First it was grey, then it was blue, later it was green, now it’s white—these color codes for types of hydrogen depending on sourcing have seen a lot of hype in recent years.
Grey hydrogen produced from fossil fuels and blue hydrogen produced from natural gas with accompanying carbon capture and storage (CCS) are by no means clean energy sources.
The cleanest type of hydrogen production, via electrolysis to separate water molecules using renewable electricity – color-coded green hydrogen – was the best bet for companies venturing into the clean energy technology space, including some of the biggest international oil and gas firms.
But several years into the green energy hype, costs are still prohibitively high, transportation of hydrogen is still a challenge, and Big Oil is losing faith in green hydrogen becoming cost competitive with grey or blue hydrogen anytime soon.
The time has come for white hydrogen – the one…
