The Hamburg port is literally speaking a construc tion site of the energy transition process In the de commissioned coal fired powerplant Moorburg a large scale electrolyzer with a capacity of 100 megawatts is planned to split water into hydrogen and oxygen starting in 2025 The wind and the sun will supply the required energy which is why the Moorburg hydrogen is supposed to be green and therefore CO2 free Green hydrogen is truly a mul titalented substance It s not only able to supply energy for industry households and mobility but can also be used as a process gas for instance in steel and fertilizer production Because hydrogen has such versatile uses without causing CO2 emis sions that are harmful to the climate countless projects for producing transporting storing and using hydrogen are launched not only in Hamburg but around the globe Seldom have governments academia the business community and environ mental associations joined forces as intensively as in this area Based on a study by the consulting firm McKinsey the Hydrogen Council in which the Schaeffler Group is a member of the steering committee esti mates that in the field of hydrogen production proj ects with a volume of 500 billion U S dollars are currently in the pipeline with new projects being added practically on a daily basis In 2050 glob al revenue in the hydrogen economy could amount to 2 5 trillion U S dollars and over 30 million jobs might be created The crux of transportation and storage However before that happens numerous challeng es remain to be mastered That particularly applies to storage and transportation both of which are crucial factors for a global hydrogen economy To day we re shipping oil and gas from producing to consuming countries or make it flow through pipe lines Hydrogen has to be transported too from countries in which green electricity for hydrogen production is cheap enabling surplus production to regions with a great hunger for energy However hydrogen as the lightest of all elements is highly volatile which makes transportation and storage considerably more difficult In the form of gas it can be stored in multi layered pressure tanks 300 bar during transportation 700 bar in a tank and in underground caverns or in liquid form at 253 C 423 4 F in insulated cryogen ic tanks Both variants are technically complex and energy intensive Alternatively hydrogen can be converted into methane syngas or liquid synfuels for example This has the advantage of easier and more versatile handling while the en ergy intensive nature of the conversion process is a disadvantage It takes a considerable surplus of green electricity to produce green hydrogen to transform it and to subsequently use it in an ener getically sensible way for instance in an internal combustion engine with a maximum efficiency of 40 percent By Volker Paulun 49 RENEWABLE ENERGIES

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