Green hydrogen for Pakistan

“The era of global warming has ended, the era of global boiling has arrived.” This was stated by UN Chief Antonio Gueterres, and it presents grave concerns on climate change.

The impact of climate change is atrocious and unjust, especially on the developing countries, despite their lower contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Pakistan’s GHG emissions stand around 1%, yet the flash floods in 2022 alone accounted for billions of rupees in loss and damage. The floods affected 4.4 million acres of crop and food shortages caused massive disruption.

Pakistan mainly relies on imported fuel, and the GHG emissions associated with fossil fuels are a major cause of the unprecedented increase in global mean temperature of the world.

For Pakistan, due to import, socioeconomic conditions are affected severely by hikes of fuel prices in the international market. This also leads to higher circular debt.

Hence, the need of the hour is to explore opportunities that will provide energy security and decarbonisation of the industrial sectors. For this purpose, green hydrogen vector is being integrated in the energy mix globally.

All the hues (grey, blue, green) of hydrogen correspond towards its source of production because every method has different GHG emissions associated with it.

Hydrogen is produced mainly from natural gas (grey) and coal gasification (black) contributing to immense carbon emissions. The green hydrogen is the one produced by renewable electricity only by electrolysis of water, however, grey hydrogen dominates the market at this moment.

Pakistan has great potential for the production of green hydrogen. Adequate irradiance levels are mapped for more than 90 percent of the country’s topography with approximate capacity of 2,900 GW and the southern coastal line of 60 km, named as Gharo-Jhimpir corridor, has the potential of 43 GW of exploitable wind energy potential (Pakistan’s annual energy demand is 32 GW; FY’22).

The coastal lines also remove the geographical barriers to water uptake for green electrolysis. The production of green hydrogen and its derivative fuels like green ammonia & methanol may lead the decarbonisation of hard to abate sectors directly.

If the cost competitiveness occurs it could also help generate the electricity by using green hydrogen in fuel cell applications. This can reduce the country’s dependency on imported fossil fuels in priority sectors i.e industry, transport and energy.

The green hydrogen has a large value chain and versatility, making it a potential candidate to be used in chemical industry, industrial heating, electricity, cement and steel.

The Power to X further covers the broader use in the form e-ammonia and e-methanol that can benefit both industry i.e fertilizers and mobility.

The cons at the moment are hydrogen storage and transportation. It has lower energy density and highly inflammable. To overcome this barrier, green ammonia can be used to store the green hydrogen and provide an established supply chain infrastructure as 80 percent hydrogen is required to produce ammonia in the industry.

Green Ammonia synthesised from green hydrogen further provides a decarbonisation opportunity to a high carbon emitting fertilizer industry.

Hydrogen blending with natural gas in the current gaseous infrastructure can reduce the carbon emissions in heating sector, the blend could be 5-20 percent of the composition.

Hydrogen ready turbines are also being developed by the manufacturers like Mitsubishi power & General Electric, while a small retrofit is required for existing turbines to utilize a blend with natural gas (20-35 percent).

The transport sector contributing the second largest carbon emissions can benefit from the use of Fuel Cell Vehicles FCVs in public and private transport. The FCVs market has already been strategized in Japan to add 200,000 FVs by 2025 (S&P global), even currently there are 137 hydrogen refueling stations available for consumers.

The hindrance to developing a green hydrogen project is the high capital cost, the levelised cost of electricity and electrolszer cost have to reach significantly lower ranges to the grey hydrogen. Certain climate actions like a carbon tax on industrial carbon emissions and development of voluntary carbon markets can help achieve the cost competitiveness much earlier than projected.

PwC recently published a report stating that the green hydrogen export market is anticipated to reach $300 billion by 2050 and by 2030 (BNEF’2023) the levelised cost of green hydrogen will reach the fossil fuel based hydrogen in various markets including Brazil, China and India.

This presents a groundbreaking opportunity towards mitigation efforts in Pakistan to achieve net zero carbon emissions.

The high capital cost, if compared to the cost of climate damage, provides a sustainable picture of viability. The chemical industry, heavily reliant on hydrogen, is uniquely positioned to tap into the emerging hydrogen economy, creating different revenue streams while achieving their decarbonization goals.

However, still in nascent phase, the green hydrogen demands standardisation, identification of key stakeholders, robust policy making and cross border coalitions to develop the right framework expediting its production and application.

The government could play a vital role in developing the green hydrogen by leveraging on public, private partnerships and international cooperation. Tapping green hydrogen as a commodity can lead to energy independency, additional revenue generation by exporting it, while addressing the climate crisis.

The article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Business Recorder or its owners