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“Blue” hydrogen economies could address many of the economic and environmental challenges Africa and the world faces.

Producing and consuming “blue” hydrogen locally would avoid imports of fossil-based fuels and chemicals. This would reduce dependency on a foreign currency and help improve trade balances. The savings from this and from reducing pollution (externalities), as well as socio-economic benefits, could fund new hydrogen programs.

Partnerships between industry, the financial sector, science institutions, the public sector and governments could make these hydrogen economies happen rapidly. Hydrogen technology is ready for use and available now! New markets for it are growing rapidly and offer a great range of environmentally-friendly business opportunities.

For the production of hydrogen from coal, coal gasification is used. The process of coal gasification uses steam and a carefully controlled concentration of gases to break molecular bonds in coal and form a gaseous mix of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. This source of hydrogen is advantageous since its main product is coal-derived gas which can be used for fuel. The gas obtained from coal gasification can later be used to produce electricity more efficiently and allow a better capture of greenhouse gases than the traditional burning of coal.

If you use waste/lower grade coal instead of natural gas, you have income from the waste (instead of paying for the gas). Preferential gasification technology is also able to use natural gas along with waste to form even more hydrogen. Even “brown hydrogen” (from coal) can be turned “blue”. Unluckily, only when reducing the waste input.

The hydrogen now contains all the energy from waste, gas and/or coal. Using this energy, it only emits water in a hydrogen gas engine, a hydrogen gas turbine (CCGT), a hydrogen car/ship/aeroplane. Even before the latter technologies are rolled out, you can already sell the hydrogen as a much-needed commodity chemical.

Hydrogen technology can unlock the large amount of untapped renewable energy in the world. Large scale storage and flexible transmission of renewable energy would achieve green electrification of sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and South East Asia. Using hydrogen as an energy carrier, large scale renewable energy farms as well as mini-grid solutions could become commercially viable.

Hydrogen has a high energy density (compressed at 700 bar) so it is the only environmentally friendly alternative fuel for rail and automotive use. It could fuel vehicles carrying heavy loads and long-haul transport in trucks and buses. It could also power the millions of lightweight utility vehicles that sub-Saharan, Europe and South East Asia societies depend on.

There’s a secondary application of “blue” hydrogen after the power and transport sectors. It serves the chemical industry (such as for making fertilizer), the steel industry (used as a reduction agent) and as a reliable fuel for high temperature industrial processes.

Sub-Saharan Africa is an ideal environment for developing the first hydrogen economies from scratch. That’s because the flexibility of hydrogen is highly valued by African authorities. They understand that it is the most versatile energy carrier and could be the crucial missing link in their transition to green energy.