The new oil? The geopolitics and international governance of hydrogen

Incorporating platinum circular economy into China's hydrogen pathways toward carbon neutrality

Hydrogen is gaining tremendous traction in China as the fuel of the future to support the country's carbon neutrality ambition. Despite that hydrogen as fuel largely hinges on the supply of platinum (Pt), the dynamic interlinkage between Pt supply challenges, hydrogen development pathways, and climate targets in China has yet to be deeply analyzed. Here, we adopt an integrated assessment model to address this important concern and corresponding strategies for China. The results indicate that the booming hydrogen development would drive China's cumulative demand for Pt metal to reach 4,200-5,000 tons. Much of this demand, met through a limited supply pattern, is vulnerable to price volatility and heightened geopolitical risks, which can be mitigated through circular economy strategies. Consequently, a coordinated approach to leverage both global sustainable Pt sourcing and a robust domestic Pt circular economy is imperative for ensuring cost-effective hydrogen production, aligned with a climate-safe future.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of firms in the era of geopolitical conflicts

Do geopolitical conflicts matter for the environmental, social, governance (ESG) and overall ESG performance of firms? We answer this question by studying the impact of geopolitical conflict of a country on the ESG performance, separately and collectively, of firms of that country. We use data from Refinitiv and UCDP/PRIO (Uppsala Conflict Data Program/International Peace Research Institute, Oslo) databases for the period from 2002 to 2021 for 79 countries and we use fixed effects regression as our main methodology. We find that if a country is in a geopolitical conflict, their firms are impacted in the form of lower E, S and G performance and overall ESG performance, with stronger effects for developed countries. This comes on top of the direct costs of geopolitical conflicts. Our results are robust to country, year and firm fixed effects as well as robust to endogeneity as we use Lewbel (2012) estimator to eliminate any chances of endogeneity. We provide first evidence on this topic and it has geopolitical and socioeconomical implications.

Recent Advances in Bimetallic Catalysts for Methane Steam Reforming in Hydrogen Production: Current Trends, Challenges, and Future Prospects

As energy demand continues to rise and the global population steadily grows, there is a growing interest in exploring alternative, clean, and renewable energy sources. The search for alternatives, such as green hydrogen, as both a fuel and an industrial feedstock, is intensifying. Methane steam reforming (MSR) has long been considered a primary method for hydrogen production, despite its numerous advantages, the activity and stability of the conventional Ni catalysts are major concerns due to carbon formation and metal sintering at high temperatures, posing significant drawbacks to the process. In recent years, significant attention has been given to bimetallic catalysts as a potential solution to overcome the challenges associated with methane steam reforming. Thus, this review focuses on the recent advancements in bimetallic catalysts for hydrogen production through methane steam reforming. The review explores various aspects including reactor type, catalyst selection, and the impact of different operating parameters such as reaction temperature, pressure, feed composition, reactor configuration, and feed and sweep gas flow rates. The analysis and discussion revolve around key performance indicators such as methane conversion, hydrogen recovery, and hydrogen yield.

Future of Hydrogen as an Alternative Fuel for Next-Generation Industrial Applications; Challenges and Expected Opportunities

A general rise in environmental and anthropogenically induced greenhouse gas emissions has resulted from worldwide population growth and a growing appetite for clean energy, industrial outputs, and consumer utilization. Furthermore, well-established, advanced, and emerging countries are seeking fossil fuel and petroleum resources to support their aviation, electric utilities, industrial sectors, and consumer processing essentials. There is an increasing tendency to overcome these challenging concerns and achieve the Paris Agreement’s priorities as emerging technological advances in clean energy technologies progress. Hydrogen is expected to be implemented in various production applications as a fundamental fuel in future energy carrier materials development and manufacturing processes. This paper summarizes recent developments and hydrogen technologies in fuel refining, hydrocarbon processing, materials manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, aircraft construction, electronics, and other hydrogen applications. It also highlights the existing industrialization scenario and describes prospective innovations, including theoretical scientific advancements, green raw materials production, potential exploration, and renewable resource integration. Moreover, this article further discusses some socioeconomic implications of hydrogen as a green resource.

How Green Are the National Hydrogen Strategies?

