Questions about the environmental credibility of blue hydrogen could be dealt with by clear and enforceable standards for all low-carbon forms of the fuel, according to panellists speaking at a Hydrogen Economist Mena briefing in Dubai.

Publication of the paper ‘How green is blue hydrogen?’ in the journal Energy Science and Engineering in mid-August caused controversy in the global hydrogen industry. In the paper, authors Robert Howarth and Mark Jacobson argue blue hydrogen has no role to play in a carbon-free future.

Their claims have been contested, but some advocacy groups and media outlets have already formed strong positions against blue hydrogen, particularly in the UK, which looked to promote the blue variety alongside green in its national hydrogen strategy.

“The framing of green against blue is not helpful” Mills, Qamar Energy

The controversy and public perception issue would best be addressed by recognisable regulatory standards for low-carbon hydrogen, according to Robin Mills, CEO of consultancy Qamar Energy.

“The framing of green against blue is not helpful,” he says. “Governments needs to set verifiable and objective standards for hydrogen to be produced with a carbon footprint of less than ‘x’—if it is credible with public and advocacy groups then the problem goes away.”

Mills notes that as long as companies produce blue hydrogen to the right standards, then it should have a comparable emissions profile to green. This means firms must address methane leakage issues and perform carbon capture and storage with a capture rate of higher than 95pc.

Blue hydrogen comparable to green

“There is no doubt in my mind that blue hydrogen done well is probably life-cycle comparable to green hydrogen,” Mills adds. “But there is a big caveat in saying ‘done well’ because it can be done badly too—and parts of the oil and gas industry have a poor record on this.”

Both Mills and fellow panellist Lina Osman, regional head of sustainable finance for Africa and Mena at bank Standard Chartered, agree blue hydrogen is likely to play a role in the transition to net zero.

“There is going to be a huge uptake of blue at the moment because in this part of the world blue is cost-effective for obvious reasons, and green will take time to become cost-effective,” Osman said at the briefing.

Standard Chartered—which has a global to reach net-zero emissions from its financing by 2050—has a policy not to finance coal projects, but there is no such policy on blue hydrogen. The bank has a team of in-house analysts that assesses projects on the basis of their financial credibility, climate credibility and emissions profile.

Asked whether that means that there is a financing issue for blue hydrogen projects because the fuel is seen as a transition fuel—with many forecasts saying green hydrogen is likely to be cost-competitive with blue by 2030—Osman says projects will be assessed on that basis.

“If blue hydrogen in about five or ten years is not going to be commercially viable anymore, we are probably not going to do project financing for longer than ten years,” she said.

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Author: Tom Young