GECF Bullish on Blue Hydrogen

Blue hydrogen, produced from natural gas, will "play a significant role in the world's transition to a sustainable energy future," the general secretary of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), Yuri Sentyurin, said in a online session on December 9.

The GECF estimates that nearly half of hydrogen will be blue by 2050, with 10% of all gas supply used to create the fuel. For hydrogen to be considered blue, CO₂ emitted during the conversion from gas should be captured.  But green hydrogen, produced from water using renewable energy-powered electrolysis, will also dominate the market.

"Natural gas, as an abundant, affordable and clean hydrocarbon source, has a central role to play in mitigating carbon emissions while simultaneously supporting progress on several sustainable development dimensions including the environmental, economic and social dimensions," Sentyurin said.

Also attending the session was Steinar Eikaas, the vice president for low carbon solutions for Norway's Equinor. He noted that "green hydrogen consumes renewable electricity which is a problem as long as we don't have surplus renewable electricity. So, there is a need to build huge amounts of renewable electricity generation alongside green hydrogen."

"Looking at the alternative of blue hydrogen, it builds on natural gas and we already have this technology in place and the network to carry this volume is in place, for example through pipelines for natural gas," he continued.

Producing blue hydrogen is 50-100% more expensive than producing gas, Equinor estimates, but green hydrogen is two-to-five times more expensive than blue. At the top end is green ammonia, an alternative fuel that is twice as costly as green hydrogen, the company said.

"When it comes to the type of hydrogen, blue hydrogen has advantages simply because the infrastructure already exists and the oil and gas industry has the investment muscle," Eikaas said.