跨越绿氢生产障碍

到2022年7月，绿氢生产的成本比灰氢或蓝氢更高，其价格约为每公斤4到5美元，而灰氢的成本约为每公斤2美元

得益于电解技术的改进和规模经济效应的支持，预计在长期内对绿氢生产进行大规模投资将有助于降低成本

除了生产成本外，绿氢的运输也面临着另一个挑战，需要专用基础设施，从而增加了绿氢部署的整体费用

中国石化新闻网讯 据油价网7月15日报道，对于绿氢的未来，人们充满乐观，许多人认为它将是取代石油的衍生选择，并且在与电池技术竞争时具有很高的竞争力。然而，由于生产规模较小和高昂的成本，我们离实现这一目标还有很长的路要走。全球许多公司计划生产绿色氢气，但一些公司正在应对清洁燃料推广迟缓的挑战。尽管近年来在该领域加大了投资，生产工艺有所改进，但绿氢的生产和运输成本仍远高于其他燃料，包括其他类型的氢气。

进行石油衍生出的灰氢或蓝氢生产被认为是相对低成本的，许多公司已经依赖于这种燃料。灰氢是利用天然气生产的，它经过蒸汽甲烷重整(SMR)工艺，利用高压蒸汽将甲烷分解，产生分离的氢气、一氧化碳和二氧化碳分子。该过程产生大量二氧化碳，每吨氢气制备约产生9到10吨二氧化碳。但只要天然气价格保持稳定，这也是具有高度成本效益的。到2022年7月为止，灰色氢气的成本约为每公斤2美元。

相形之下，绿氢生产制备更昂贵。绿氢是利用可再生能源驱动电解过程，从水中分离出氢气，只产生蒸汽作为排放物——它是碳中和的，这对于希望减碳的公司非常有吸引力。然而，直到2022年7月，生产绿氢的成本约为每公斤4到5美元，甚至更高。一些行业专家认为，绿氢生产的高成本不会很快下降。

绿氢被许多国际机构，如国际能源署（IEA）和国际可再生能源机构（IRENA）视为较难减排领域的碳减排解决方案。随着全球各国政府和私营公司对绿氢业务进行更多资金投入，人们对绿氢的生产成本大幅下降抱有很高期望——绿氢成本可能降至每公斤0.5美元，但也有人认为将很难将成本降低到每公斤3美元以下。

IRENA在2020年11月和2020年12月分别发布了两份研究报告，旨在推动全球绿氢生产：《绿氢：政策制定指南》和《绿氢成本降低：推广电解槽以实现1.5摄氏度气候目标》。这些研究旨在鼓励政府和私营公司扩大生产规模以降低成本。然而到目前为止，绿氢的生产价格仍然较高，当天然气价格稳定时，其成本大约是灰氢生产成本的2到3倍。

然而，随着更多资金投入研发，自2010年以来电解槽价格已经下降了约60%；IRENA表示，短期内这一成本可能再降低40%，长期内可能降低80%。这种成本降低的预测依赖于提高其性能的电解技术实现更多创新，并可以扩大制造能力，实施标准化和增加规模经济效应。

另一个需要考虑的挑战是运输成本。伍德麦肯兹公司（Wood Mackenzie）的氢领域研究主管Murray Douglas表示：“氢气的运输成本相当高，运输比天然气困难，而且从技术和工程角度来看它更加复杂。”对此有所担忧的不仅仅是他。美国能源部（DoE）在关于绿氢的报告中提到了一些挑战，包括“降低成本，提高能源效率，保持氢气纯度和最小化氢气泄漏”。DoE认为需要进行更多研究来“综合考虑氢气生产选项和氢气输送选项时的权衡”。

全球各公司现在正在考虑绿氢生产设施最佳选址。虽然澳大利亚、北非和中东地区发展这类项目的潜力巨大，但这些地区可能离其主要市场相当远。Douglas强调，“如果通过管道输送绿氢，则需要建立专用管道，连接生产商和最终用户。或者绿氢可以以氨的形式进行运输，氨与氮混合后可以运输和销售给诸如肥料生产商之类的消费端。否则，用户将不得不将氨裂解回氮，这将增加成本并导致能量损失”。

为了使绿氢能够如人们所希望的那样成功，需要进行重大投资以克服这些挑战。行业协会Hydrogen Europe的首席执行官Jorgo Chatzimarkakis建议建立认证体系，以确保任何绿氢生产都是由可再生能源驱动的。此外，还需要制定深入研究的交付战略，以确保生产设施与绿氢市场充分连接。目前这在一些项目中已经得到体现，比如西普萨公司（Cepsa）在南欧和北欧之间建立的绿氢通道。

尽管运输成本较高，但国际化大公司已经掌握了像处理天然气一样运输绿氢的成熟技术，但一些公司面对成本而却步。因此，该行业必须降低生产成本，以减轻运输方面的一些压力。尽管绿氢产业仍面临着一些重大挑战，延迟了清洁燃料的大规模部署，但在未来几十年里对该领域的更大投资可能会解决许多问题，并实现全球大规模的绿氢生产。

郝芬 译自 油价网

原文如下：

Navigating The Hurdles Of Green Hydrogen Production

Green hydrogen production is costlier than grey or blue hydrogen, with its price as of July 2022 being around $4 to $5 per kilo, while grey hydrogen costs around $2 per kilo.

