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Does the green transition require carbon intensive industry and combustion?

January 21th , 2025

We visited the Tampere Hydrogen Summit on 22 January 2025 to hear what will pave the way to a clean hydrogen economy. The answer seems to be synthetic methane to replace current natural gas needs, synthetic methanol as transport fuel, and synthetic ammonia for marine transport and the fertiliser industry. However, this raises the question of whether we can make the green transition without carbon.

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Industrial activity is the beginning and the source of the green transition. In the 1950s, European growth was based on coal and steel, around which the whole European Union was originally built. At the same time, an industry was created that spewed carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the consequences of which we are trying to mitigate through climate policy. Now, in the 2020s, we have on the table the opportunities offered by the clean hydrogen economy for a green transition and a carbon-free industry and society. But can we make the transition without carbon?


Clean hydrogen for industry, synthetic fuels for transport

 

Minister Kai Mykkänen suggested in his speech at the Hydrogen Summit & Expo in Tampere on 22 January 2025 that instead of a green transition, we should promote the strengthening of a carbon-free industry.

The pure hydrogen market is currently limited to the existing industrial use of grey hydrogen feedstock. If the use of clean hydrogen is to be extended from industrial feedstock to other uses, hydrogen will have to be refined. A promising option is to process clean hydrogen into synthetic fuels, more specifically synthetic methane (CH4), synthetic methanol (CH3OH), or carbon-free ammonia (NH3) produced from renewable energy. Many of the keynote speeches at the Tampere Hydrogen Event made it clear that the development of a clean hydrogen economy needs carbon dioxide.

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Replacing fossil fuels with electric fuels becoming profitable

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Currently, an electrolysis and methanation plant for the production of synthetic methane (e-methane) is being built in Finland at the Harjavalta Industrial Park. In the Tampere region, an ecosystem led by Ren-Gas is planning to build a similar plant at the Tarastenjärvi waste treatment plant. Freija of Norway is considering e-methane production for Nokia. Freija would extract the carbon dioxide from the Naistenlahti power plant, Ren-Gas from the Tarastenjärvi waste incineration plant, and in Harjavalta the carbon dioxide would be the product of an industrial park. In addition to carbon dioxide, the raw materials needed to produce e-methane are clean water and electricity.

The e-methane from the three e-methane plant designs identified above could be transported via the existing natural gas pipeline either as gas as far as Central Europe, or transported to a port and shipped as a liquid to customers around the world. The heat generated in the process of producing e-methane could be used, for example, for district heating. Only the Harjavalta hydrogen plant has an investment decision and is under construction.

E-methane converts hydrogen into a safer, more manageable and usable form than pure hydrogen as hydrogen. It would also allow the use of existing infrastructure and expand the customer base for clean hydrogen.

Another possibility is to produce e-methanol from hydrogen and carbon dioxide, which could be used as transport fuel in combustion engines, also using existing infrastructure and equipment. As with many of the opportunities in the hydrogen economy, there are a number of investment decisions pending around the production of e-methanol. For example, an e-methanol production plant is planned for Naantali. For synthetic ammonia, there are plans to start production in Naantali, Pori or Kemi, for example.

What kind of industrial complex will we have if the transition starts with the purification of the grey hydrogen industry with pure hydrogen and the replacement of natural gas, methanol and ammonia with synthetic hydrogen derivatives?

For synthetic methane, carbon dioxide and its availability are key. We would still need to produce carbon dioxide, burn something, but capture the carbon dioxide and use it in a clean hydrogen economy. So, instead of avoiding carbon dioxide, perhaps we should be asking how to secure its availability in future society if we want to promote a clean hydrogen economy?

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Some other factors to consider

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However, not everything is so pretty and simple. To produce clean hydrogen, we need clean water and large amounts of clean electricity. Around these, many equity issues arise. Fresh and clean water is a rich raw material in Finland, but even in its availability we may encounter situations where there is competition for its use. In the production of clean electricity, land use conflicts are possible. Nuclear power is a source of emotion, as are wind and solar power. There does not seem to be any realistic prospect of increasing hydropower.

What about industry and combustion, which could capture carbon dioxide for the emerging clean hydrogen economy? The supply of raw materials for the forestry industry, the cornerstone of Finland's prosperity, is an obstacle, because large amounts of deforestation are reducing our carbon sinks. We have thus created a huge tension between carbon neutrality and the means of mitigating climate change. If the green transition is to be promoted by means of a clean hydrogen economy, we need carbon dioxide, which we get from the forestry industry and from the burning of organic matter. On the other hand, we need a reduction in logging and burning as a means of managing climate change and carbon sinks. How do we resolve this tension?

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Clean hydrogen is a long-term solution

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The answer may perhaps be to use pure hydrogen as a fuel in the future, without the need for carbon dioxide. But there is still a long way to go. Low-molecular hydrogen is difficult to control, easily escapable, potentially corrosive to pipelines and other equipment, and poses an explosion hazard. Extending the use of pure hydrogen beyond industrial infrastructure would also require major investments, for example in hydrogen transmission pipelines.

At the Tampere Hydrogen Summit, investors strongly argued that the clean hydrogen economy should be built mainly on existing infrastructure, for example by exploiting the potential of existing natural gas pipelines. Hydrogen-derived e-methane and e-methanol offer a solution to this, but with carbon dioxide.

Of course, we can ask whether we need methane in Finland. On the other hand, we can ask whether e-methane and e-methanol would be products that would allow us to increase our hydrogen exports already now, in the early stages of a clean hydrogen economy, without investing in hydrogen pipelines.

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Nina Wessberg

VTT

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P2X Solutions, founded and managed by Herkko Plit (right), is building a green hydrogen production plant in Harjavalta and is planning subsequent plants in Joensuu and Oulu.

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JustH2Transit researcher Essi Laitinen (right) moderated the Tampere Hydrogen Summit. This interview is with materials scientist Elina Huttunen-Saarivirta, who is leading JustH2Transit's third work package to develop breakthrough solutions to bottlenecks in the future energy system.

JustH2Transit

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