Saudi Aramco Saudi Oil Company is disappointed in hydrogen as a rapid replacement for traditional hydrocarbons. There it is believed that the large-scale production of gas is unlikely to begin in this decade. This was told by the technical director of Saudi Aramco Ahmad Al-Howayter, reports Arab News.
According to him, large-scale investments in this industry will not be at least until 2030: when the demand for blue ammonia and other low-carbon types of hydrogen appear.
“It is very similar to the LNG branch. The LNG industry first concludes a purchase agreement, and then carries out capital investments,” Al-Hower believes.
hydrogen can be obtained in different ways. A color scale is used to classify on production technologies and source raw materials. For example, “gray” hydrogen is produced from natural gas by converting methane on large-capacity production, “brown” hydrogen – from coal. However, such methods are not considered environmentally friendly: the production of “gray” and “brown” hydrogen implies emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere.
Now most of the hydrogen in the world (about 95 percent) is considered brown or sulfur, since it is produced by the vapor conversion of natural gas, partial oxidation of methane or gasification of coal. Although the final product is a pure fuel, a huge amount of energy is used in the production process and a significant amount of carbon dioxide is created.