The great unfunded green hydrogen dream of Europe’s oil refiners

The great unfunded green hydrogen dream of Europe’s oil refiners

Europe's oil refiners have big plans to boost the use of green hydrogen to help them make fuel, an important component of the petroleum industry's plans to cut its operational carbon emissions.

But with the clock ticking in the battle against climate change, the reality of what the industry has committed to remains modest. Green hydrogen comes from water and renewable electricity, while the vast majority of hydrogen made today comes from fossil fuels.

While using green hydrogen will help to clean up a refinery's operations, it won't have a big impact on the world's overall carbon emissions because most of those occur when fuels are consumed rather than when they're made. The gas is an essential part of oil refining, being used to take impurities out of fuels.