How Hydrogen Powers the Global Decarbonisation Revolution

The push toward global decarbonisation has thrust hydrogen into the spotlight as a promising clean energy carrier.
But what makes hydrogen so special? Its properties boast both flexibility and a high specific energy per unit mass — two attributes that make it uniquely capable of removing emissions from parts of the global economy that are known to be more on the harder-to-decarbonise side.
This means that hydrogen, when more widely adopted, has the potential to be a revolutionary fuel, as its versatility means it can be used in many applications — whether that be transportation, electricity generation or portable power. This also means it has the capacity to completely revolutionise multiple sectors, including large polluters like power generation and heavy industry.
With hydrogen poised to play a crucial role in the transition to a low-carbon economy, this special report explores the current state of the hydrogen economy, its challenges and the innovative solutions being developed to accelerate its adoption.
Overcoming hurdles essential to hydrogen adoption
“At AspenTech, we recognise hydrogen’s pivotal role in the global decarbonisation strategy, especially in sectors like chemicals and construction, where reducing emissions is challenging,” says says Dr Paige Morse, the software giant’s Enterprise Director of Sustainability. “To make hydrogen economically viable, we focus on lowering production and operational costs through advanced electrolysers, incorporating carbon capture and storage (CCS) for blue hydrogen, enhancing transportation and improving fuel cell technologies.
“Scaling up production is essential, achieved by automating engineering and employing standardised, modular designs to expedite project execution from planning through operation.”
AspenTech’s solutions address complex industrial environments, enhancing the operational performance of assets across asset-intensive sectors from energy to chemicals, oil and gas, engineering and many more. Its AI-powered digital solutions, AspenTech says, are critically important in helping customers address a dual challenge: meeting the increasing demand for resources from a growing population, while also working toward sustainability goals.
It achieves this, Paige says, by helping customers improve the efficiency and effectiveness of manufacturing and energy production processes. By optimising these processes, companies can use fewer resources, generate less waste and reduce environmental footprint.
She adds: “Our approach ensures safety, reliability and efficiency in operations, less impacted by renewable energy variability and maximising operational uptime. A comprehensive digital strategy integrates a digital blueprint from the start, utilising advanced technologies and applying digital solutions early to deliver tangible benefits and strengthen investment confidence.”
However, despite hydrogen being projected to contribute significantly to carbon abatement, particularly by 2050, some large initiatives are progressing slowly.
But what factors are impeding the pace of these initiatives? Paige says high costs, investment and regulatory roadblocks hinder progress and believes digital technology is part of the answer, expediting hydrogen’s development and implementation.
“Hydrogen is recognised as key to reducing global carbon emissions,” she explains. “However, the pace of initiatives is often hindered by the high initial costs and complexities of setting up large-scale production facilities.
“Furthermore, creating a comprehensive infrastructure for distribution and storage requires significant investment and coordination, while regulatory and safety concerns must be addressed to gain public and governmental trust. In addition, hydrogen will be critical in hard-to-abate industries, which have high capital investment hurdles that take time to overcome.
“Digital technology can expedite the development and implementation of hydrogen projects. At AspenTech, we leverage our expertise in modelling and simulation to accelerate the re-risking of new hydrogen technologies and improve their technical and commercial feasibility while our asset optimisation software enhances the efficiency of hydrogen production and usage.”
Further to this, AspenTech’s solutions integrate advanced process controls and optimisation techniques that can lower operational costs and improve yield. The company also leverages digital twin technologies, for example, which allow for the simulation and testing of hydrogen systems, helping fine-tune processes before physical implementation in real time.
“By utilising digital technologies, we can accelerate the scale-up of hydrogen projects and also ensure they are economically viable and safe, thereby supporting the global transition to a low-carbon economy,” Paige continues.
A result of AspenTech’s digital solutions includes an optimised hydrogen value chain, eradicating part of what is often known as the ‘green premium’ — the additional cost of choosing a clean technology over one that emits more greenhouse gases — by boosting efficiency and trimming costs.
Hydrogen: The cleanest and easiest option?
Dr Javier Cavada is President and CEO Europe, Middle East and Africa at Mitsubishi Power.
As accelerating decarbonisation and providing solutions to combat climate change is one of his main focus areas, he utilises Mitsubishi Power’s 50 years of hydrogen technology experience to push the boundaries of what’s possible — in engineering terms — to progress the global energy transition by developing zero-carbon solutions.
Mitsubishi Power’s hydrogen-ready gas turbines, for example, have been validated and commercialised in a grid-connected application to run on 30% hydrogen with efficiency of more than 64%. The turbine is also fully adaptable for future hydrogen fuel conversion.
He says: “We’ve also already demonstrated the technology for gas turbines to run on 100% hydrogen, which of course is our ultimate goal. These advancements are at the forefront of transforming the world’s energy systems, both as a fuel to decarbonise heavy industry that cannot be simply electrified and as a storage medium for renewable energy.”
