CCUS-Enabled Hydrogen is Low Carbon Hydrogen
DESNZ have produced a Low Carbon Hydrogen Standard (LCHS) to ensure that all hydrogen that receives government support is produced in a manner that is compliant with the UK’s Net Zero targets. The LCHS is one of the most stringent standards in the world for carbon emissions, and hydrogen produced in the UK using CCUS-enabled technology, such as that being proposed for use in the industrial clusters, can easily meet the definition of ‘low carbon’.
Novel technologies currently being brought to market offer the capability of producing low carbon hydrogen that can be applied to decarbonising smaller industrial processes away from the major clusters. CCUS-Enabled Hydrogen Delivers at Scale and Pace CCUS-enabled hydrogen can deliver hydrogen production suitable for individual industrial facilities or on a gigawatt (GWs) scale in a relatively short space of time.
The nature of the technology lends itself to large scale facilities that can be delivered in modules of 100s of MW, but the development of new production pathways that output solid carbon (rather than carbon dioxide gas) will mean that hydrogen can also be produced away from carbon dioxide networks and at smaller scales. When multiple projects are delivered concurrently, this kick-starts the hydrogen economy, allowing the UK to go further and faster in its efforts to decarbonise.