The Digest’s Top 10 Advanced Bioeconomy Markets and Predictions for 2021

8. Hydrogen Transport Sputters, but Green Hydrogen Zooms

For all the excitement over the transportation options associated with hydrogen, we can’t find a single independent expert who believes in a big future green hydrogen transport. Really. The issues are a) infrastructure and b) cost. There are lots of ways to make green hydrogen by splitting water (experts are less enthused about making hydrogen from biomass, except as a byproduct) — but the high cost of converting to a) new production, b) new vehicles and c) a new distribution infrastructure — well, they are daunting, and green hydrogen for transport will need all three.

We’re somewhat more enthused, here at the Daily Digest, about green hydrogen for heavy transport — primarily, marine and heavy-duty road transport, where infrastructure is less daunting and the problem for battery electricity storage is more perplexing. That doesn’t mean we dislike green hydrogen for every transport application — after all, we need green hydrogen to make green hydrocarbons. Fuel cell technology, though, we don’t see getting into the sedan market any time soon.

Yet, the world cannot get enough green hydrogen — we need it for materials and chemicals. And there, we do not have the vehicle problem or the infrastructure problem so long as green hydrogen production is co-located with chemicals and materials production plants. The Port of Rotterdam is an excellent example — moving ahead with green hydrogen alongside renewable chemicals and fuels.