Hydrogen Economy

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.

Japan wants to move towards a clean, hydrogen-based energy economy, but to make that happen, it'll need to import liquid hydrogen from elsewhere. Meet the Suiso Frontier, the world's first liquid hydrogen transporter. It runs on diesel.