Hydrogen offers economic and environmental benefits but there are safety concerns and infrastructure challenges
The world is searching for sustainable, efficient and reliable green energy sources due to the chaos caused by climate change and overall environmental degradation, worsened by geopolitical events. There is therefore an imminent need to harness a trustworthy green energy source to nurture healthy and resilient communities as well as ecosystems, and to help alleviate the global energy crisis in a sustainable manner.
The hunt for alternative sources of energy has also been accelerated by the importance placed on low to zero carbon emissions. One of the most promising alternative energy sources to gain popularity is green hydrogen, considered by the International Energy Agency to be one of the leading options for storing energy from renewables, and a crucial element in any economy’s clean energy mix. Hydrogen has been lauded as the “fuel of the future”.
With energy security rapidly becoming one of the most critical issues facing SA today as a result of continuous rolling blackouts, a growing gap in power generation capacity and electricity demand as well as ageing infrastructure, the country is looking to hydrogen as a solution to its energy problems. SA aims to become a major producer and exporter of green hydrogen, with ambitions to capture a 4% global market share by 2050 as part of its commitment to decarbonise the economy, create economic growth and pursue a just transition away from nonrenewable energy sources such as coal.
Owing to SA’s abundant renewable and mineral resources, the country is advantageously placed to benefit from the production of hydrogen. According to the National Business Initiative the country could produce hydrogen for $1.60/kg by 2030, one of the lowest costs worldwide, which could allow it to double its current share of global hydrogen production and reach its 4% goal.
The country aims to produce about 500 kilotonnes of hydrogen annually by 2030 as part of its hydrogen society road map, which is forecast to create 20,000 jobs annually by 2030, while the green hydrogen export economic zone announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa last October will serve as a future export hub with the Asian market as potential, particularly Japan.
Though hydrogen offers significant economic and environmental benefits for SA, if we are to pursue it as a serious alternative energy source we must do so with open eyes, since it could lead to some major pitfalls if we do not.
Risky fuel
Because of its incredibly high energy content hydrogen gas is a highly flammable and volatile substance to work with and can cause fires and explosions if not handled properly. As it is a colourless, odourless and tasteless gas, any dangerous leaks would be particularly difficult to detect.
Unlike natural or propane gas, odorants cannot be added to hydrogen to help detect and prevent leaks as it is a light gas. Hydrogen fires are also invisible to the naked eye, so whenever a leak occurs it may contain flames that are difficult to detect too.. This presents a number of health and safety challenges that must be carefully and comprehensively considered and prepared for in any strategy, planning and construction of infrastructure related to hydrogen production.
As there are no standardised distribution systems for hydrogen, building a new hydrogen pipeline network would involve substantially high initial capital costs. In addition, we would need to build completely new infrastructure to distribute hydrogen to consumers across the country with the same capacity and reach as petrol and diesel fuel stations, while hydrogen-powered cars are still too costly for most consumers to purchase.
We are already facing significant, and expensive, infrastructural problems in SA across water, health care, roads, and particularly electricity. Spending significant amounts of capital to build new infrastructure for a new industry increases the economic burden on the country.
Hydrogen is a far lighter gas than petrol or diesel, which makes it difficult to store and transport. Storage requires compression into a liquid at extremely low temperature (-253°C) within specialised containers. This opens more risks as liquid hydrogen can cause severe frostbite and even loss of extremities if it comes into contact with skin.
In addition, the physical properties of hydrogen and the excessive amounts of pressure needed to store the gas as a liquid make it a difficult and costly fuel to transport in large quantities by road or pipeline. The European Hydrogen Backbone aims to build dedicated hydrogen transport infrastructure spanning 40,000km across Europe, which will require an estimated total investment of €43bn-€81bn.
No silver bullet
Outside costs, safety concerns and infrastructure challenges, hydrogen might not be as green as advertised if conventional methods are used to produce it. According to a recent study, hydrogen produced by the steam reforming of methane in natural gas (the most common form of hydrogen production in the world at present, also known as blue hydrogen) is far from being low carbon, as greenhouse gas emissions are high.
The study observes that the greenhouse gas footprint of hydrogen produced in this manner is more than 20% greater than natural gas or coal for heat, and about 60% greater than burning diesel oil for heat. The production of blue hydrogen fuel actually requires more energy than the fuel can provide. Consuming electrical energy to produce hydrogen to in turn generate less electrical energy is clearly not the smartest of ideas.
On the face of it, green hydrogen — produced using renewable electricity — is the answer for an emissions-friendly energy source. However, as it is costly to produce and the difficulties of storing and distributing hydrogen remain, we must be aware of the challenges SA will face in its pursuit of hydrogen as an alternative energy source. It would be reckless to believe hydrogen is a panacea for all the energy problems in SA and the wider world.
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