"Ministers information"Hydrogen is one of the pillars of the global energy transforming and increasing its use in many sectors

230.61 billion dollars the value of the global market for hydrogen in 2024, and expectations to rise to $ 1.66 trillion in 2050.

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The Information and Decision Support Center in the Council of Ministers issued a analysis through which it highlighted the role of hydrogen in the transformation of global energy, reviewing its types, methods of production, and the size of its global market, in addition to its role in the energy transformation and challenges and opportunities associated with its future use, explaining that the hydrogen plays a major role in the global transformation towards clean energy, through its use as a substitute for fuel Al -Ahfar, thanks to its ability to remove carbon in many industries such as transportation, energy storage and heavy industries; Which makes it a major economic and development opportunity, but despite its enormous capabilities, he still faces technical, economic and organizational challenges that require innovative responses.

The analysis revealed that the value of the global market for hydrogen amounted to about 230.61 billion dollars in 2024, and it is expected to rise to about 1.66 trillion dollars in 2050, and with regard to global production of it, it witnessed an increase during the period (2020 – 2023), to 97.3 million tons in 2023, compared to 90.2 million tons in 2020, by an increase of 7.9%, and from This size is expected to rise to 148.6 million tons in 2030.

As for the level of global demand for hydrogen, it reached 97 million tons in 2023, with an increase of 2.5% compared to 2022, and it focuses more in the refining and chemical industries sectors, and depends mainly on the hydrogen produced from fossil fuels.

The analysis showed that hydrogen is considered one of the simplest and most abundant elements on the globe, and it can be produced from various sources that include: fossil fuels, nuclear energy, biomass, and renewable energy sources, through a number of various technological processes. The resulting hydrogen is used either as direct fuel through combustion, or as an energy carrier in different applications, and it is divided into different types based on the method of production itself, and the level of emissions associated with it as follows:

-Gray hydrogen: which is one of the most used hydrogen types, and is mostly produced from natural gas or methane gas through a technique known as steam reforming.

-Black or brown hydrogen: Black coal (bitumen) or brown (ligent) is used in the process of making hydrogen, which are the most harmful to the environment; Where both carbon dioxide and the first carbon dioxide generated during the production process are not restored.

-Blue hydrogen: It is the resulting hydrogen (steam repair) technique when the resulting carbon is detained and stored under the ground using the techniques of capturing and storing artificial carbon (CCS). This type of neutral species is considered carbon; Due to the lack of release of emissions in the atmosphere during production. However, some believe that its description of the term (low carbon) is a more accurate expression; As there is between 10% and 20% of the resulting carbon during the production process, it cannot be held.

– Green hydrogen: It is one of the most prominent types of hydrogen that is produced in a neutral climatic way; This makes it an important element in reaching the global goal related to net zero emissions by 2050; It is produced using excess of renewable energy, such as solar energy or wind, to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen atoms through the electrolysis process.

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– Turquoise hydrogen: It is produced through a technique known as (methane’s thermal decomposition), which produces carbon in its solid form, and can be used in areas such as tire industry and soil improvement, and it is still produced in the process of experimentation and development.

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– Pink hydrogen: It resembles green hydrogen in terms of its production through electrolysis of water, but the difference is that the energy used in this process is the source of nuclear reactors instead of renewable energy sources, and the high temperatures resulting from nuclear reactors can be used in other processes to produce hydrogen, such as steam generation to improve the efficiency of electrolysis more.

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– Yellow hydrogen: It is produced through the electrical analysis of water using solar energy.

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– Hydrogen of biomass: It is produced using biomass, such as organic or agricultural waste. Based on the type of biomass and the availability of carbon detention techniques, emissions of this type can be significantly lower than that resulting from black, brown, or gray hydrogen.

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Hydrogen is not a direct source of energy, but rather a flexible carrier, and represents an unprecedented driving force towards accelerating the transformation in the energy sector, and the idea of ​​its adoption as an energy conveyor returns to the oil crisis in the seventies of the twentieth century, when it appeared as an alternative and promising solution to traditional fuel, then interest in it declined as a result of the challenges related to its production and transfer, and interest has returned to it again in the 1990s Through Japanese projects such as the World Energy Network & quot;"RTL"> Then he witnessed a new recovery since the beginning of the millennium, driven by global moves towards reducing emissions; Where the role of hydrogen was re -evaluated with a more focus on environmental sustainability, and considered a tool for carbon removal from energy systems.

