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Hydrogen Demand: Hydrogen Is Not A Growth Market, It’s A Diminishing One (Part 1 Of 3)
The article I've linked below is by Michael Barnard, writing for CleanTechnica. I don't always agree with him, but I find him worth listening to. He's well informed and strives to be objective. Amidst all the attention and hype focused on hydrogen, a projection that the market for it will be diminishing, not growing, is radically contrarian. But he gives his reasoning, and I agree with most of it. The demand for hydrogen today is dominated by its use in oil refining and production of ammonia for fertilizer. For different but sound reasons, both of those markets are headed for oblivion. Against that, hydrogen boosters see growing markets for hydrogen in transportation and as a replacement for natural gas in heating. Barnard discounts those applications, and I largely agree with him. So doesn't that imply a diminishing overall market for hydrogen?
Not necessarily. Barnard, in this article anyway, does not consider stored hydrogen for power generation, or for production of storable synthetic fuels. His article is labeled as "part 1 of 3", so maybe he'll be following up with his reasons for discounting those markets as well. They'll have to be damned good reasons to convince me he's right. As of now, I see those as markets that will be growing enormously.
Hydrogen Demand: Hydrogen Is Not A Growth Market, It’s A Diminishing One (Part 1 Of 3)
Hydrogen demand today is two-thirds for petroleum refining and fertilizer manufacturing. Both of those uses are going to drop precipitously in the coming decades, and the one area of demand growth won't replace the loss.
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