• Sustainably produced hydrogen could play a crucial role in decarbonising energy-intensive industries.
• Low-carbon hydrogen applications in ammonia production, crude oil refining, and process heat can cut emissions and enable carbon-free alternatives like green ammonia, synthetic e-fuels, and hydrogen-based steelmaking.

Global demand for hydrogen has experienced modest growth in the 2020s. It is currently primarily consumed in non-energy applications, such as the petroleum refining and chemical sectors, using fossil fuels as a feedstock and without CCUS. However, growing concerns about climate change are prompting countries to explore its sustainable production and potential in energy-related applications.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), global hydrogen demand could increase from around 100 Mt in 2023 to approximately 614 Mt by 2050, depending on climate change goals, sector-specific developments, energy-efficiency measures, electrification, and the adoption of carbon capture technologies. This would represent about 12% of the world’s final energy demand, with most production needing to come from green hydrogen.

Explore the sections below to learn about hydrogen's potential to transform various sectors, including industrial processes, transport, heating, and storage, as part of the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Heavy industry and manufacturing

Globally, the heavy industry sector accounts for approximately 20% of CO₂ emissions and is widely considered as more technologically and economically challenging to decarbonise than sectors like power generation or road transportation. The complexities stem from the nature of industrial processes, often reliant on high temperatures or continuous heating, making it difficult to substitute fossil fuel energy sources. These requirements limit the available technological and cost-effective options to facilitate a transition.

Hydrogen, particularly green or blue hydrogen, holds greater potential than electrification for meeting the operational and process requirements of heavy industry. However, to achieve this sustainably, the focus will need to be on sourcing naturally occurring hydrogen along with producing green and blue hydrogen - pathways that are all nascent today. Blue hydrogen production faces additional challenges, as it still relies on fossil fuels, raising concerns that it could both extend the reliance on the oil and gas industry and result in captured CO₂ being released back into the atmosphere if used rather than stored.

Ammonia production

Hydrogen could play a significant role in reducing the carbon footprint of the ammonia industry, which is currently responsible for about 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, by replacing fossil fuels used in industrial heating processes.

Additionally, hydrogen has long been combined with nitrogen to produce ammonia, a well-established industrial process. The key opportunity now is to use green hydrogen to create green ammonia - a low-carbon alternative with potential applications in power generation, maritime transportation, and various industrial sectors.

Crude oil refining

Hydrogen already plays a major role in refining, enhancing the efficiency and quality of refined products by removing sulphur/sulfur and other impurities from crude oil and upgrading heavy oil into lighter crudes for products like petrol and diesel.

Besides, hydrogen could be used as a feedstock to produce low-carbon synthetic fuels, known as e-fuels, such as methanol, which are liquid or gaseous fuels made from hydrogen and CO₂ to replace conventional fossil fuels in hard-to-electrify sectors such as aviation, maritime shipping, and long-distance haulage.

High-grade process heat

The production of materials like steel, aluminium, cement, glass, and ceramics is highly energy- and carbon-intensive, with significant high-grade heat requirements. In primary steel production, hydrogen has the potential to replace coal and coke in the direct conversion of iron ore into metallic iron . Alternatively, high-temperature electrical heating offers another pathway for meeting these heat demands while reducing emissions.

Hydrogen could also be used to power furnaces and ovens for producing materials critical to the energy transition, such as steel for wind turbine towers, and cement for wind farm construction, as well as aluminium and ceramics for high-voltage transmission, alongside recycling scrap metals and other materials.

Hydrogen could also be used to power furnaces and ovens for producing materials essential to the energy transition, such as steel and cement for net-zero infrastructure and construction, as well as aluminium and ceramics for high-voltage transmission. Additionally, it could support the recycling of scrap metals and other critical materials used in renewable energy and electrification technologies.