Trade Routes for The Emerging Hydrogen Economy

Global markets have shifted towards the use of fuel derived from hydrogen due to its clean, flexible and energy-efficient nature, which makes it an attractive fuel option for transportation and electricity generation. Although energy from hydrogen has faced obstacles in its widespread adoption in the past, current projections indicate that by the year 2030, the market for hydrogen could be worth USD 500bllion, and 735 million tons of green hydrogen produced by 2050.

Energy from hydrogen may be derived from diverse resources, such as natural gas, nuclear power, biomass, and renewable power such as solar and wind, with the potential for near-zero greenhouse gas emissions.  The future of hydrogen power appears promising for both the stationary and transportation energy sectors because once produced, it generates electrical power, emitting solely water vapor and warm air as by-products.

Although the cost of generating and distributing hydrogen power is sky-high, coupled with the fact that it is not readily available in the atmosphere and cannot be used domestically, many countries have adopted it regardless. Some other countries such as Germany with limited resources to produce hydrogen fuel inland are faced with the option of outsourcing through importation.

The necessity conferred on such countries to import hydrogen has provoked the big question of how hydrogen can be transported around the world, and the cost associated with the process.  It is thus imperative that effective global hydrogen infrastructure are put in place.

A recent report has revealed that pipelines and liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs), often transported in ships, will be the most efficient trade routes for global transportation of hydrogen due to their  ” long lifecycles and low operational costs”. The resultant effect is that the conventional trade routes that have long defined the global energy map will need to be eliminated.

Transporting hydrogen in its gaseous state enables only about 13 tons of hydrogen to be carried onboard. However, transporting it as a liquid, at extremely low temperatures allows up to 19,000 tons to be carried by the same amount of storage capacity. In essence, how efficiently hydrogen can be ‘packed’ and ‘unpacked’ from its respective carrier will determine the cost of these approaches.