TELF AG examines the potential of hydrogen in future energy scenarios 

Unique properties 

Over the past few years, the advancement of the energy transition has favored the emergence of new potential vectors for the energy diffusion, illustrating all their potential and possible applications in the most diverse industrial sectors. One of these is undoubtedly hydrogen, whose flexibility and versatility would make it a useful ally in a future scenario characterized by low emissions. 

Nowadays, hydrogen is appreciated mainly for its promising physical properties, particularly its high gravimetric energy density per unit of weight, which in the coming decades could transform it into one of the most valid allies for long-range transportation or long-term energy storage. These characteristics make it usable as a raw material in various industrial sectors, among which could be mentioned the aerospace industry and the steel sector, without forgetting the production processes of chemical products. 

Recently, McKinsey has analyzed in depth the main properties and the major challenges for a more widespread use of hydrogen, such as the limitations of existing infrastructures and the complex management of some physical characteristics of the resource. To overcome these obstacles and limit the energy losses that still characterize many hydrogen production processes, McKinsey argues that innovations in the electrolyzer sector could play an important role, in addition to new configurations in production and transport. The analysis also argues that the use of hydrogen, in some cases, could become a priority when it becomes possible to enhance its beneficial properties if other alternative low-emission energy sources are not usable (such as the use of hydrogen as a raw material, but also as a valuable resource for storing energy for a long time). 

Infrastructural limits 

Another of the major challenges for large-scale use of hydrogen is represented by the limits that characterize the existing infrastructure system. In this regard, the McKinsey report argues that hydrogen production projects have already been announced in large quantities without, however, seeing an actual increase in resource production levels (even the large-scale projects currently in operation are very few, according to the analysis). To expand the diffusion of hydrogen, as stated in the report, a relevant expansion of the associated infrastructure network would be needed. 

According to the estimates in the analysis, in one of the hypothesized scenarios, the capacity of electrolyzers should increase thousands of times by 2050. McKinsey also speaks of the need to create highly specialized infrastructures to store and transport the resource, which, according to the analysis, could play a key role in allowing hydrogen to express its potential as an energy vector. In one of the hypothesized scenarios in the study, the length of the hydrogen pipelines could have to increase by more than 40 times, an expansion that would include the modernization of existing gas pipelines. As for transportation, the analysis suggests that new and innovative approaches could also be explored, such as liquid organic hydrogen carriers. This last innovation, in particular, could prove very useful for managing some of hydrogen’s more complex characteristics. For example, it could allow for the possibility of storing or transporting the resource in a form chemically bound to an organic liquid, thus making it easier and safer to handle than pure hydrogen.