That’s according to Jørg Aarnes, Global Lead of Low Carbon Solutions at DNV GL Oil & Gas who joined H2 View’s Managing Editor, Rob Cockerill, in the latest webinar which aired today.
When it comes to energy, DNV GL is an established and respected source of independent insight based on facts and data. The risk management and quality assurance company has almost 5000 energy experts around the world, helping to navigate and accelerate the energy transition.
DNV GL has already published a number of reports discussing the challenges and immense opportunities ahead in hydrogen. Its most recent report, titled Heading for Hydrogen, points to a more certain future for hydrogen, suggesting the time to scale-up is now.
“Our recent report builds on a survey of more than 1,000 professionals from the oil and gas industry, revealing that hydrogen has really surged up the priority list for oil and gas companies today,” Aarnes explains.
“20%, or 1/5, of gas and oil companies are currently investing into hydrogen.”
“The report really shows that the challenge with hydrogen is not with the ambition level but it’s about changing the timeline from hydrogen being a prospect in the long-term future to something we can do today.”
“We believe that hydrogen has got to a point where it can scale, but it needs a push from multiple angles for that to happen.”
Whilst in conversation, Cockerill and Aarnes discussed the scale up of hydrogen and how the different types of hydrogen that need to be scaled up in order to push forward the market.
“When we talk about scale for a hydrogen economy, we are talking about real scale. Hydrogen production today is a huge industry,” Aarnes enthused.
Talking to the viewers Aarnes explained that a huge percentage of hydrogen which is produced today comes from goal or gas which obviously comes with a significant carbon footprint. He revealed that just a fraction of hydrogen is being produced from renewables, something that needs to be changed.
“I think that both the oil and gas industry and lots of other companies in the industry agree that a long-term ambition should be to have a fully renewable value chain for the production of hydrogen.”
CCS Technologies
Keeping to the topic of decarbonisation, Aarnes also discussed an increased demand for carbon capture technologies to produce blue hydrogen.
“It will certainly put demand on carbon capture, but we should keep in mind that the carbon capture and storage (CCS) industry is not new.”
“We have actually been doing CCS for about half a century and today there are about 23 major projects globally looking at large-scale CCS, and a couple of those are actually doing it for hydrogen production.”
Aarnes explained that although the process is something that the industry is familiar with, the cost is something that needs to be brought down.
Keeping on the subject of already existing infrastructure and projects, Cockerill and Aarnes also discussed the possibility of transforming current oil and gas infrastructure into hydrogen infrastructure.
“I would say that it is possible, but it is really something you need to consider from an end-to-end point of view.”
“We are working with the major gas infrastructure companies around the world to develop guidance and what is needed to result in the restructuring of the infrastructure.”
Leaving the viewers and listeners with one final message, Aarnes emphasised the immense potential for hydrogen and that multiple solutions may be needed to develop the renewable value chain.
The full webinar can be watched on demand here.