Article | REF: BE8587 V1

Hydrogen, vector of the energy transition

Author: Thierry ALLEAU

Publication date: August 10, 2020

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ABSTRACT

This article deals with the means that will have to be implemented to satisfy the Paris Agreement adopted in 2016 by the majority of the countries of the world, namely the limitation to 1.5 degrees in 2100 of global warming. This objective requires drastically reducing CO2 emissions from the use of fossil fuels and replacing them with a renewable energy vector that does not emit CO2, namely hydrogen. The consequences of such a choice are reviewed, both from the point of view of its production and that of its implementation and use

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AUTHOR

  • Thierry ALLEAU: Honorary Chairman - French Association for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells, Paris, France

 INTRODUCTION

It was in 1972 that the Stockholm Conference, convened under the aegis of the United Nations, first placed environmental degradation, due to excessive emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO 2 , as an international concern. In 1997, most industrialized countries (except the USA) signed the Kyoto Protocol, committing themselves to a 5% reduction in greenhouse gases compared with 1990 levels. However, the level of CO 2 in the atmosphere in 1990 was close to 360 ppm ...it now exceeds 410 ppm! This failure is the most commonly accepted cause of the climate change observed in recent decades, which disruption is already having serious consequences for the environment.

This negative assessment led to a new agreement: the Paris Agreement, ratified in October 2016 by 174 countries and the European Union. This agreement took as its main objective to contain the rise in average temperature, compared with pre-industrial levels, well below 2°C, and limit it as far as possible to 1.5°C, a very ambitious goal that requires intensive reductions in CO 2 emissions. Now, these emissions derive essentially from the use of fossil fuels, hitherto unavoidable energy sources, which satisfy 80% of the world's energy needs. The equation therefore becomes simple to pose, if not to solve: we need to drastically reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, emitters of CO 2 , of which we have already consumed, in less than two centuries, half of the initial reserves while the Earth has more than 4 billion years of life left! So, having to gradually abandon carbon-based fossil energies is becoming a necessity, and this means having to replace them in large part with renewable energies that are inexhaustible on the scale of life on Earth, namely essentially those supplied by the solar machine. The question is whether this vision is realistic, and how it can be implemented and transformed into energy sources that are as reliable and easy to use as fossil fuels.

PPE: Programmation Pluriannuelle de l'Énergie (Multiannual Energy Program)

FCH-JU: Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Join Undertaking

LNG: Liquefied Natural Gas

TICPE (formerly TIPP): Taxe Intérieure de Consommation sur les Produits Énergétiques (Internal Consumption Tax on Energy Products)

FCHEA: Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association

AFHYPAC: French Association for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells

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Hydrogen, a vector for the energy transition