield limited impacts on the climate over all timescales. For blue hydrogen, associated methane emissions can make hydrogen applications worse for the climate than fossil fuel technologies for several decades if emissions are high for both gases; however, blue hydrogen yields climate benefits over a 100-year period. While more work is needed to evaluate the warming impact of hydrogen emissions for specific end-use cases and value-chain pathways, it is clear that hydrogen emissions matter for the climate and warrant further attention from scientists, industry, and governments. This is critical to informing where and how to deploy hydrogen effectively in the emerging decarbonized global economy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate consequences of hydrogen emissions

2022

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“…In this context, electrochemical oxidation is a promising alternative for pollution removal in wastewater, as it offers the advantage of a relatively simple implementation at room temperature, thus boosting the attention of the electrochemical community over the last decade [11][12][13][14]. In general, the anodic half-electronic reaction enables pollutants degradation (industrial, human, or animal waste) while the cathodic half-electronic reaction enables producing hydrogen, that can be used later as fuel.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Progress toward a better understanding of the urea oxidation by electromediation of Ni(III)/Ni(II) system in alkaline media

Hopsort

Carmo

Latapie

et al. 2023

Electrochimica Acta

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“…We also note that there are additional climate and other environmental concerns associated with deployment of hydrogen that need to be addressed, such as the diversion of renewably-produced electricity to produce green hydrogen when a potentially more effective decarbonization pathway would be to use the renewable electricity directly to offset fossil fuel use (Ueckerdt et al, 2021); NOx emissions from combusting hydrogen which is a health concern for local communities (Lewis, 2021); water availability for green hydrogen (Beswick et al, 2021;Simoes et al, 2021); and CCUS efficiency and permanence for blue hydrogen (Saadat and Gersen, 2021).…”

Section: Replacing Fossil Fuel Systems With Hydrogen Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate consequences of hydrogen leakage

Ocko

Hamburg

2022

Preprint

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Abstract. Hydrogen is quickly gaining attention as a “clean” fuel that can support a transition to a decarbonized energy system. Given the urgency to decarbonize global energy systems, governments and industry are moving ahead with efforts to increase hydrogen technologies, infrastructure, and applications at an unprecedented pace, including billions in national incentives and direct investments. While zero- and low-carbon hydrogen hold great promise to help solve some of the world’s most pressing energy challenges, hydrogen is also a short-lived indirect greenhouse gas whose warming impact is not well-characterized. There are multiple areas of uncertainty. To date, hydrogen’s warming effects have been primarily characterized using the GWP-100 metric—which is misleading for short-lived gases, such as hydrogen, as it obscures impacts on shorter timescales. Furthermore, hydrogen is a small molecule known to easily leak into the atmosphere; however, the total amount of leakage in current hydrogen systems remains unknown, with the analytical capacity to accurately measure leakage in situ largely unavailable. Therefore, the net climate benefit of a future hydrogen economy is unknown over the near to medium term. This paper explores the climate implications of hydrogen leakage over all timescales by assessing the change in cumulative radiative forcing from replacing fossil fuel systems with hydrogen applications and estimating temperature responses to leakage using a plausible range of hydrogen leak rates and the latest estimate of hydrogen’s radiative efficiency. We also consider the climate impacts from methane leakage when the hydrogen is produced via natural gas with CCUS (‘blue’ hydrogen) as opposed to renewables and water (‘green’ hydrogen); both are considered “clean”. We find that the climate consequences of hydrogen applications relative to their fossil fuel counterparts strongly depend on time horizon and leakage rate, with vastly different climate outcomes in the near- vs. long-term and for best- vs. worst-case leak rates. For example, worst-case hydrogen leak rates could yield a near-doubling in radiative forcing relative to fossil fuel counterparts in the first five years following the technology switch, but an 80 % decrease in radiative forcing over the following 100 years after deployment. On the other hand, best-case hydrogen leak rates could yield an 80 % decrease in radiative forcing in the first five years. Simple estimates of temperature responses to a 10 % hydrogen leakage rate (a high but plausible level) suggest a theoretical maximum contribution of around a quarter of a degree (C) in 2050 if hydrogen replaces the entire fossil fuel energy system, and at least a tenth of a degree (C) in 2050 if hydrogen accounts for more than half of final energy demand. Thus, a greater understanding of hydrogen’s warming impacts at different possible leakage rates is critical to inform where and how to deploy hydrogen effectively in the emerging decarbonized global economy.

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Water availability and water usage solutions for electrolysis in hydrogen production

Cited by 110 publications

References 27 publications

Climate consequences of hydrogen emissions

Climate consequences of hydrogen emissions

Progress toward a better understanding of the urea oxidation by electromediation of Ni(III)/Ni(II) system in alkaline media

Climate consequences of hydrogen leakage

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