能源巨头争夺“绿色氢”的市场份额

    中国石化新闻网讯 据油价网8月4日报道，绿色的氢如今炙手可热。尽管氢长期以来被吹捧为一种几乎取之不尽的清洁能源，由于元素周期表上的第一种元素燃烧干净，只留下水蒸气，因此它的碳排放为零。这使得氢作为未来脱碳经济的一种很有前途的燃料来源具有很高的市场价值。随着新型冠状病毒对能源行业的现状前所未有地影响，世界经济论坛等有影响力的组织呼吁“大调整”，因此，新能源秩序的构想引起了广泛关注。然而，并非所有的氢都是一样的。氢动力不是什么新鲜事物;它已经广泛应用于普通工业过程中，如氨生产、炼油厂和作为化学品的原料。然而，这些生产过程中使用的标准氢并不像你想象的那样“绿色”。其是通过使用化石燃料产生的，主要是煤和天然气。这种形式的氢被称为“灰色氢”，在减少温室气体排放方面基本上是无用的。

    目前也正在生产使用可再生能源生产的绿色氢，但与灰色氢相比，其成本仍然极高。但许多可再生能源项目多年来一直在努力使绿色氢具有竞争力，今年早些时候，由于石油巨头荷兰皇家壳牌(Royal Dutch Shell)参与了这一倡议，建立了一个海上风力发电场，这一领域获得了重大提升。绿色氢革命即将来临。 现在，它已成为关于能源未来的激烈辩论的中心。

    绿色科技媒体本周报道称:“在一周的时间内，Iberdrola、Uniper和NextEra等大型公用事业公司都进入了氢能源市场，这提醒着我们，神奇分子并非油气行业的唯一领域。”“但是公用事业公司是否有能力或者需要在新兴的氢市场上与石油公司竞争，仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。”

    虽然壳牌(Shell)、英国石油(BP)和Equinor等大型石油公司在以吉瓦规模计算的氢能源领域占据了主导地位，但公用事业公司也在与它们展开竞争，尤其是在欧洲和美国和加拿大。

    郝芬 译自 油价网

    原文如下：

    Energy Giants Race For 'Green Hydrogen' Market Share

    Green hydrogen is red hot. While hydrogen has long been touted as a virtually inexhaustible source of clean energy, with zero carbon emissions since this first element on the periodic table burns clean, leaving behind only water vapor. This makes hydrogen highly marketable as a promising fuel source option for a decarbonized economy of the future. The idea of a new energy order has gained a ton of attention in the wake of the novel coronavirus’ unprecedented interruption to the energy sector status quo, with such influential organizations as the World Economic Forum calling for a “great reset”. Not all hydrogen is created equal, however. Hydrogen power is not a novelty; it is already widely used in commonplace industrial processes such as ammonia production, in refineries and as a feedstock for chemicals. The standard hydrogen used in these production processes, however, is not as “green” as you may think. It’s created through the use of fossil fuels, primarily coal and natural gas. This form of hydrogen is known as “grey hydrogen,” and is essentially useless in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

    Green hydrogen, which is produced using renewable energy, is also currently in production, but it is still extremely cost prohibitive compared to gray hydrogen. But plenty of renewable energy projects have been trying to make green hydrogen competitive for years, and the sector got a major bump earlier this year as oil supermajor Royal Dutch Shell got involved in the initiative with an offshore wind farm. The green hydrogen revolution is upon us. And now it's found itself at the center of the raging debate about the future of energy.

    “Within the span of a week, major utilities Iberdrola, Uniper and NextEra all made moves into the hydrogen market, in a reminder that the miracle molecule is not the sole domain of the oil and gas sector,” Greentech Media reported just this week. “But whether utilities will have the ability — or need — to compete with oil companies in the emerging hydrogen market remains an open question.”

    While supermajor oil companies like Shell, BP and Equinor have dominated the hydrogen sector in terms of gigawatt scale, utilities are giving them a run for their money, particularly in Europe, the U.S., and Canada.