For a clean future: hydrogen with sun and wind energy.
Green hydrogen is a central building block for the success of the energy transition and the achievement of the Paris climate goals. Whether in industry, transport or heat supply: The clean energy carrier can replace fossil fuels and thus helps to transform Europe's largest greenhouse gas emitters in a climate-friendly way. Read more about the special features, potential and production of green hydrogen as well as perspectives for the future here!
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Green hydrogen is the most climate-friendly hydrogen. As a gas, hydrogen is always colourless. The colours used to distinguish between hydrogen variants refer to the production process: Green hydrogen is produced by electrolysis using electricity from renewable energies - e.g. wind or solar energy. In the process, water is split into its components oxygen and hydrogen.
The situation is different with grey, blue or turquoise hydrogen based on natural gas or methane: these variants produce CO2 or solid carbon as a waste product. These are either released into the atmosphere, stored and stockpiled or further processed.
So to minimise your environmental footprint, hydrogen from green energy is the right choice. Blue or turquoise hydrogen are often considered transitional solutions.
Hydrogen has already been produced in Europe for many years - Westfalen is also a producer of hydrogen and has been supplying customers with the versatile gas for decades. Most of the hydrogen produced and used in Europe is currently still grey hydrogen from natural gas. But the electrolysis capacities for green hydrogen will increase in the coming years: Great efforts are being made worldwide to build production capacities, infrastructure and logistics.
On the road to sustainable progress, we as the Westfalen Group are also investing in the future of green hydrogen together with strong partners.
Two examples:
Are you also interested in hydrogen technologies and would like to implement an individual hydrogen project? Let's talk about it: Only by joining forces can the energy transition succeed!
Germany and Europe are focusing on hydrogen - including funding programmes!
The European Parliament and the German government regard green hydrogen as an important lever for achieving climate protection goals. Goals and targets are derived from the hydrogen strategies of politics. At the same time, the EU, the federal government and the federal states also support the development of a green hydrogen economy with financial resources and funding programmes. Westfalen helps you to benefit from the funding programmes for companies and projects.
You ask yourself what criteria hydrogen has to fulfil in order to be marketed as "green"? So far, there is no internationally uniform definition for green hydrogen.
General goals and targets for the expansion of renewable energies can be found in RED II. This abbreviation stands for "Renewable Energy Directive II" and means Directive EU 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources. The directive also contains information on the use of green hydrogen, among other things for use as a fuel in the transport sector. In February 2023, the European Commission published its additional definition of green hydrogen. According to this, hydrogen is considered "green" if it is produced by means of electrolysis with electricity from renewable energies. The Commission attaches various conditions to the production of electricity and hydrogen. For example, the electricity should in future come from newly built plants and be produced in the same hour as the end product hydrogen.
The understanding of TÜV Süd is a little broader here. The renowned testing organisation has developed the "Green Hydrogen" certification. This compares the greenhouse gas emissions of hydrogen produced from renewable sources with those of conventionally produced hydrogen or fossil fuels. A certificate is issued if the greenhouse gas emissions of the hydrogen are at least 70 % below the comparative value for fossil fuels in RED II and this is confirmed in regular checks. In addition to the electrolysis of water using electricity from renewable energies, three other processes for hydrogen production are also considered "green" according to the TÜV. The TÜV Rheinland distinguishes between renewable hydrogen and low-CO2 hydrogen in its certification. Optionally, further additional criteria can be certified: green hydrogen, RFNBO, blue hydrogen (CCS/CCU), turquoise hydrogen, pink hydrogen, carbon neutral hydrogen.
Also CertifHy™ provides certification for hydrogen.
Strong together: our hydrogen expertise for your sustainable progress.
Do you need hydrogen according to specific criteria? You are unsure which solution is the best for you to reduce your ecological footprint economically and promptly with hydrogen? You would like to know when green hydrogen will be available for your individual hydrogen project? You want to build up production capacities for green hydrogen together with us?
Get in touch with us - hydrogen has been our business for decades.
Our H2 experts will be happy to discuss all the possibilities with you!
Electricity from renewable energies is used for its production by means of electrolysis.
Capacities for manufacturing, infrastructure and logistics are currently being built up worldwide.
The European Commission has now presented criteria. In addition, there are various certifications.
In doing so, we work closely with strong partners.
We are currently working on the supply of green hydrogen. Deliveries of larger quantities are not yet possible. Do you only need small quantities or do you want to build up production capacities yourself with us as a partner? Get in touch and we will discuss what is possible!
Hydrogen is divided into the colours grey, blue, turquoise, green and red depending on how it is produced. Grey hydrogen is produced from natural gas by steam reforming and releases CO2 emissions. Blue hydrogen is grey hydrogen where the resulting emissions are captured and stored by CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) technologies. For turquoise hydrogen, methane - the main component of natural gas - is split into hydrogen and solid carbon. Green hydrogen is produced by electrolysis with renewable energies and is therefore low in emissions. For red hydrogen (which is sometimes called pink or purple), electrolysis is done with electricity from nuclear power.
Green hydrogen can be used in trade and industry as an energy carrier and in the production of heat and electricity. In addition, green hydrogen is suitable as a fuel for commercial vehicles, ships or aircraft, as a chemical and material base in the chemical industry and as a storage medium in energy systems.
Green hydrogen can be produced in a climate-friendly way through the electrolysis of water if electricity from renewable energies is used for this purpose. It is therefore an ideal medium for storing energy generated from renewable sources. Due to its high energy density, it is an attractive energy carrier, e.g. as a fuel for the transport sector. Hydrogen is also clean in use: for example, only water vapour is produced as "waste gas" in fuel cells.
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