HC·H2 | Helmholtz Hydrogen Cluster
What can hydrogen do?
Hydrogen can be an important part of the solution for supplying the world with energy without harming the climate. As a fuel for large vehicles, ships and aeroplanes. As an energy carrier that ensures that electricity flows even when photovoltaic systems are in the dark and wind turbines are not turning. And as an important feedstock for energy-intensive industries such as chemicals and steel.
How is hydrogen produced?
The starting point is usually water (H2O), which consists of hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2). If you want to split water into its components hydrogen and oxygen, you have to use energy. The main method of separation is electrolysis. It is important that the energy for electrolysis comes from renewable sources such as solar, wind or water energy.
Only hydrogen produced from green energy is sustainable. If hydrogen and oxygen are then recombined, they react to form water and release energy. It is this released energy that we aim to use.
‘Water is the coal of the future’
The time when these words were written down is surprisingly long ago, given their content. They date back to 1874 and were written by the French author Jules Verne, more precisely from his novel ‘The Mysterious Island’. We have written an article about it.
First of all, hydrogen does not actually have a colour. It is invisible. Whenever we speak about green, grey, or blue hydrogen, we do so to distinguish between the different methods of hydrogen production. Or we use a colour to indicate whether or not the hydrogen was produced in a carbon-neutral manner. The real question, therefore, is how many ways of producing hydrogen are there?
There is no definitive answer to the number of hydrogen colours there are. This is partly due to the fact that grey hydrogen, for example, is further distinguished in terms of the original energy carrier. Hydrogen that is produced through lignite gasification is referred to as brown hydrogen; hydrogen that is produced through hard coal gasification is called black hydrogen. There is also a definition of grey hydrogen in a stricter sense, namely when it is produced from natural gas. In our “Colours of Hydrogen” series, we attempt to explain the different colours of hydrogen. This is by no means intended as an exhaustive analysis.
In a small series, we look at a number of hydrogen colours.