Applying this to areas where decarbonisation is paramount, such as heavy industry and the power sector, hydrogen is certain to support renewable-powered economies of the future. Mitsubishi Power aligns its focus to develop solutions that will allow hydrogen to empower operators and high-emitting sectors — including the likes of steel manufacturing, aluminium and cement — to decarbonise.
“This can be a challenge due to financial restraints such as space to build new equipment,” Javier adds. “That’s why we have a suite of technologies along the CO2 reduction and hydrogen value chains that meet power operators where they are on their decarbonisation journey. Our hydrogen technologies work with existing gas turbines to increase efficiency and reduce carbon utilisation, providing an immediate benefit for operators without significant cost.
“Hydrogen can also realise the potential of renewables as a majority low-carbon energy source, buffering their intermittent energy supply to the grid.”
Javier adds that the key to provide confidence in hydrogen as a fuel type is stable regulation, not subject to political shifts, that ensures the viability of hydrogen projects. This allows the long-term offtakers to move projects to financial close.
“There’s a huge interest in and real demand for hydrogen,” he continues. “We have the required technologies ready and proven, but we need the right incentives to support building the scale and the value chain. Once the early projects start materialising, speed of adoption will take up as the market gains confidence.
“Hydrogen is the new form of renewable energy storage and investors require a clear signal towards decarbonisation in order to make the shift. This shift builds up scale and scale materialises the financial viability, just as we saw before with gas, and later with solar and wind.”
Boosting confidence in hydrogen
As the hydrogen economy continues to evolve, innovative technologies are emerging to make hydrogen production more efficient and cost-effective. One company at the forefront of this innovation is ETCH, co-founded by Dr Jonah Erlebacher.
Jonah, who serves as ETCH's Chief Technology Officer, brings nearly 25 years of experience in researching nanostructured materials for energy technologies.
ETCH, a decarbonisation company spun out of Johns Hopkins University’s Sustainable Energy Institute, has developed a patented, closed-loop chemical process that converts natural gas into clean hydrogen and solid carbon.
“ETCH is a connector,” asserts Jonah. “We economically and efficiently close the gap between the energy system of today and the low carbon needs of the future.
“In short, ETCH completes our energy system by providing a new layer — a decarbonisation layer — with our technology that ensures clean energy reaches its end use. On a chemical technology level, we have a highly-efficient patented proprietary method to pull carbon — as a solid, not a gas — from hydrocarbons, leaving behind only hydrogen. An electrically-powered system, this technology works synergistically with the growth of renewables to provide clean energy, broadly and at any scale using existing energy system infrastructure.”
The flexibility of The ETCH Process, Jonah claims, is one of its biggest strengths. It’s a modular system that easily integrates within existing infrastructure, so can be used to decarbonise all energy sectors — including some of the most carbon-intensive ones — and can be implemented anywhere with access to natural gas. Power plants, boilers, mining, metals processing and transportation are just a few of the areas where this solution can be employed.
“Hydrogen has the potential to fundamentally revolutionise the way we generate and use energy to deliver drastic reduction in carbon emissions across economic sectors,” Jonah says. “ETCH is at the forefront of capturing that potential most efficiently and cost-effectively through our decarbonisation technology.
“It’s important to remember that the large drop in domestic carbon dioxide emissions over the past decade or two was driven by the availability of inexpensive natural gas displacing coal. We see the synergistic growth of renewables and natural gas combining in The ETCH Process to continue this trend, eliminating the combustion of carbon from the energy ecosystem. With our technology implemented widely while leveraging existing infrastructure — not forgetting the need to plug upstream leaks of natural gas — we foresee significant reductions in emissions inside of a decade, not decades in the future.”
Paige shares Jonah’s sentiments and positive outlook to the future. She, along with Javier and Jonah, sees tremendous potential for hydrogen in both the energy and industrial sectors and, despite some challenges presented, can see it prevailing as a clean energy source.
“The future of hydrogen as a sustainable fuel appears promising, particularly in providing a strong foundation for global decarbonisation efforts,” Paige concludes. “Hydrogen's versatility spans applications from green steel production to transportation and clean electricity. As the most abundant element, hydrogen presents a significant opportunity for sustainable energy development, particularly when produced via green methods like electrolysis, which relies on renewable energy sources.
“Challenges remain, particularly in economic feasibility and infrastructure development. However, advances in digital technologies are enhancing the viability of hydrogen through improved project design, risk management and operational efficiency. Digital tools such as digital twins, advanced analytics and lifecycle optimisation are reducing costs, speeding up development and enabling scalable solutions.
“Global investments are surging, fuelled by policy incentives and a growing recognition of its potential in achieving net-zero emissions goals. As technologies mature and economies of scale are achieved, hydrogen is expected to become a cost-effective and widespread solution, driving forward the sustainability revolution.”
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