Greening the industry with hydrogen

With a surplus of clean energy today of about 6 Twh, rising to about 30 Twh in 2030, Norway has the capacity to produce vast quantities of green hydrogen.

Norway is also in a unique position to become a large producer of blue hydrogen. In 2017, we exported 117.4 billion m3 of natural gas, enough to produce about 25 million tonnes of hydrogen. Norway also has extensive experience with CCS, and considerable capacity for CO2 storage on the Norwegian continental shelf. Sleipner was the first in the world to store CO2 offshore.

Hydrogen is today seen as a solution to reducing GHG emissions. In Norway, several ongoing projects are using hydrogen in transport, especially within the maritime sector and for heavy duty transport. There is also a substantial focus on hydrogen as part of the energy system. However, our existing industry is both the largest producer and user of hydrogen. In Norway today, about 225,000 tonnes of H2/year is produced in industry processes. The bulk of this production, about 180,000 tonnes, is used for production of ammonia and methanol by respectively Yara at Herøya and Equinor at Tjeldbergodden. Both of these facilities produce all the hydrogen they need through on-site reforming of natural gas.

One industrial facility in Norway currently considers the use of hydrogen in their industry process to substitute coal. The potential demand for hydrogen as a reducing agent in this process is about 8,000 tonnes of H2/year. In addition, we experience demand from foreign industry companies to set up facilities in Norway to use hydrogen as reduction agent instead of using coal or natural gas. Hydrogen within industry gives an huge opportunity for business and CO2 reduction!

Green and blue hydrogen

About 70% of cost related to green hydrogen is the power price. The rest is cost related to the electrolyzer and other operational cost. Cost for electrolyzers is expected to be reduced to an estimated capex cost as low as 200 Euro/kwh in 2030. (for both alcaline and PEM).
However, as mentioned, the main cost related to green (electrolysis) hydrogen is cost of power. Estimates in Norway indicate that the future price of power in Norway will continue to be one of the lowest in Europe. Norway is the place to be for companies within production and utilization of hydrogen.