A quiet push is underway to label hydrogen made with coal or gas as ‘clean’ or ‘renewable’.
Hydrogen can be made with renewables, with oxygen the only by-product. Or it can be made with coal or gas, along with promises to store the resulting carbon dioxide.
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There are numerous efforts here and overseas to standardise the labelling, before the hydrogen industry explodes.
Many people use colours:
- Green: hydrogen made with renewables
- Blue: hydrogen made with gas, with some of the CO2 captured and stored
- Grey: hydrogen made with coal or gas and no CO2 capture
But the Australian Government has other labels under its National Hydrogen Strategy: ‘clean hydrogen’ and ‘low emissions’ hydrogen.
These vague terms are essentially rebrands of ‘blue hydrogen’ and should not be used.
For a start, carbon capture and storage isn’t working well enough to clean up the CO2 from coal and gas. Secondly, ‘low’ or ‘lower’ emissions sets up a false comparison with coal, which is not the only alternative.
The government is currently taking submissions on a ‘hydrogen guarantee of origin’ discussion paper but it doesn’t include discussion of how hydrogen can be named or marketed.
WA LEADS THE WAY
Western Australia has another term: ‘renewable hydrogen’. Its Renewable Hydrogen Strategy lays out a vision of the state as a major ‘renewable hydrogen’ exporter but it does not offer a definition of ‘renewable hydrogen’.
However, with three representatives from the gas industry on the Renewable Hydrogen Committee, and none from solar or wind, you can have a pretty good guess what they’re thinking.
This image from the strategy lays it out.
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Basically, ‘renewable hydrogen’ can be ‘gas’ with a bit of green hydrogen mixed in. This means the gas industry can expand its operations and get more taxpayer money under the guise of being clean. So, we recommend….
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