German corporate decision-makers support using blue hydrogen for some time – survey

On the path to making industry climate neutral, corporate decision-makers in Germany call for allowing the use of “blue” hydrogen made from natural gas where the CO2 is captured and stored – at least for a transition period, shows the survey National Hydrogen Monitor. In the online survey conducted by Civey Institute for the regional industry association Metropole Ruhr, energy company RWE and steelmaker Thyssenkrupp, 55 percent of the 2,500 decision-makers supported the use of blue hydrogen, while about 21 percent were against it. Germany's hydrogen council recently called on the government to quickly make a decision on whether hydrogen made on the basis of natural gas using carbon capture and storage (CCS) should be used to help with the market ramp-up of the technology deemed key to reach climate targets. Some members of the council called for using only “green” hydrogen made with renewable electricity.

In the fight against climate change, hydrogen is increasingly seen as a silver bullet for sectors with particularly stubborn emissions, such as heavy industry and aviation. Germany has set out to become a global leader in the associated hydrogen technologies, and the government has penned a National Hydrogen Strategy to fulfil these ambitions. The strategy says that only green hydrogen is truly sustainable in the end, but other CO2-neutral forms like blue and turquoise (made with nuclear power) would be traded on the market. “Due to Germany's close integration into the European energy supply infrastructure, CO2-neutral hydrogen will therefore also play a role in Germany and, if available, will also be used on a transitional basis,” the strategy says.