In an interview to CentralAsia.news, Allaberdi Ilyasov, a scientific observer, well-known Turkmen scientist, doctor of technical sciences, spoke about the relevance of the development of hydrogen energy as one of the promising areas of the energy industry of the future partly focused on maintaining ecological balance.
Alternative and prospects
In many developed countries, work on hydrogen energy is treated as a priority vector for the development of science and technology, and it receives more and more financial support from both government agencies and private sector. Such problems as limited resources, the increase in the cost of natural gas and atmospheric pollution pose the problem of obtaining relatively cheap and environmentally friendly hydrogen for the world.
However, scientists around the world are conducting research to develop a comprehensive program for the development of hydrogen energy, contributing to the decarbonization of the world economy, the restructuring of energy systems in order to drastically reduce CO2 emissions. The urgency of decarbonizing energy systems has increased since the Paris Climate Agreement entered into force in 2016.
Ahead of the rest
Recently, hydrogen energy is considered as one of the key areas in the implementation of national strategies for low-carbon development. The issue of transition to «green energy» based on hydrogen occupies one of the central places in the field of reforming the energy sector of Germany.
The seriousness of the intentions of the federal government to develop national hydrogen energy is backed up by the adoption of the «National Hydrogen Strategy for Germany» in June 2020. In July of the same year, at the EU level, the «Hydrogen strategy for a climate-neutral Europe» and the policy document «Powering a climate-neutral economy: An EU Strategy for Energy System Integration» were adopted.
Thus, Germany approved a national document on the development of hydrogen energy almost a month before the relevant EU decision, demonstrating the readiness of the German authorities to invest heavily in the formation of a new energy infrastructure.
The long-term goal of the country is to create a climate-neutral economy with a reduction in CO2 emissions for 95% from the level 1990. Metallurgy with the petrochemical industry will use the hydrogen, and that will play a central role in the process. The potential of this market is huge. The transition of European industry and transport to hydrogen fuel will reduce harmful emissions, create new markets and make hydrogen technology an export product.
Raw materials for hydrogen
Now the world produces about 75 million tons of hydrogen. With the help of electric installations only 100 thousand tons (about 0.1 percent) are extracted. The main volume — 95% of all hydrogen is produced using the technology of steam reforming of methane and coal. At the same time, the main by-product is carbon dioxide, and in such a process, reducing the carbon footprint is not achievable.
Decarbonization is facilitated by hydrogen produced by the electrolysis of water using the generation of renewable sources. A promising method is to obtain hydrogen from biogas generated during the decomposition of organic waste. The main share in biogas is methane, the content of which is up to 60 percent. Biogas can be obtained almost everywhere, since organic waste is constantly generated in large quantities within human economic activity in places of energy consumption. In residential or industrial complexes the whole ideology of hydrogen energy is based on its connection with others — hydro, wind renewable energy sources.
The production of such energy goes in one mode, and it is spent by consumers in another, therefore, when there is excess energy, it can be spent on obtaining hydrogen even from ordinary water by electrolysis. However, electrolysis is a method of producing hydrogen from water, which, unfortunately, requires large energy costs, so it is justified only in cases where the generated energy must be stored, even with a low efficiency.
What to expect from the energy carrier?
Hydrogen energy is one of the alternative ways to obtain an energy carrier. Fuel cells can work in houses and cars. Thus, instead of giant power plants with long electrical networks, autonomous ones will appear, and gasoline will be replaced by environmentally friendly fuel.
Today, scientists are actively searching for options for the production of hydrogen fuel, since this energy carrier has a number of advantages. Hydrogen is of particular interest as a promising fuel of the future, as it is the lightest fuel with the highest energy per unit mass, which can easily be converted into chemical, mechanical or electrical energy.
Due to unlimited resources, high energy saturation, technological flexibility and environmental friendliness of energy conversion processes involving hydrogen, it should be considered as the most promising energy carrier, and it can also become a medium for storing energy, in particular, electricity. One of its advantages is based on the fact that almost any source of energy can be converted into hydrogen, making it possible for its production and for local use in various regions of the Earth.
Only 62% of hydrogen is produced as a target product, the remaining 38% is a by-product of other industries — oil refining, coke chemistry and others. The others are represented by almost all electrolytic hydrogen currently obtained in the production of chlorine and caustic soda.
Today the main areas of hydrogen use in oil refining and in the chemical industry are the production of various goods, primarily ammonia and methanol. The use of hydrogen opens a unique path to integrated «open energy systems» that meet all major energy and environmental requirements.
Economy of the 21st century
The hydrogen economy is a vision for the future of the global economy, in which hydrogen becomes the new ubiquitous energy carrier and is comparable to the potential of coal, oil or gas. It is more important than the current role of hydropower, nuclear power and bioenergy combined.
According to various forecasts, this may happen in the whole world after 2040, but in some regions, the hydrogen economy is already beginning to take shape today. And if in the 20th century the main driver for the development of hydrogen technologies was their economic competitiveness compared to hydrocarbons rising in price, today the obligations of states, individual regions, companies and their associations to combat global climate change come to the fore.
So hydrogen is a necessary element for the implementation of these obligations. Renewable energy sources can decarbonize mainly the electric power industry, while the energy supply of buildings, the transport sector, and industry are largely left out of decarbonization if a new energy carrier cannot be found.
Hydrogen is considered the solution to this problem. The development of hydrogen technologies is of strategic importance in the governments of a number of countries, as well as in the corporate sector. We are talking about several hundred large and small companies around the world participating in thousands of project initiatives.
In the European Union, Germany and the UK are the most active. The Japanese program was launched in summer, 2014. The goal of the program sounds even wider than the technological or climate agenda — the deployment of the construction of a «hydrogen-based society». The roadmap contains specific key indicators for several technologies of the technological chain at once — in the production, storage, transport and use of hydrogen — in 2020, 2025, 2030 and 2050. The US hydrogen program has been operating under various names since the 1970s. During 2018 and early 2019, Australia and the Republic of Korea announced their hydrogen strategies.
Turkmenistan is an active participant of the processes
Turkmenistan, fully sharing the concern over the negative impact of industrial emissions on the environment, consistently advocates close coordination of international efforts aimed at minimizing existing risks and challenges.
The international initiatives of the Turkmen state are aimed at creating a new architecture of global energy security, providing wide access for everyone to inexpensive, reliable, modern energy sources. Turkmenistan is making efforts to maintain a balance between production goals and environmental protection objectives.
In this regard, it is advisable to develop a UN Strategy aimed at implementing measures for the development of low-carbon energy, and create under the auspices of the UN an international Roadmap for the development of hydrogen as one of the priority areas in the energy sector.
Therefore, it is no coincidence that in January this year, a Roadmap for the development of international cooperation of Turkmenistan in the field of hydrogen energy for 2022–2023 was approved in Turkmenistan. And in this regard, it is necessary to actively promote energy diplomacy as an integral factor in strengthening mutually beneficial partnership in ensuring global energy security.
For its part, the Turkmen state will continue to take consistent steps to stimulate and build up fruitful international cooperation in this area.