Significant investments in green hydrogen production are expected to lower costs in the long term, supported by improvements in electrolysis technology and economies of scale.

Apart from production costs, the transportation of green hydrogen presents another challenge, requiring dedicated infrastructure and adding to the overall expense of green hydrogen deployment.

There is great optimism around the future of green hydrogen, with many seeing it as a super-fuel that will replace oil-derived options, as well as be highly competitive with electric battery technology. However, we are far from achieving this ambition yet, mainly due to small-scale production operations and high costs. Many companies around the globe have plans to produce green hydrogen, but some are battling challenges that are slowing down the rollout of the clean fuel. Despite improvements in production processes, thanks to greater investment in the sector in recent years, the production and transportation costs of green hydrogen remain much higher than other fuels, including other types of hydrogen.

Producing grey or blue hydrogen, which is derived from fossil fuels, is viewed as relatively low cost, with many companies already relying on this fuel. Grey hydrogen is produced using natural gas. It undergoes a steam methane reforming (SMR) process, which breaks methane apart using high-pressure steam, which creates separate hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide molecules. This process produces high levels of carbon dioxide, around 9 to 10 tonnes of CO2 for every tonne of hydrogen. But it is also highly cost-effective, so long as natural gas prices remain stable. In July 2022, the cost of grey hydrogen was around $2 per kilo.

In contrast, green hydrogen production methods are more expensive. Green hydrogen is made using renewable energy sources to power an electrolysis process that separates hydrogen from water, producing just steam as a waste product. It is carbon neutral, making it highly attractive for companies looking to decarbonise. However, by July 2022, it cost around $4 to $5 a kilo, or even more, to produce green hydrogen. And some industry experts believe that the high cost of green hydrogen production isn’t going to fall any time soon.

Green hydrogen is viewed by many international agencies, such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), as a solution to decarbonise ‘hard-to-abate’ sectors. As more governments and private companies around the globe pump funding into green hydrogen operations, there are high hopes that the production cost of green hydrogen to fall substantially, to as low as $0.5 per kilo. However, others believe it will be difficult to drive the cost to lower than $3 per kilo.

IRENA published two studies to drive green hydrogen production worldwide: Green Hydrogen: A Guide to Policy Making in November 2020, and Green Hydrogen Cost Reduction: Scaling up Electrolysers to Meet the 1.5°C climate goal in December 2020. These studies were aimed at encouraging governments and private companies to scale up production, aimed at driving down costs. However, the price of green hydrogen production so far remains elevated, at around 2 to 3 times the cost of grey hydrogen production, when gas prices are stable.

Nevertheless, progress has been seen thanks to greater funding into research and development, with the price of electrolysers falling by around 60 percent since 2010. According to IRENA, they could decrease by a further 40 percent in the short term and by as much as 80 percent in the long term. This cost reduction prediction relies on greater innovation in electrolysis technology to improve its performance, as well as scaling up manufacturing capacity, standardisation, and growing economies of scale.

Another challenge to consider is the cost of transportation. Murray Douglas, the head of hydrogen research at Wood Mackenzie, stated that “Hydrogen is pretty expensive to move… “It’s more difficult to move than natural gas ... technically, engineering wise … it’s just harder.” And Douglas is not the only one concerned about this. The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has reported challenges with green hydrogen including “reducing cost, increasing energy efficiency, maintaining hydrogen purity, and minimizing hydrogen leakage.” The DoE believes greater research is required to “analyse the trade-offs between the hydrogen production options and the hydrogen delivery options when considered together as a system.”

Companies worldwide are now considering the best locations for their green hydrogen production facilities. While there is great potential for the development of plants in Australia, North Africa, and the Middle East, these could be very far from their principal markets. Douglas highlighted the need for a dedicated pipeline, constructed between the producer and end-user if moving green hydrogen by pipe. Alternatively, green hydrogen could be transported as ammonia with nitrogen, which could be shipped and sold to consumers such as fertiliser producers. Otherwise, users would have to crack the ammonia back into nitrogen, which would increase costs and result in energy losses.

For green hydrogen to be as successful as everyone hopes, it will require significant investment to overcome these challenges. Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, the CEO of the industry association Hydrogen Europe, suggests the need for a certification system, to guarantee that any green hydrogen production was powered by renewable sources. Further, a well-researched delivery strategy needs to be developed to ensure that production facilities are adequately linked with green hydrogen markets. This has been seen in projects such as Cepsa’s green hydrogen corridor between southern and northern Europe.

While transportation costs are high, companies already understand how to move green hydrogen as they have been doing it the same way with natural gas for decades. But some are deterred by high costs. Therefore, the industry must drive down production costs to alleviate some of the pressure on transportation. Although the green hydrogen industry continues to face several major challenges, preventing a wide-scale deployment of the clean fuel, greater investment in the sector over the coming decades will likely fix many of these problems and allow for the deployment of global, large-scale green hydrogen production.