The Official Page of the Australian Hydrogen Council

Hydrogen is an industrial raw material, and it can be combined with other things to create hydrogen-based fuels and feedstocks. There is already a market in hydrogen for various applications.

When we are talking about the potential for a hydrogen economy, we are talking about hydrogen in its pure form, where it is an energy carrier. Hydrogen stores energy which can be used at later times and can be transported to different places. In this way, hydrogen acts like a battery. However, unlike conventional batteries, hydrogen allows energy to be stored for long periods.

Hydrogen is versatile. It can be produced from a range of sources and physically converted between its gaseous and liquid states. It can displace natural gas for heating and cooking, and it can replace diesel and petrol (and other fuels) for cars, trucks, ships and planes. It can store excess electricity and feed this back into the grid when it is required. It can also be chemically converted into other forms, such as ammonia and methane. Hydrogen can be repeatedly converted across and between its physical forms and chemical forms.

When we combine these features with the possibility of hydrogen being created at scale with renewable or clean energy, we can see the great potential for hydrogen in the new energy ecosystem.

The International Energy Agency has identified around 70 million tonnes per year (MtH2/yr) of demand worldwide for “pure” hydrogen, where this is demand for hydrogen with only small levels of additives or contaminants. Hydrogen of this type is commonly used for refining oil and producing ammonia for fertilizer.

There is a further 45 MtH2/yr of hydrogen used in a mixture of gases, such as synthesis gas, for fuel or feedstock. This hydrogen is mainly used for producing methanol and steel.

Most hydrogen used today is produced from fossil fuels.

Yes. Hydrogen is only as clean as its inputs.

But hydrogen does not have to come from fossil fuels; the technology to produce clean hydrogen through the application of electricity to water (called electrolysis) is well established. If the electricity used for the electrolysis is from renewable sources, such as solar and wind, the resulting hydrogen has zero carbon and is clean. Hydrogen can also be produced from fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage, which means that there are low to zero carbon emissions.

We expect that hydrogen producers in Australia will have to demonstrate how their hydrogen was made. This will mean showing whether the hydrogen was produced from electrolysis, fossil fuels, or other sources, and showing whether electricity and other inputs to the production were renewable. If hydrogen has been produced from fossil fuels, potential buyers will need to see if carbon emitted during the production process was captured and stored.

It will be important to get this right, particularly as so much of the value of the hydrogen economy is associated with clean energy. The countries which have expressed a desire to be major importers of hydrogen have done so to obtain clean hydrogen and Australia must ensure that it can meet its potential customers’ needs.

Traditionally hydrogen has been more expensive than conventional fuels to produce, store and transport. There are efficiency losses from converting electricity and natural gas to hydrogen, which make the case for hydrogen more challenging. It is also energy intensive to store and deliver.