Insights into low-carbon hydrogen production methods: Green, blue and aqua hydrogen

Abstract

The primary aim of this study is to provide insights into different low-carbon hydrogen production methods. Low-carbon hydrogen includes green hydrogen (hydrogen from renewable electricity), blue hydrogen (hydrogen from fossil fuels with CO2 emissions reduced by the use of Carbon Capture Use and Storage) and aqua hydrogen (hydrogen from fossil fuels via the new technology). Green hydrogen is an expensive strategy compared to fossil-based hydrogen. Blue hydrogen has some attractive features, but the CCUS technology is high cost and blue hydrogen is not inherently carbon free. Therefore, engineering scientists have been focusing on developing other low-cost and low-carbon hydrogen technology. A new economical technology to extract hydrogen from oil sands (natural bitumen) and oil fields with very low cost and without carbon emissions has been developed and commercialized in Western Canada. Aqua hydrogen is a term we have coined for production of hydrogen from this new hydrogen production technology. Aqua is a color halfway between green and blue and thus represents a form of hydrogen production that does not emit CO2, like green hydrogen, yet is produced from fossil fuel energy, like blue hydrogen. Unlike CCUS, blue hydrogen, which is clearly compensatory with respect to carbon emissions as it captures, uses and stores produced CO2, the new production method is transformative in that it does not emit CO2 in the first place. In order to promote the development of the low-carbon hydrogen economy, the current challenges, future directions and policy recommendations of low-carbon hydrogen production methods including green hydrogen, blue hydrogen, and aqua hydrogen are investigated in the paper.