Hydrogen may take off for industrial use

Attention is moving away from transportation and energy storage towards decarbonising hard-to-abate heavy industry processes

Decarbonisation of the US electricity sector is roaring ahead. Combined wind and solar will crest over 10pc of system generation this year, and electric vehicle (EV) adoption has helped put road fuel consumption on a plateau since 2017. But decarbonising the industrial sector remains a stubbornly hard problem, and that may create an opening for hydrogen. Given enough policy support and a willingness by industry to invest in lower emissions, hydrogen has the potential to play a junior role in the US climate push. “Hydrogen creates a pathway for industries where there was previously no pathway. It creates an alternative, whereas before you only had carbon capture as an option,” says Thomas Koc