{"id":66336,"date":"2025-03-18T10:33:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T17:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/energi.media\/?p=66336"},"modified":"2025-03-18T10:33:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T17:33:14","slug":"opinion-hydrogen-falls-short-as-a-practical-cost-effective-fuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/energi.media\/opinion\/opinion-hydrogen-falls-short-as-a-practical-cost-effective-fuel\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Hydrogen falls short as a practical, cost-effective fuel"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was published by The Energy Mix<\/a> on March 18, 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Michael Barnard –\u00a0Energy Mix Guest Writer<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Hydrogen has often been hailed as a fuel of the future, promising a clean and versatile energy source capable of decarbonizing multiple sectors. However, a closer look at the technical, economic, and infrastructure challenges associated with hydrogen reveals that these claims may be overstated. While hydrogen can indeed be used as a fuel, its inefficiencies, high costs, and logistical hurdles make it a poor alternative to electrification in most applications.<\/p>\n

One of hydrogen\u2019s primary limitations is its low energy density, which necessitates storage at high pressures or\u00a0cryogenic temperatures<\/a>. This not only increases complexity but also significantly raises costs. Unlike batteries, which can store and release energy efficiently, hydrogen must undergo energy-intensive processes, including electrolysis, compression, and conversion back into electricity via fuel cells or combustion.\u00a0According to<\/a> Staffell et al., these inefficiencies result in a well-to-wheel efficiency of around 30 per cent for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, compared to 77 to 87 per cent for battery electric vehicles (BEVs). This stark efficiency gap raises fundamental questions about the viability of hydrogen in transport.<\/p>\n

Transporting hydrogen is another challenge. As a gas, it requires high-pressure containment or conversion into a liquid at -253\u00b0C, both of which involve significant energy losses and infrastructure costs. Even alternative carriers like ammonia or methanol introduce additional conversion steps, further reducing overall system efficiency. Rouwenhorst et al. (2021) highlight that the capital costs for hydrogen transport infrastructure remain prohibitively high, making large-scale deployment economically unfeasible without substantial subsidies.<\/p>\n

Most hydrogen today is still produced from fossil fuels, particularly natural gas through steam methane reforming (SMR). This process emits significant amounts of carbon dioxide, undermining hydrogen\u2019s purported environmental benefits. While green hydrogen\u2014produced via renewable-powered electrolysis\u2014offers a low-carbon alternative, it remains expensive, with production costs two to five times higher than direct electrification (BloombergNEF, 2023<\/a>). Without dramatic cost reductions in renewable energy and electrolyser technology, hydrogen will struggle to compete with established electrification methods such as heat pumps and battery storage,\u00a0finds<\/a>\u00a0the International Energy Agency (IEA).<\/p>\n

Despite these drawbacks, hydrogen is often promoted as a necessary energy vector for hard-to-electrify sectors, such as heavy industry and long-haul transport. While this may hold true for certain niche applications, none of which I\u2019ve discovered despite years of looking, direct electrification is generally a more cost-effective and efficient solution. For example, the European Federation for Transport and Environment\u00a0found<\/a>\u00a0that even in trucking, where hydrogen has been considered a viable alternative, battery-electric trucks are expected to dominate due to superior energy efficiency and lower operational costs.<\/p>\n

Even government agencies and industry groups that support hydrogen acknowledge its limitations. The U.S. Department of Energy has\u00a0noted<\/a>\u00a0that widespread hydrogen adoption faces significant infrastructure and economic barriers. The IEA similarly concludes that hydrogen requires extensive subsidies and policy support to compete with alternative low-carbon technologies, raising concerns about its long-term economic sustainability.<\/p>\n

Maritime shipping isn\u2019t moving forward with hydrogen, but instead is shifting primarily towards batteries and biofuels, particularly in short-haul and regional shipping applications. In Europe and China, containerized battery systems are already being tested and deployed, allowing ships to swap out discharged batteries for fully charged ones at port, reducing downtime and eliminating the need for onboard hydrogen fuel infrastructure. This system has been successfully trialled on vessels navigating the Yangtze River, and similar efforts are being explored on European waterways, where battery swapping can provide an efficient and emissions-free alternative to fossil fuels (DNV, 2023<\/a>).<\/p>\n

