In an interview to the UK-based media company Reuters, the President of EERA, Nils Røkke, talked about the importance of deploying carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies for the production of what is known as “blue” hydrogen, referring to the hydrogen that is produced using natural gas but whose CO2 emissions generated during the process are captured and stored.   

As mentioned by Røkke, almost all hydrogen produced today is “grey”, meaning that it is produced from natural gas using a process called Steam Methane Reforming (SMR). Despite being relatively cheap, this process is enormously polluting, with 10 tonnes of CO2 generated and released in the atmosphere for every tonne of hydrogen produced. While “green” hydrogen, which uses renewable electricity to separate the gas from water, will dominate the sector in the future, in the short-term “blue” hydrogen will be crucial in decarbonising the environment and solving current production challenges, accelerating the transition towards clean hydrogen. “Blue hydrogen can be delivered at scale quite quickly. If we only rely on green hydrogen to reach net-zero, we will be seriously delayed”, Røkke stated.  

In order for CCS technologies to be successfully applied for the production of hydrogen, there needs to be clear regulatory frameworks and the industry needs to identify and characterise storage sites and understand their geology.  

Read the full article on Reuters here.