Baseline to support the Brazilian Hydrogen Strategy
After decades of being known as the most potential and disruptive energy carrier for the future, despite technological and market challenges, hydrogen has become a strategic topic for governments and companies worldwide. In particular, the hydrogen market will gain momentum from post-pandemic energy policies for economic recovery and to accelerate the energy transition in several countries.
Hydrogen has already a relevant market size. In 2019, hydrogen’s global market achieved from USD 118 billion (GRAND VIEW RESEARCH, 2020) to USD 136 billion (MARKETS AND MARKETS, 2020). Moreover, projections anticipate significant market growth in the coming years, which could reach amounts of USD 160 billion (GLOBAL MARKET INSIGHTS, 2020) to almost USD 200 billion (MARKETS AND MARKETS, 2020).
The driving force behind this growth is the perspective of governments and companies on the role of hydrogen in enabling deep decarbonization in the economy, required to achieve the Paris Agreement goals by 2050. Beyond traditional markets, like fertilizers, oil refining, and others (industrial and hospital gases), new hydrogen markets may be developed in transportation, electricity generation, energy storage and industrial processes, among others. Hydrogen can be used directly as a low or zero carbon energy source (depending on its production process) in sectors that are difficult to electrify. It also can be used for energy storage, enabling greater entry of variables renewable such as wind, solar, etc. Therefore, hydrogen is seen as a resource capable of enable sector coupling (fuel, electric, industrial, and other markets). This Technical Note aims to address important conceptual and fundamental aspects to support the Brazilian hydrogen strategy.
This Note has the following main sections: hydrogen market overview; technological routes and processes of hydrogen; cost and competitiveness of hydrogen; challenges for market development of hydrogen energy use; hydrogen role in energy transition.
