Green hydrogen was supposed to be a silver bullet solution for decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors like shipping and steelmaking. It was the buzziest technology out there – and then it fizzled out completely. But after years of languishing in labs without reaching any meaningful level of commercialization, hydrogen is making a roaring comeback thanks to back-to-back scientific breakthroughs and renewed interest in the fossil fuel alternative against the backdrop of the global oil and gas crisis brought on by the United States’ and Israel’s war in Iran.
Hydrogen is enormously useful in industrial processes and holds great promise for limiting their associated carbon emissions, as the element can be combusted at high temperatures like natural gas, heavy fuel oil, or thermal coal, but leaves behind nothing but water vapor when burned. However, hydrogen is only as clean and green as the processes and energies used to make it. The vast majority of hydrogen used in industrial applications is gray hydrogen, which is made using fossil fuels. Green hydrogen is the name for hydrogen made with renewable energies, but this, too, has its drawbacks.
A 2022 report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) warned against the “indiscriminate use of hydrogen,” cautioning policy-makers to weigh their priorities carefully and to consider that extensive use of green hydrogen “may not be in line with the requirements of a decarbonised world” as it “requires dedicated renewable energy that could be used for other end uses.” In other words, green hydrogen may not be the smartest or most efficient use of clean energy. Plus, the process is often too expensive to be a realistic replacement for fossil fuels.
But recent breakthroughs have unlocked new methods of hydrogen generation that could change the calculus on green hydrogen’s affordability and efficiency. Researchers from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and Ewha Womans University in South Korea have discovered a way to convert plastic waste into pure hydrogen through a process called Alkaline Thermal Treatment (ATT).
Amazing, the method is capable of creating high-purity hydrogen from recyclables without even sorting the plastics. Using a single reactor, the method can convert the most common and hard-to-recycle kinds of plastics – polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene (PE), and polypropylene (PP) – into hydrogen fuel using a heat trigger, all with zero carbon emissions. The findings were published this month in the scientific journal PNAS.
“We are solving two urgent global problems at the same time,” said Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at UCLA, recently told Interesting Engineering. “Plastic waste is accumulating at alarming rates, and clean hydrogen is essential for decarbonizing energy. This technology tackles both of these challenges in a creative and scalable way,” the co-corresponding author went on to say.
This discovery is just the latest breakthrough in a now-thriving field of research seeking to convert waste products into clean hydrogen. Earlier this year, a team of researchers in China successfully converted sugars derived from agricultural waste (such as wheat stalks). Critically, this method makes the production of hydrogen much more affordable than standard green hydrogen production methods, at just $1.54 per kilogram (around $0.70 per pound), making it competitive with gray hydrogen.
This revival in research and breakthroughs comes after a long lull period in which it appeared as though green hydrogen was a lost cause. In 2023, less than a tenth of planned green hydrogen projects came to fruition. A study tracking 190 projects over 3 years found a “a wide 2023 implementation gap with only 7% of global capacity announcements finished on schedule.” But interest in green hydrogen research has been renewed as its role in energy security becomes increasingly clear against the backdrop of extreme oil market volatility. China, Europe, and the United States are all making concerted efforts to accelerate hydrogen investment, and it is evident that the renewed attention is already paying off.
By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com
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