Hydrogen properties
Hydrogen is the most abundant element on earth, but it rarely exists alone. It can be separated from other atoms through electrolysis. Another method of producing hydrogen is steam methane reforming (SMR), a natural gas steam reforming method.
Hydrogen is currently used to produce fertilizers and is also used in various production processes, especially in the petrochemical industry. Since hydrogen does not emit carbon dioxide, it has been adopted by the Biden administration as one of the strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industries such as long-haul trucking, ocean freight and air travel.
Pros and Cons of Hydrogen Energy
Pros
The cleanest energy
Hydrogen is the most unquestionable and recognized as the cleanest energy source among all known energy options currently available. Because after burning, only pure water will be produced, which will not cause any ecological burden at all.
Future potential
There is no doubt about the future of hydrogen energy. It has an infinite future and an infinite market. In addition, the development of hydrogen energy is still in a very early stage. Countries and capital markets are very active in investing in hydrogen energy.
Cons
Cost
Since the development of hydrogen energy is still at a very early stage, the total cost of all the current costs is actually too high, making it difficult to be competitive with other energy sources in the energy market.
Transport
Transportation is the biggest challenge and requires special transportation equipment and pipelines.
Energy conversion efficiency is not high
Since hydrogen is a gas, it must be compressed into a liquid in order to facilitate transportation and pipeline transmission, save space, maintain stability, and reduce the activity of hydrogen gas to improve safety. After repeated compression and reduction, energy will be consumed, which will of course reduce energy conversion efficiency.
Safety
Hydrogen is a gas and is highly reactive. As soon as there is a source of fire, it can easily lead to an uncontrollable tragedy. Therefore, for the sake of safety, a lot of time must be spent on prevention.
Development status of major countries
U.S.
The U.S. government subsidies will go to regional hydrogen hubs, which include state and local partners and hydrogen suppliers, as well as industrial buyers and energy infrastructure companies that contribute funds to the program. These seven regional hydrogen energy centers are located in 16 states in the United States and are planned and designed based on regional advantages in developing hydrogen energy. These centers are not single facilities, but vast assets that can operate together to develop the U.S. hydrogen economy. The US$7 billion regional hydrogen energy center project is estimated to stimulate US$43 billion in private investment and create job opportunities. Biden has repeatedly stated that job creation is one of the benefits of developing a clean economy.
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced the first recipients of $7 billion in federal grants to accelerate the development of regional hydrogen hubs under an infrastructure law passed in 2021. The seven centers will be:
- mid atlantic
- Appalachia
- Midwest
- minnesota and plains states
- gulf coast
- pacific northwest
- California
President Biden made the announcement in Pennsylvania, where the state’s Mid-Atlantic Center will receive up to $750 million in funding and will use existing oil infrastructure to produce hydrogen from renewable and nuclear energy; project partners include PBF Energy (ticker:PBF) and Air Liquide (ticker: AIQUF and AIQUY) .
The Appalachian center, backed by Sen. Joe Manchin, spans parts of West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania and will partner with natural gas producer EQT Corp. , secured up to $925 million in funding to produce hydrogen using natural gas and carbon capture. The $925 million Heartland Hydrogen Center aims to harness the region’s energy resources to help decarbonize agricultural sector fertilizer production and advance the use of clean hydrogen in power generation; partners include Xcel Energy (ticker: XEL), Marathon Petroleum (ticker: MPC) and TC Energy (ticker: TRP). The companies are expected to invest more than $40B in the centers, with the goal of producing more than 3 million metric tons.
A hub proposed by Midwestern states has received up to $1 billion in funding, powered in part by nuclear energy, to provide hydrogen for uses such as steel and glass production; partners include Exelon (ticker: EXC) and Constellation Energy (ticker: CEG).
$1.2B Gulf Coast hub called HyVelocity to be developed in a region that already has the largest concentration of hydrogen production and energy infrastructure in the world; partners include ExxonMobil (ticker: XOM), Chevron (ticker: CVX) ), Air Liquide, Mitsubishi Electric, Orsted (ticker: DNNGY), AES Corp. (ticker: AES) and Sempra (ticker: SRE); Amazon (ticker: AMZN) is one of the center’s expected end users.
Amazon, Mitsubishi and Air Liquide are also partners in the winning Pacific Northwest hub, joining Fortescue (ticker: FSUMF) and local utilities Portland General Electric (ticker: POR) and Puget Sound Energy.
Amazon and Air Products (ticker: APD) are among the participants in a $1.2B California project to produce hydrogen entirely from renewable energy and biomass, aiming to power mass transit, heavy-duty trucking and port operations of decarbonization.
China
In late March 2022, the Continental Development and Reform Commission announced the mid-term plan for the development of the hydrogen energy industry (2021 to 2035), clearly proposing to support the development of the hydrogen energy industry chain. This is also the first mid-term plan for the hydrogen energy industry in mainland China. , among which, the number of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will reach 50,000 in 2025. Since then, local governments have followed up and responded and launched five-year industrial development goals.
In 2023, construction of China’s first “West-to-East Hydrogen Transmission” pipeline will start, which will run from Inner Mongolia to Beijing.
China’s CRRC also released a hydrogen energy city train in the same year, with a top speed of 160 kilometers per hour and a long range of 600 kilometers. Hydrogen fuel cell-powered ships have also made their maiden voyage successfully: the first inland river hydrogen fuel cell-powered demonstration ship “Three Gorges Hydrogen No. 1” completed its maiden voyage at the Three Gorges Tourist Center in Yichang, Hubei.
