Hydrogen is the lightest and most basic element in the universe. It’s made up of a single proton and a single electron. Hydrogen is also the most abundant element in the universe: it accounts for 75% of its mass and more than 90% of the number of atoms. However, hydrogen (H2) molecules never come on their own and are always combined with another element, as with water (H2O) or methane (CH4). 95% of hydrogen - which is now mainly used in chemistry, refining and manufacturing - is produced from fossil fuels. Hydrogen can also be produced by electrolysing water. If the electricity used comes from a renewable source, you can then say that the hydrogen is “green”.

Clean and sustainable hydrogen can be used for a wide range of applications and can replace fossil fuels. It could be an exciting prospect for manufacturers looking to decarbonise their processes. It could also be used to fuel charging points for hydrogen-powered vehicles (such as cars, lorries, buses, fork lifts and boats), which don’t give off fine particles or CO2 and only emit water.
What’s more, the electricity produced by hydrogen-powered dual fuel cells meets multiple needs, such as providing electricity supplies for isolated areas and even providing emergency electricity for critical sites. Hydrogen can also be used as a way of storing renewable energy which has been produced locally. To put it simply, this solution can help sites looking to enjoy “energy autonomy” or so-called “off-grid” sites - i.e. sites not connected to the national electricity network - to operate autonomously.

Hydrogen-powered transport is growing rapidly. Hydrogen-powered vehicles and charging points are popping up everywhere in cities and towns. There should be 100 charging points in the French network by 2020 and 500-600 by 2030. The growth of the hybrid hydrogen/electric vehicle sector is still in its very early days. However, this sector, which is particularly important for some types of vehicles (such as buses, taxis and delivery vehicles), in response to growing requirements on air pollution, is something that you can get behind. When used as a fuel, hydrogen can help produce electricity with the help of on-board hydrogen batteries. 

As has already been mentioned, renewable energies are an effective solution to our current energy and environmental challenges. However, as they are intermittent, this can sometimes make distributing them difficult. “Power to Gas” technology can therefore help to store excess renewable energies by transforming them into hydrogen using water electrolysis. The hydrogen produced can then be stored, injected into the natural gas network, provide heat in cities and towns and be converted into electricity using fuel cells. As a result, hydrogen can help provide consumers with energy from renewable sources throughout the year and during peak periods in particular. As hydrogen can be produced, stored and used locally, this will encourage local communities and economic operators to develop hydrogen projects which aim to support the growth of wind power, solar power, biomass fuels and green transport.

The most recent example of decarbonisation has been the decarbonisation of some manufacturing processes which consume huge amounts of hydrogen, such as manufacturing ammonia or refining. As a matter of fact, the grey hydrogen used by these industries comes from cracking natural gas, which is a production process that emits huge amounts of CO2. For every kilogram of hydrogen that you produce, you emit 10 kilograms of CO2 using this method.