Low-Carbon Hydrogen: A Path to a Greener Future

Underpinned by a global shift towards decarbonization, hydrogen is gaining significance as an energy vector, especially for high-emission sectors that do not use electricity directly. Most organizations in our research believe that low-carbon hydrogen will be a long-term contributor to achieving emissions and sustainability goals.

With government support, declining renewable-energy costs, rapid technological advances, and a growing focus on decarbonization and sustainable energy solutions, the demand for low-carbon hydrogen is expected to increase multifold. Sectors with traditional hydrogen applications, particularly in petroleum refining, chemicals and fertilizers, and steel, have high potential for adoption of low-carbon hydrogen. Demand for hydrogen in …

Analysis of Hourly & Annual GHG Emissions: Accounting for Hydrogen Production

Low-carbon hydrogen production has become an important component of many plans for reducing economy-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including in the electricity sector. Hydrogen can be a valuable resource to decarbonize hard-to-electrify sectors of the economy, such as high-heat industrial processes and medium- and heavy-duty transportation. Power generation from hydrogen can also provide firm zero-carbon capacity to the electric grid. The attention paid to hydrogen has only increased in the United States since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022, which included a 10-year Production Tax Credit (PTC) for clean hydrogen (45V) produced with less than 4 …

Smart Design Of 45V Hydrogen Production Tax Credit Will Reduce Emissions And Grow The Industry

The United States cannot achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions without carbon-free hydrogen. Today, this molecule serves the chemicals and refining industries, and fossil fuel-derived hydrogen production contributes about 1.5 percent of total U.S. climate pollution. Shifting to cleaner hydrogen production can replace these dirty sources while cutting GHG emissions in industries that are hard or impossible to electrify. Congress included a production tax credit (PTC) for clean hydrogen in Section 45V of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to help scale the nascent industry. The tax credit’s value is tied to the lifecycle GHG emissions of hydrogen production—including upstream emissions—with …

Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Clean Hydrogen

These Pathways to Commercial Liftoff reports aim to establish a common fact base and ongoing dialogue with the private sector around the path to commercial liftoff for critical clean energy technologies. Their goal is to catalyze more rapid and coordinated action across the full technology value chain.

The U.S. clean hydrogen market is poised for rapid growth, accelerated by Hydrogen Hub funding, multiple tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) including the hydrogen production tax credit (PTC), DOE’s Hydrogen Shot, and decarbonization goals across the public and private sectors. Hydrogen can play a role in decarbonizing up to 25% …

Clean Hydrogen: Policies to Help America Lead

Clean hydrogen will play an outsized role in decarbonizing hard-to-electrify sectors of the economy. The more we do now to ensure that the US can grow a durable competitive advantage in the global market for clean hydrogen, the more of that market will be captured by US companies and the more jobs in the clean hydrogen value chain will be filled by American workers. Commercial diplomacy and trade policy actions are critical for US market access to European purchasers. Designing domestic regulations and incentives t0 reflect the opportunities and limitations of export markets would yield a stronger US hydrogen sales …

Climate-Tech to Watch: Hydrogen Powered Aviation

Policymakers and the aviation industry see hydrogen as a promising low-carbon fuel for aviation. But to make hydrogen-powered flight a reality, they first need to bring down the cost of green hydrogen and overcome aircraft design challenges.

Commercial aviation accounted for roughly 2.5 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2018, and that share is expected to grow. And according to the Energy Information Administration, the aviation sector is not on track to reach the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Leaders in the aviation industry see hydrogen as a potential solution to addressing the climate impacts of short- …

The U.S. Hydrogen Demand Action Plan

The U.S. Hydrogen Demand Action Plan presents a pathway to rapidly accelerate hydrogen use across regions and sectors through new policies and industrial strategies, with a focus on leveraging regional hydrogen hubs as growth engines. Recently passed federal laws—the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—provide unprecedented clean hydrogen support and are expected to significantly reduce clean hydrogen production costs. This Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) study shows that additional measures are necessary to get from those cost reductions to a national, commoditized clean hydrogen market, and now is the time to take action.…

A Guide to 1.5°C-Aligned Hydrogen Investments

In a net-zero carbon emissions world in 2050, hydrogen will meet a significant portion of global energy demand, ranging from 5% to 22%, according to different organizations. Therefore, the world will require several times the quantities produced today and companies will need to produce it in a much less carbon-intense manner. Modeling shows that meeting this demand will happen through two main hydrogen production pathways: water electrolysis powered by renewable energies (otherwise known as green hydrogen) and natural gas reforming with carbon capture and storage (CCS) (otherwise known as blue hydrogen). Both will result in low levels of emissions. However, …

Connecticut Hydrogen Task Force Study

Clean hydrogen can play a major role in eliminating harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the global economy as a carbon-free form of fuel and energy storage. Its versatility to provide heat, fuel, and power system services can be leveraged in multiple vital economic sectors that are challenging to decarbonize, such as aviation, maritime applications, heavy-duty trucking, and high-temperature industrial processes, among others. With numerous ways to produce hydrogen, the specific approach chosen significantly impacts the carbon intensity – the fuel’s life cycle greenhouse gas emissions per unit of fuel or energy delivered – of the hydrogen produced as well …

The Potential Role of Biohydrogen in Creating a Net-Zero World

This report, part of the Carbon Management Initiative at the Center on Global Energy Policy, explores the current state of play for biohydrogen (Bio-H2) and its potential contribution to decarbonization efforts. The report begins with an analysis of the varying definitions and categorization of Bio-H2 in the literature, which may relate to its classification as both a hydrogen and a bioenergy with a diverse selection of sources and manufacturing pathways. Next, it assesses the crucial question of Bio-H2’s carbon intensity, which has additional specifications to those of blue hydrogen (defined as hydrogen manufactured from natural gas with carbon capture and …