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Experts sound the alarm on oil
sector’s blue hydrogen push
EU green investment rules
facilitate the rollout of blue hydrogen, a fuel that could be more
polluting than the fossil gas it is set to replace.
![](images/images_02_16_2022/pic2.jpg)
Construction of the Nordstream 2
gas pipeline, which analysts say may transport hydrogen gas in future
(Image: Paul Langrock/Greenpeace)
By
Patrick Galey
The oil and gas industry is
promoting the use of “low-carbon” hydrogen derived from methane that
is potentially dirtier than burning fossil gas for energy,
scientists and analysts have told Climate Home News.
Observers
say the European Commission’s decision to classify gas as
a transition fuel in its green investment list leaves the door
open to “blue hydrogen” projects with exaggerated climate
credentials.
“Blue
hydrogen is basically nothing but a smokescreen for more air
pollution, mining, and fossil fuel use with hardly any CO2 benefit,”
said Mark Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering
and director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program at Stanford
University.
Unlike green hydrogen, which is derived
from water in a process powered exclusively by renewable energy,
blue hydrogen comes from methane, with the carbon dioxide emitted
during production captured and stored.
The
International Energy Agency reported last week that there are at
least 50 blue hydrogen projects under development globally, and
capacity is set to increase more than tenfold by 2030.
European Commission endorses fossil gas as
‘transition’ fuel for private investment
In a
delegated act last year, the EU Commission set an emissions
threshold of just over 3 tonnes of CO2e per tonne of H2 for hydrogen
projects to comply with the green taxonomy.
“Which is
not low enough to guarantee that it would be only renewable
energy-powered hydrogen,” said Eleonora Moro, a hydrogen analyst at
the E3G climate think tank. “It could include some types of high
efficiency blue hydrogen projects.”
One such
project is a joint venture
announced by Equinor and Engie in December to produce “low-carbon
hydrogen… at large scale and at competitive cost levels”. The
companies claim that they will use a process known as autothermal
reforming (ATR), which “allows for decarbonization rates above 95%”.
The project sponsors some editions of
POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook newsletter, telling readers:
“Hydrogen can accelerate the energy transition but we need to develop
well-functioning markets and infrastructure. The H2BE project will
help kick-start the Belgian low-carbon hydrogen market.”
Seven countries join US and EU in methane reduction
pledge
ATR
involves heating methane gas with a catalyst, then adding water to get
hydrogen and CO2 that is then captured. Equinor says it will bury the
captured CO2 beneath the North Sea.
The
EU’s hydrogen strategy, published in 2020, says that “renewable
and low-carbon hydrogen can contribute to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions ahead of 2030”.
Jacobson
disputed Equinor and Engie’s claim that blue hydrogen can be
classified as “low-carbon”.
“Carbon
capture equipment is never 95% effective,” he told Climate Home. Blue
hydrogen capture technology currently available is at best 78.8%
effective, “but that ignores the fact that more energy is needed to
run carbon capture equipment, so it is 78.8% of a much larger emission
stream”.
Jacobson
co-wrote
a study last year which found, due to the increased amount of
fossil gas needed to power the carbon capture and storage (CCS)
process, blue hydrogen likely had a 20% higher carbon footprint than
burning methane alone.
Comment: Why the hydrogen bubble could burst in
Europe’s face
A paper by different researchers last month noted that developers’
promises of a 90-95% CCS success rate were based on theory, not
practice.
“While
these high capture rates are assumed in many national strategies and
major reports, they have not yet been achieved in a large-scale
commercial plant,” said the paper, published in the journal Applied
Energy.
Another
issue with blue hydrogen projects is that the methane feedstock can
leak, with a short-term warming impact more than 80 times that of CO2.
Countries
agreed at the last UN climate summit in November to
reduce methane emissions by 30% this decade, and an EU Commission
proposal seeks a ban on routine gas flaring and venting as well as
penalties on leaks.
Yet the
draft legislation doesn’t set specific emissions reduction targets,
and E3G’s Moro said leakages –
which may be as much as 4% in some countries – could only be
penalised if effectively observed.
Eilidh
Robb, an anti-gas campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, said that
industry’s focus on blue hydrogen “shows a complete lack of
understanding about methane emissions”.
“We talk
so much about CO2 that methane has been overlooked and it’s only now
we are starting to talk about that,” she said. “[Blue hydrogen] is a
highly technological solution from the gas industry for them to
continue to do what they have always done and we need to be deeply
skeptical.”
A spokesperson for Equinor told Climate
Home that in order for the EU to reach its decarbonisation aims, it
“will need many forms of hydrogen with zero to low-carbon and
environmental footprint. The volume needs are massive.”
The spokesperson added that Equinor
“pursues a methane intensity target of near zero and are an engaged
member of international efforts to reduce global emissions”.
Engie did
not respond to comment requests.
Researchers also questioned if burying CO2 beneath the sea bed was a
durable solution to the climate crisis.
Caitlin
Swalec, research analyst and hydrogen specialist at the Global Energy
Monitor watchdog, said that no matter how well it is stored, buried
CO2 will “eventually leak and make its way back to the atmosphere”.
“This may
happen over several hundred years, or a few decades. We don’t really
know because we haven’t tested it,” she said.
The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in its
2005 special report on CCS, suggested that CO2 stored below 3,000
metres would be less likely to leak. At this depth, the gas becomes
denser than water.
Saudi energy minister touts pink hydrogen made by
“emancipated young ladies”
Equinor
says it stores its captured CO2 “1,000-2,000
metres below the seabed” and Swalec said it was not clear how
viable the storage was at such depths.
“In order
to store CO2 long term under the sea floor, it needs to go very deep
which means that it will require a lot of energy to store it,” she
told Climate Home. “If it takes more energy (i.e. emissions) to store
the CO2 than we remove, the project will cause more problems than it
solves.”
Silje Ask
Lunberg, a senior campaigner and Norway expert at Oil Change
International, said Equinor – previously Statoil – had a history of
failed CCS attempts.
These
include problems at its Snohvit field in the Barents Sea, which saw
one attempt at CCS aborted as
the reservoir was at risk of collapsing, and a
second paused as the injected CO2 was polluting the methane extracted
from the site.
Statoil
also
mothballed its Mongstad CCS plant after less than a year of
operations.
“Mongstad
was meant to demonstrate that it was completely feasible to have
carbon capture at gas-fired power plants and it was supposed to be
100% from 2014,” said Lundberg. “They ended up failing at their own
project.”
EU climate package risks locking in gas use,
campaigners warn
Equinor
and Engie say they are in talks with potential blue hydrogen buyers
from “predominantly large, hard-to-abate industries”. These may
include sectors such as cement and steel, where there are few
low-carbon production methods.
The EU green taxonomy also
encourages the use of hydrogen in gas-fired power stations, while
gas grid operators are preparing to “blend” hydrogen into the fuel mix
for home heating and cooking.
E3G’s
Moro said that even for hard-to-abate sectors, there were “much more
efficient alternatives”, such as renewable energy or green hydrogen.
She said
there were “very strong economic interests” pushing for blue hydrogen
across Europe, and that the guidelines as to what qualifies as
renewable or low-carbon gas were too vague, as they stand, to
discourage them.
“We know
that fossil gas will have to be phased out in the EU so what do we do
with all that infrastructure? The easy solution the fossil industry is
selling is blue hydrogen.”
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