At the same time, major global shipping companies are making significant commitments to biofuels, particularly biomethanol. Maersk, one of the world\u2019s largest shipping companies, has placed substantial orders for\u00a0methanol-powered vessels<\/a>, aligning with its broader decarbonization strategy. The company has entered into agreements to secure a steady supply of green methanol, which can be produced from renewable sources such as biomass or synthesized using captured carbon dioxide and green hydrogen. Unlike hydrogen, which requires new and complex infrastructure, methanol can be stored and transported using existing fuel infrastructure, making it a more practical option for long-haul shipping. Methanol-powered engines also avoid the extreme cryogenic storage requirements of hydrogen and have a higher energy density, allowing for longer voyages with fewer refuelling stops.<\/p>\n

Aviation has also seen a significant shift away from hydrogen as a viable alternative fuel. While Airbus once championed hydrogen-powered aircraft as a critical component of decarbonizing aviation, the company has since scaled back its ambitions. Recent\u00a0reports<\/a> indicate that Airbus is now prioritizing sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) and battery-electric aircraft over hydrogen due to the immense challenges associated with hydrogen storage, distribution, and onboard energy conversion. The European aviation industry as a whole has also revised its outlook, with a recent industry report downgrading hydrogen\u2019s expected contribution to decarbonization from 20 per cent to just 6 per cent by 2050 (European Aviation Consortium, 2024). This reassessment reflects the growing recognition that hydrogen-powered aviation faces insurmountable economic and engineering obstacles.<\/p>\n

The European Union has also made it clear that hydrogen has no significant role in residential and commercial heating, prioritizing electrification instead. The EU\u2019s policy direction overwhelmingly favours heat pumps and district heating systems as the primary solutions for decarbonizing buildings (European Commission, 2024). Hydrogen\u2019s inefficiency in heating applications, requiring multiple energy conversions with high losses, makes it economically and practically unviable compared to direct electrification. District heating networks, particularly in colder climates, provide a well-proven and scalable solution, integrating renewable energy sources such as geothermal, biomass, and excess industrial heat. Meanwhile, heat pumps, which operate with efficiencies well above 300 per cent, offer an unparalleled advantage in residential heating, significantly outperforming hydrogen boilers in cost and energy use. Given these factors, the EU has firmly ruled out hydrogen as a widespread heating solution, reinforcing its role as a niche energy carrier rather than a mainstream option.<\/p>\n

The enthusiasm for hydrogen often overshadows its fundamental challenges. While it may play a role in specific industries, its inefficiencies, high costs, and infrastructure demands make it an impractical choice for widespread deployment. As evidence from multiple studies suggests, the focus should remain on electrification wherever possible, reserving hydrogen for applications where no viable alternatives exist. That\u2019s almost entirely industrial feedstocks to displace existing \u201cgrey\u201d hydrogen derived through SMR with its high emissions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Michael Barnard<\/em><\/h4>\n

Energy Mix Guest Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Climate futurist Michael Barnard\u2014director, Trace Intercept and TFIE Strategy\u2014spends his time projecting decarbonization scenarios for the next 40-80 years, assisting executives, boards and investors to pick wisely today. Whether it’s refuelling aviation, grid storage, vehicle-to-grid, or hydrogen demand, his work is based on fundamentals of physics, economics and human nature, and informed by the decarbonization requirements and innovations of multiple domains. Michael publishes regularly in multiple outlets on innovation, business, technology and policy.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was published by The Energy Mix on March 18, 2025. By Michael Barnard –\u00a0Energy Mix Guest Writer Hydrogen has often been hailed as a fuel of the future, promising a clean and versatile [Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":66337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[197,41,80,14,549],"class_list":{"0":"post-66336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-opinion","8":"tag-decarbonization","9":"tag-energy","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-featured","12":"tag-transportation"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHydrogen - Thoughtful Journalism About Energy's Future<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hydrogen can be used as a fuel, but its inefficiencies, high costs, and logistical hurdles make it a poor alternative to electrification.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/energi.media\/opinion\/opinion-hydrogen-falls-short-as-a-practical-cost-effective-fuel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hydrogen - 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