Hydrogen backers confident of avoiding another false dawn

Hydrogen backers confident of avoiding another false dawn

Hydrogen has been billed as a fuel of the future, with oil and gas companies and governments hailing it as the solution to decarbonising parts of the economy that are not easily electrified.

Yet the fuel has experienced previous false dawns, and energy majors backing hydrogen are having to step up their efforts to explain what role they see it playing, and the sectors it could transform.

Equinor, the Norwegian state-backed energy company, which rebranded from Statoil in 2018, is now mapping out a vision for investors that it believes demonstrates the fuel's wide range of potential uses. They extend from decarbonising the steel industry to powering the ships that underpin world trade, the group says.

Irene Rummelhoff, head of marketing, midstream and processing, says Equinor's backing of hydrogen is simple logic: as governments commit to net zero targets to curb carbon emissions, clean forms of hydrogen will become economically viable.

"It boils down to policy and political will," Rummelhoff says. "We expect to see the hydrogen business and carbon capture and storage to kick off after 2030."

Green hydrogen, which is made with renewable power, or blue hydrogen, which is produced using natural gas but with the resulting carbon emissions being captured and stored,