Since Japan promulgated the world’s first national hydrogen strategy in 2017, 28 national (or regional, in the case of the EU) hydrogen strategies have been issued by major world economies. As carbon emissions vary with different types of hydrogen, and only green hydrogen produced from renewable energy can be zero-emissions fuel, this paper interrogates the commitment of the national hydrogen strategies to achieve decarbonization objectives, focusing on the question “how green are the national hydrogen strategies?” We create a typology of regulatory stringency for green hydrogen in national hydrogen strategies, analyzing the text of these strategies and their supporting policies, and evaluating their regulatory stringency toward decarbonization. Our typology includes four parameters, fossilfuel penalties, hydrogen certifications, innovation enablement, and the temporal dimension of coal phasing out. Following the typology, we categorize the national hydrogen strategies into three groups: zero regulatory stringency, scale first and clean later, and green hydrogen now. We find that most national strategies are of the type “scale first and clean later”, with one or more regulatory measures in place. This article identifies further challenges to enhancing regulatory stringency for green hydrogen at both national and international levels.

The Green Hydrogen Puzzle: Towards a German Policy Framework for Industry

Green hydrogen will play a key role in building a climate-neutral energy-intensive industry, as key technologies for defossilising the production of steel and basic chemicals depend on it. Thus, policy-making needs to support the creation of a market for green hydrogen and its use in industry. However, it is unclear how appropriate policies should be designed, and a number of challenges need to be addressed. Based on an analysis of the ongoing German debate on hydrogen policies, this paper analyses how policy-making for green hydrogen development may support industry defossilisation. For the assessment of policy instruments, a simplified multi-criteria analysis (MCA) is used with an innovative approach that derives criteria from specific challenges. Four challenges and seven relevant policy instruments are identified. The results of the MCA reveal the potential of each of the selected instruments to address the challenges. The paper furthermore outlines how instruments might be combined in a policy package that supports industry defossilisation, creates synergies and avoids trade-offs. The paper’s impact may reach beyond the German case, as the challenges are not specific to the country. The results are relevant for policy-makers in other countries with energy-intensive industries aiming to set the course towards a hydrogen future.

Potential and Economic Analysis of Solar-to-Hydrogen Production in the Sultanate of Oman

Hydrogen production using renewable power is becoming an essential pillar for future sustainable energy sector development worldwide. The Sultanate of Oman is presently integrating renewable power generations with a large share of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. The possibility of using the solar potential of the Sultanate can increase energy security and contribute to the development of the sustainable energy sector not only for the country but also for the international community. This study presents the hydrogen production potential using solar resources available in the Sultanate. About 15 locations throughout the Sultanate are considered to assess the hydrogen production opportunity using a solar PV system. A rank of merit order of the locations for producing hydrogen is identified. It reveals that Thumrait and Marmul are the most suitable locations, whereas Sur is the least qualified. This study also assesses the economic feasibility of hydrogen production, which shows that the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) in the most suitable site, Thumrait, is 6.31 USD/kg. The LCOH in the least convenient location, Sur, is 7.32 USD/kg. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is performed to reveal the most significant influential factor affecting the future’s green hydrogen production cost. The findings indicate that green hydrogen production using solar power in the Sultanate is promising, and the LCOH is consistent with other studies worldwide.

Power-to-X in Denmark: An Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

Power-to-X is an upcoming sector-coupling technology that can play a role in the decarbonisation of energy systems. The aim of this study was to widen the current knowledge of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of this innovative technology in the Danish context by utilizing the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to evaluate and compare perception of academic and industrial experts. The results of this analysis indicate that the external factors such as current policy framework are more important than the internal technology related factors. Further, positive factors predominate negative ones, with academic experts indicating strengths as the most important category and practitioners’ opportunities. All experts consider the country being a P2X knowledge hub as one of the most important factors, and in the given context of the Danish energy system, wind developments and Danish industrial environment, seizing this opportunity could be the biggest enabler for P2X success.

The Role of Green and Blue Hydrogen in the Energy Transition—A Technological and Geopolitical Perspective

Hydrogen is currently enjoying a renewed and widespread momentum in many national and international climate strategies. This review paper is focused on analysing the challenges and opportunities that are related to green and blue hydrogen, which are at the basis of different perspectives of a potential hydrogen society. While many governments and private companies are putting significant resources on the development of hydrogen technologies, there still remains a high number of unsolved issues, including technical challenges, economic and geopolitical implications. The hydrogen supply chain includes a large number of steps, resulting in additional energy losses, and while much focus is put on hydrogen generation costs, its transport and storage should not be neglected. A low-carbon hydrogen economy offers promising opportunities not only to fight climate change, but also to enhance energy security and develop local industries in many countries. However, to face the huge challenges of a transition towards a zero-carbon energy system, all available technologies should be allowed to contribute based on measurable indicators, which require a strong international consensus based on transparent standards and targets.