We recently explored the veritable rainbow of hydrogens, with different colors referring to the production method or original energy source used. One of the most heavily promoted options is ‘blue’ hydrogen. Governments and energy companies—fossil fuel companies, to be specific—are spending heaps of cash to frame blue hydrogen as our ticket to limitless and sustainable energy. But, is there a catch? Well the downfall is actually the lack of catch.
Blue hydrogen is named such due to the capture and storage of the CO2 which is a by-product of the steam methane reformation process used in grey hydrogen production, where the origin energy source is methane, sometimes called natural gas or fossil gas. Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, has faced many questions about its efficacy and ability to be scaled over the decades.
A recent report from Global Witness underlines those questions in permanent marker. Shell’s Scotford petrochemicals and tar sands oil complex in Alberta, Canada, has a CCS facility attached, called Quest. It’s this add-on, which opened in 2015, which is at the center of the rather scathing report. Shell have been strongly advocating for Blue hydrogen, saying that Quest proves CCS is a, “safe and effective measure to reduce CO2 emissions”. They also cleverly use the term ‘clean hydrogen’ when referring to either blue or green hydrogen production, despite blue hydrogen not being especially clean at all. So thankfully, Global Witness investigated.
