Author: Kiersten Sundell
Did you know that hydrogen comes in different colors?
Well no, not exactly like this.
Hydrogen gas doesn’t exist naturally in a usable form — it needs to be extracted from water using electrolysis, or extracted from another compound using a process called steam reforming. Either way, getting the hydrogen requires a lot of energy, and depending on which energy source is used in the process, the resulting hydrogen gas is labeled a particular color. The system was implemented so that sustainably produced hydrogen could be differentiated from, say, coal-produced hydrogen, since the two would have very different lifecycle emissions
Blue hydrogen is produced using natural gas or methane with carbon capture, while grey hydrogen is natural gas but without carbon capture. Over 90% of our current hydrogen supply is considered grey. Black hydrogen is coal, green is all sources of renewable energy combined, yellow is solar, and pink hydrogen is nuclear.
Some researchers are betting on blue hydrogen to be the best option since natural gas is quite abundant, but it was found in 2021 that the elaborate carbon capture process only saved about 10% of greenhouse gases from being released in the end. Not to mention that carbon capture is really expensive.
But why is there a distinction between different low-carbon energy sources if the whole point of the colors is to convey emissions?
Well, we’re really not sure.
In my opinion, if colors are to be used at all, hydrogen should be classified as green, or …. not green. Green hydrogen would encompass low-carbon sources like wind, solar, nuclear, hydro, and geothermal, while regular, un-color-coded hydrogen would signify copious carbon emissions.
Ideally, the grey and black sources of hydrogen will be eliminated in the future entirely to be replaced by low-carbon technologies. Whether or not hydrogen will even play a large role in the future of energy is also up for debate, since it involves a lot of complicated moving parts.
Should we be color-coding our hydrogen? Let us know by visiting the full video on our TikTok page.
