In a report, the 42 professional engineering organisations that constitute the centre said that the UK needs to act swiftly on hydrogen to avoid falling behind international competitors.
It also highlights the risks associated with rapid scale-up of low-carbon hydrogen production such as emissions from fossil fuel extraction and dependencies on other technologies including carbon capture and storage (CCS), renewable electricity and electrolysers.
Other risks identified include leakages, safety and public trust, skills gaps, cost uncertainties, regulations, blue and green hydrogen competition, and embodied carbon in infrastructure.
Hydrogen can be produced in two ways – but only one of these is considered to be truly low-carbon.
Green hydrogen is produced by splitting water by electrolysis while blue hydrogen is produced by splitting natural gas. While green hydrogen can be a zero-emission fuel when electrolysis is powered by renewables, blue hydrogen...