According to statistics in 2022, there are about 50,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the world and about 10,000 in the mainland. It is expected that by 2030, there will be more than 10 million vehicles in the world and more than 2 million in the mainland. According to statistics, by 2025, the cumulative sales volume of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will exceed 150,000, the number of hydrogen refueling stations will exceed 1,000, and the cumulative output value of the hydrogen energy industry will exceed RMB 960 billion.
Europe
In March 2023, the European Commission released the European Hydrogen Bank Plan to stimulate and support the production and investment of sustainable hydrogen energy; this plan accompanies the Net Zero Industry Act. The bill aims to promote manufacturing and production in the EU’s clean energy sector, with the goal that by 2030, the EU’s overall strategic net-zero technology manufacturing capacity will be close to or reach at least 40% of the EU’s deployment needs, involving photovoltaic and solar thermal, onshore wind energy and offshore renewable energy. Renewable energy, batteries and energy storage, heat pumps and geothermal energy, electrolyzers and fuel cells, biomethane, etc.
With the announcement of the RePower EU plan in May 2022, the European Commission has further increased Europe’s ambition to use renewable hydrogen as an important energy carrier, accelerate the EU’s energy transition and decarbonize the energy system. The RePower EU program aims to produce 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen in the EU and import 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen by 2030. The EU has also created the “European Hydrogen Energy Bank” to increase investment in the hydrogen energy market.
In 2022, Europe announced the launch of its first large-scale hydrogen pipeline project, H2MED, connecting Portugal, Spain and France at a cost of approximately 2.8 billion euros.
In November 2023, Germany planned the “Southern Hydrogen Corridor” (SoutH2 Corridor) to transport renewable energy from North Africa to southern Germany via pipelines via Italy, Austria, and Switzerland. The dedicated pipeline of the hydrogen energy corridor is 3,300 kilometers long and will start from the North African coast of Tunisia, pass through the Italian natural gas main line, transit Austria/Switzerland, and finally reach the industrial town of Bavaria in southern Germany.
Top Hydrogen Energy Company
Hydrogen generating companies
| Company name | Ticer | Related business |
| Exxon Mobil | XOM | $7 billion has been allocated for projects related to hydrogen, carbon capture and biofuels from 2022 to 2027 |
| Chevron | CVX | Chevron is actively involved in hydrogen production, producing about 1 million tons per year through its legacy operations |
| Linde | LIN | Linde is an industrial gas company with operations in carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, electronic gases, specialty gases and acetylene |
| Shell | SHEL | Shell also generates electricity from renewable resources, sells hydrogen and provides electric vehicle charging services |
| Air Products and Chemicals | APD | is a supplier of gases, process and specialty gases and related services |
| Dupont | DD | DuPont AmberLite P2X110 ion exchange resin, designed for the unique chemistry of electrolyzer circuits and designed to facilitate hydrogen production from water |
| British Petroleum | BP | Developments have been initiated involving the integrated production and trading of natural gas, natural gas and electricity, as well as the operation of wind power, hydrogen and carbon capture facilities |
| Cummins | CMI | Provides engines, power generation systems, filtration systems, emissions solutions and power systems using battery, fuel cell and hydrogen production technologies |
| Bloom Energy | BE | Flagship product Bloom Energy Server utilizes solid oxide technology to convert a variety of fuels, including natural gas and hydrogen, into electricity without burning them |
| Plug Power | PLUG | Providing clean hydrogen and zero-emission fuel cell solutions for diverse applications including supply chain, logistics, electric vehicles and stationary power markets |
Hydrogen fuel cell and application companies
| Rank | Name | Market Cap (US$ billion) | Price | Ticker |
| 1 | Plug Power | $2.85 B | $4.71 | PLUG |
| 2 | Doosan Fuel Cell | $1.15 B | $17.62 | 336260.KS |
| 3 | Ballard Power Systems | $1.13 B | $3.79 | BLDP |
| 4 | Nikola | $1.03 B | $0.89 | NKLA |
| 5 | Ceres Power | $0.45 B | $2.36 | CWR.L |
| 6 | SFC Energy AG | $0.37 B | $21.70 | F3C.DE |
| 7 | Hyzon Motors | $0.21 B | $0.87 | NZAH |
Current non-technical difficulties
Industry opposes subsidy regulations
Frank Wolak, CEO of the U.S. Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA), said in a statement, “These proposed regulations and requirements will unnecessarily hinder investment and technology development in the U.S. hydrogen energy industry.” Including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Business groups within the country have blasted the new hydrogen subsidy rules, saying they will slow down the development of the hydrogen economy.
At the end of December 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury published a 128-page proposal on the Federal Register website. The proposal states that U.S. companies are expected to receive tax credits of up to $3 for every kilogram of hydrogen produced, but these hydrogen The electricity used by the project must come from a new clean power project built within the last three years and must be located in the same grid area as the hydrogen plant.
Draft are obstructive and difficult to implement
The proposal would require hydrogen producers to certify every hour that the electricity used by their electrolysers comes from new renewable energy projects, meaning electrolysers would only be able to operate during the same hour that clean electricity is available. The U.S. Treasury Department requires relevant hydrogen energy project companies to begin implementing such programs in 2028, earlier than many companies and industry organizations expect.
Fortunately, the proposal is still in the draft stage for public comment, and these requirements may not appear in the final version of the bill. Industry says that if written regulations are followed, U.S. hydrogen production will be reduced by 70% by 2030. Industry is planning to actively work to help adjust government regulations.
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