Hydrogen Economy

The US Inflation Reduction Act is poised to kickstart a global hydrogen revolution. Among the bill's many climate-focused provisions are tax credits that will make American green hydrogen the cheapest H2 in the world, as low as US$0.73 per kilogram.

Hydrogen transport and generation powder Si+ was announced last week, causing quite a stir with its promise of making renewable energy incredibly cheap, convenient and safe to transport. Naturally, you had questions – here are the company's responses.

Drift Energy puts a different spin on wind power. Instead of creating windmill-derived electricity, its plan sees AI-routed hydrofoil sailing yachts generating electricity for electrolysis. Those yachts would then deliver green hydrogen ashore.

Stir this silicon-based powder into water, and hydrogen will bubble out, ready for immediate use. Hong Kong company EPRO Advance Technology (EAT) says its Si+ powder offers an instant end to the difficulties of shipping and storing green energy.

Australian scientists say they've made a "eureka moment" breakthrough in gas separation and storage that could radically reduce energy use in the petrochemical industry, while making hydrogen much easier and safer to store and transport in a powder.

Hydrogen will be one of humanity's key weapons in the war against carbon dioxide emissions, but it must be treated with care. New reports show how fugitive hydrogen emissions can indirectly produce warming effects 11 times worse than those of CO2.

Blue hydrogen isn't a step forward for the climate, says a new report out of Cornell and Stanford Universities. Indeed, it's worse than simply burning gas or coal in many applications – so it's not an acceptable transition phase in the race to zero.

Western Australia could soon be home to the world's biggest green hydrogen project. The Western Green Energy Hub wants to deploy 50 GW of solar and wind generation to produce up to 3.5 million tons of green hydrogen or 20 million tons of ammonia a year.

Enegix Energy is moving forward with plans to build a huge clean hydrogen plant on the North-East coast of Brazil. The US$5.4-billion Base One project would transform solar and wind power into more than 600 million kg of green hydrogen annually.

A new Hydrogen Council report sheds some light on Hydrogen's rise as a green fuel source. Green H2 production prices are falling faster than expected, and some 228 projects are in the pipeline globally, most of which were announced in the last year.

Blending renewably-generated hydrogen gas into existing natural gas pipelines could quickly and easily transport hydrogen across cities. SoCalGas is testing a system that can separate the H2 back out and compress it for use in fuel-cell vehicles.

Australian scientists claim they've worked out a much cheaper, more efficient way to split hydrogen out of water, using easily sourced iron and nickel catalysts. The discovery could greatly improve the equation for "green" hydrogen.