What a Global Hydrogen Economy Could Look Like

When it comes to hydrogen production, the continents could remain quite independent of each other - according to the scenarios that researchers from Ruhr University Bochum and the University of Duisburg-Essen investigated in the StEAM project (Sector Transformation in the Energy System, Analysis and Modeling of Possible Hydrogen Strategies). Over the course of three years, the team has developed a global energy system model that combines the electricity and hydrogen sectors.

Transportation by pipeline
One exception among the continents in the scenarios examined is Europe, which imports large quantities of hydrogen from North Africa, primarily Morocco. Within the continents, hydrogen is mainly transported via pipelines, while ship transport only takes place in small quantities and in poorly connected regions. In the study, the long-term marginal costs for Europe in 2040 average around EUR 110/MWh (EUR 3.30/kg hydrogen), with a high degree of homogeneity due to the well-developed transport infrastructure. The conversion losses and transportation costs partly offset the cost differences between the various continents.

The long-term marginal costs in South America are very low, at around 80 euros/MWh (2.40 euros/kg hydrogen), but the transportation of hydrogen is very unattractive due to the long distances involved. There is potential here to produce higher-value, more easily transportable derivatives (downstream products) locally and only then export them to the rest of the world.

The project also carried out individual case studies on European regulation for green hydrogen (RFNBO), capital costs worldwide and ramp-up limitations in the expansion of renewable energies and their impact on the expansion of electrolyzer capacities. The model developed will be made available as open source to give other researchers and interested parties the opportunity to check the results and carry out their own investigations.

“With the model, we now have a tool in hand to provide insights for politics and business on relevant issues relating to the development of the global hydrogen economy and to support decision-making in the future,” says Prof. Dr. Valentin Bertsch from Ruhr University Bochum, who carried out the project together with Prof. Dr. Christoph Weber from the University of Duisburg-Essen.

“As part of this project, we were able to take into account many aspects relevant to the energy industry, such as the different capital costs in different countries and cost-relevant interactions between the hydrogen and electricity sectors. We want to build on this work and look forward to continuing to exchange ideas with practice partners in order to further develop our methods,” says Christoph Weber.