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Game-changing hydrogen could play a big role in energy transition


The vessel entered the port of Rotterdam in February 2022.

Federico Gambarini | Image Union | beautiful pictures

Concerns regarding both the energy transition and energy security were markedly reduced when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Russia is a major supplier of oil and gas, and over the past few weeks several major economies have planned to reduce their reliance on hydrocarbons.

On Friday, the United States and the European Commission issue a declaration on energy security in which they announced the creation of a joint task force on the subject.

The parties said the US would “try to secure” at least 15 billion cubic meters of additional liquefied natural gas to the EU this year. They added that this number will increase in the future.

Commenting on the deal, President Joe Biden said the US and EU would also “work together to take concrete measures to reduce dependence on natural gas – period – and maximize… availability… and use renewable energy.”

All of the above speaks to the enormous task facing governments around the world, who say they want to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, avert the worst effects of climate change. climate and at the same time protect energy security.

The challenges and opportunities facing the energy sector were addressed Monday during panel discussion at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates Unified.

During the panel, moderated by CNBC’s Hadley Gamble, CEO of Italian oil and gas firm Eni seeks to highlight the current tensions facing his field.

Historically, many resources have been exploited, says Claudio Descalzi. “We know very well that in the last 200 years, all the different energy vectors [have] … was added,” he said. So coal, oil, gas and renewables. “

“We’ve never found a source, or a source of energy that replaces everything. It’s crazy to think that there’s one thing that can replace everything.”

Others speaking Monday included Anna Shpitsberg, deputy assistant secretary for energy transition at the US State Department.

Shpitsberg said that while the US-EU task force will focus on areas such as securing LNG supplies, it will also provide “some certainty for US producers to increase and increase supply”. into Europe in the long term and up to 2030.” She explained: Licensing and infrastructure will also be areas of focus.

It is important not to compromise the energy transition, she admits, before continuing to refer to the argument made by Eni’s Descalzi.

“As for the comments that have been made that we can’t rely on one technology, just as we can’t rely too much on one supply line, that’s why we’re investing so much money into hydrogen.”

Shpitsberg calls hydrogen “a game-changing technology that speaks to a variety of sources … because it can underpin nuclear, it can underpin gas, it can underpin gas.” renewable energy, it can clean a good part of it and so can CCUS [carbon capture utilization and storage]. “

“So for us, it ensures that the market has enough signals, it knows the regulatory environment will support the signals for the current energy security,” she said.

“But we’re also sending all possible resources toward the transition. That’s why we’re investing billions of dollars in hydrogen research and development.”

‘Variety of energy carriers’

Described by the International Energy Agency as a “universal energy carrier”, hydrogen has a wide range of applications and can be deployed in areas such as industry and transportation.

It can be produced in a number of ways. One method involves using electrolysis, with an electric current splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen.

If the electricity used in this process comes from a renewable source such as wind or the sun then some call it green hydrogen or renewable hydrogen.

While there is excitement in some quarters of hydrogen’s potential, much of its generation is currently based on fossil fuels.

Read more about clean energy from CNBC Pro

Others speaking Monday included Majid Jafar, CEO of Crescent Petroleum.

Once again, Jafar has demonstrated the importance of gas in the coming years, calling it “the primary source of renewable energy” because it supports their intermittent supply. This is also “the path to future technologies like hydrogen,” he asserts.

Monday’s panel concludes a month in which the International Energy Agency reported that 2021 saw energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rise to historic highs. The IEA found that energy-related global CO2 emissions rose 6% in 2021 to reach a record high of 36.3 billion tonnes.

In its analysis, the world’s leading energy agency identified coal use as a key driver of growth. It said coal was responsible for more than 40% of the overall growth in CO2 emissions worldwide last year, reaching a record 15.3 billion tonnes.

“Natural gas CO2 emissions rebounded higher than 2019 levels to 7.5 billion tonnes,” the IEA said, adding that oil CO2 emissions were 10.7 billion tons.



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