Renewable hydrogen can contribute significantly to removing carbon from the sectors that are difficult to convert into electricity -based systems, such as heavy industries and transportation, as it plays a pivotal role in treating cutting renewable energy through widespread storage, and the possibility of long -distance transportation. His derivatives are the following:

Renewable Amalia: It is produced from green hydrogen and nitrogen extracted from the air, and can be used as a clean fuel, as a hydrogen carrier, or as an initial material in the manufacture of fertilizers.

Renewed methanol (electronic or green): is made of renewable hydrogen and carbon dioxide extracted from vital sources or captured directly from the air, and is used as a raw material for industrial chemicals, or as clean fuel in maritime transport, or as a basis for the production of aircraft fuel (such as converting methanol into aircraft fuel).

-Synfuels or E-Fuels: It is also produced from renewable hydrogen and carbon dioxide, and it can be used directly in internal combustion engines or turbines.

The Information and Decision Support Center indicated that despite the many roles performed by the clean hydrogen in the process of transforming the energy, the enhancement and expansion of its applications faces a number of challenges, while the prospects for increasing dependence on it in the future provides promising opportunities.

The analysis reviewed the most prominent challenges as follows:

-The value chains of the hydrogen, and the presence of uncertainty about the possibility of new uses may change the prediction of the volume of future demand for hydrogen.

-The high cost of green hydrogen production compared to the cost of gray hydrogen production that is produced with fossil fuel; Where the production of green hydrogen costs (4 – 5) US dollars per kilogram of hydrogen, which may equal twice to three times the cost of producing gray or blue hydrogen production produced from natural gas and supported by carbon detention technology."RTL">-Challenges facing investors, related to the absence of sufficient guarantees to ensure the presence of actual buyers and ready to pay rewarding prices against green products, in addition to the difficulty of distinguishing between clean green hydrogen and gray hydrogen, as a result of the markets lacking standard systems and reliable mechanisms to issue certificates for quality guarantee and environmental sustainability; Which hinders marketing operations, and affects confidence among consumers and investors alike.

-Dependence on the hydrogen produced from fossil fuels is a flagrant contradiction with the global goal to achieve net zero emissions by 2050; Where this type still dominates global production; Which leads to great carbon emissions. In 2023, the total global production of hydrogen reached about 97.3 million tons, of which 81.4 million tons (83.7%) produced fossil fuels without using carbon detention techniques, while the resulting hydrogen came as a secondary product in the second place with a production volume of 15.3 million tons (15.7%); This shows the urgent need to accelerate the shift towards green hydrogen dependent on renewable energies to ensure the compatibility of the hydrogen industry with the goals of carbon neutrality.

The analysis also reviewed the most prominent future opportunities, which are as follows:

-The growing global trend towards promoting low-emissions hydrogen production: Governments have taken wide steps to enhance the use of low-emissions hydrogen through clear strategies. Until September 2024 there were 58 countries & nbsp; In addition to the European Union and the Economic Group of West African countries, it has hydrogen strategies, and most current government policies use motivational tools in the form of grants, loans and tax exemptions, and according to the American Consulting Company (MCKINSEY & ampny) on October 2, 2024, more than 1,400 large -scale hydrogen projects have been announced in the world, at a value 570 billion dollars of direct investments, starting from December 2023.

-The importance of the use of the hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources in many sectors to achieve global goals with net emissions: The American Consulting Company (MCKINSEY & Amp; Company) expects that the produced hydrogen from renewable energy sources represent between 75% and 90% of the total global hydrogen demand by 2050, as it is expected that the industry will be expected Hydrogen -based steel is approximately 20% of emissions that can be avoided using hydrogen by 2030, and that the aviation sector account for 15% of hydrogen -based energy demand by 2050.

-The International Energy Agency’s expectations on changing the global production structure of hydrogen: by increasing the quantities produced of hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources; It is expected that the global production rate of hydrogen produced from fossil fuel without carbon detention technology will decrease to 46.6% of the total hydrogen production in its various sources in 2030, compared to 83.7% of the total production in 2023, while the hydrogen ratio produced from electricity and biofuels is expected to increase to 33.2% in 2030 compared to 0.1% per year 2023.

The Information and Decision Support Center indicated that hydrogen despite the current challenges remains one of the pillars of the global energy transformation, especially with the increasing importance of its use in many sectors, but its continued success requires international cooperation to set common standards to ensure quality and environmental sustainability and financing of major international projects, in addition to intensifying investment in research and development to improve storage and transportation efficiency.

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