Maybe you’ve started driving an electric vehicle, utilizing products powered by solar energy, or perhaps you were a passenger on a plane powered partially by sustainable aviation fuel.
These types of technologies enabling you to live and travel in a less carbon-intensive way are critical, and on a larger scale, they are examples of the innovations necessary to help communities and businesses achieve decarbonization amid a rapidly warming world.
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Last year was the hottest on record and estimated global wildfire carbon emissions increased by 30% in 2023 compared to 2022, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. With record-setting temperatures and more frequent severe weather events impacting communities, more progress needs to be made by businesses and governments to accelerate the adoption of sustainable technologies that can help decarbonize carbon-intensive operations.
The good news is that there are sustainable solutions in the market that can be adopted and implemented today. Hydrogen as a fuel source is one of the technologies at the forefront of innovation in the renewable energy sector, and with technologies enabling the capturing and storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) and the production of hydrogen from renewable fuels, respectively, we’re building the foundation of a flourishing hydrogen economy.
Government entities recognize hydrogen use as a necessary enabler of the energy transition. Recently, at COP28, more than 30 countries including the United States formally recognized the importance of clean hydrogen in decarbonization and meeting global energy needs.
Here's what to know about the future hydrogen economy, what’s needed to get there, and why it matters.
Current State of Hydrogen
Today, hydrogen is used as a feedstock in chemical processes and is manufactured at refineries and petrochemical complexes. To a lesser extent, it’s used as fuel.
There are different ways to produce hydrogen, and those processes are often categorized by colors. Grey hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels, like natural gas or coal, and producing it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Blue hydrogen is also produced using fossil fuels, but the CO2 it releases is captured and stored or sequestered, thanks to carbon capture, storage, and utilization technologies, including solutions that Honeywell teams have developed. Green hydrogen is made using renewable energy sources and its production process does not emit CO2 into the atmosphere.
Both blue and green hydrogen play a critical role in the energy transition, with blue hydrogen building demand for lower carbon hydrogen and facilitating the infrastructure and systems needed to enable the future hydrogen ecosystem.
Particularly for organizations with industrial operations in hard-to-abate industries – think facilities with refineries and petrochemical complexes – decreasing reliance on fossil fuels is key to meeting net-zero goals, and hydrogen holds promise as a solution in these environments.
Envisioning a Hydrogen Economy
You may have heard of the circular economy. It’s a framework that aims to make the most of resources by reducing consumption, recycling, and reusing materials – then continuing that process.
In a similar vein, the hydrogen economy is an innovation driver and pathway supporting the larger goal of decarbonizing industries. In the future hydrogen economy, green hydrogen is an accessible alternative to fossil fuels, with infrastructure in place to support its production, distribution and utilization.
To get there, companies including Honeywell are working on various pathways to produce blue and green hydrogen as well as the infrastructure necessary to support the processes. This also includes transportation – how hydrogen will move from one plant to another facility – storage, infrastructure, and industrial equipment that can utilize hydrogen in place of natural gas. Engineers at Honeywell have developed solutions to these challenges, such as technology that can ship and store liquid hydrogen using existing infrastructure – a key consideration as hydrogen grows as a major part of the energy mix.
So, what could the future hydrogen economy look like for you? Green hydrogen can be utilized in a variety of applications and industries that power aspects of your daily life, such as providing energy storage for power grids; heating buildings; and powering vehicles, trucks and forms of air transport. For example, at Honeywell, we’re building the next generation of hydrogen fuel cells and fuel-storage technologies as a cleaner power source for drones.
The Hydrogen Future Isn’t Far Off
To me, the exciting part about the renewable energy sector is that many of the solutions are tangible. Technologies enabling carbon capture and lower carbon hydrogen production are available today. I'm proud that Honeywell’s carbon capture technology captures as much CO2 as 248 million trees annually.1 These aren’t far-off innovations, but rather projects that organizations can take on now to start reducing their carbon footprints at reasonable costs and simplifying their processes. I encourage business leaders to look at sustainable technology adoption not just as a decision, but as a strategic investment in what is soon to become a necessity.
1 Honeywell CO2 technology helps its customers annually capture an amount that's comparable to the carbon sequestered by 248,026,290 tree seedlings grown for 10 years according to the EPA GHG equivalency estimator.
