Rotterdam (Netherlands) (AFP) – After working for 20 years in the oil and gas sector, Tatiana Block has decided to change her career path to become a green hydrogen consultant in the Netherlands, as she seeks to “energy society” but also wants to fight global warming. However, natural gas extraction and industrial production of green hydrogen are completely different processes, but their transportation and distribution have a lot in common. “In both cases, there are gases and pipelines, and I can use my expertise here,” Blok told AFP at the World Hydrogen Summit in Rotterdam. this week. She returned to the university to obtain a master’s degree in sustainable energy in 2020. Major European companies are rushing to produce green hydrogen, along with giant industrial gas companies such as the German company Linde, the French company Air Liquide and the American Air Products In addition to companies specializing in renewable energies and a group of start-up companies.
Feasibility
Shell and BP were the main sponsors of the summit, which was held in Rotterdam, along with the Saudi group Aramco. French companies Engie and Total Energy are sponsoring the Paris Hyvolution summit, also dedicated to hydrogen, this week. “Their presence in these exhibitions indicates that they are participating in the transformation even though hydrogen is not rewarding for them yet,” says one equipment manufacturer in the sector, who asked not to be identified. This was expressed by the organizers of the “Shell” pavilion at the Rotterdam exhibition, as the company is trying, for the third time in 25 years, to develop its activities in the field of hydrogen. Shell’s commercial director in the Netherlands, Lisa Montanari, explains that hydrogen is the “Swiss knife of the transition” to clean energies, given its versatility. The Dutch group is also active in building machines used to produce hydrogen and electrolyzers that separate hydrogen from oxygen in a water molecule. It requires a lot of electricity to run, and when the electricity comes from renewable sources, hydrogen is said to be “green”. Shell is also improving itself in decarbonizing heavy industries, transporting hydrogen-powered trucks, boats and planes, and even importing and exporting hydrogen. “We expect that there will be a shortage of hydrogen in northwest Europe,” adds Lisa Montanari, which means that it is necessary to find ports to import hydrogen through.
Zero emissions
Oil companies are ‘too much to do’ – and oil companies’ climate commitments – often to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 – remain unreliable and based on technologies that have not been widely demonstrated, says a recent report from Carbon Tracker Research Institute E4tech Director Tom Hughton says oil companies are “the one who has to work and who needs to move” to clean energies. Most of the analysts who were present at the Rotterdam exhibition point out that the gas crisis in Europe and the Russian attack on Ukraine are “main motives” for giving up some credits in the field of gas. Hutton points out that oil companies are huge consumers of oil in their refining operations, which could prompt Shell to invest in building a 200-megawatt electrolyzer in the port of Rotterdam that could provide hydrogen for 2,300 buses a day if there were hydrogen-powered buses one day. In this case, the electrolyzer will run on electricity generated by an offshore wind farm in the North Sea that opened in 2020. However, the oil and gas sector is ranked fourth among sectors interested in using green hydrogen, according to Tarek Helmy, a consultant with Deloitte. And before that comes the ammonia manufacturers, which are much criticized for their carbon dioxide emissions that affect the carbon balance in agriculture, using ammonia to make nitrogen fertilizers, and the methanol sector and the steel industry that seeks to “decarbonize” the production of steel that emits a lot of dioxide. Carbon, using hydrogen instead of coal to deoxidize iron ore.
#European #oil #gas #giants #moving #hydrogen