Egerer J, Farhang-Damghani N, Grimm V, Runge P (2024)
Publication Language: English
Publication Status: Submitted
Publication Type: Journal article, Original article
Future Publication Type: Other publication type
Publication year: 2024
Series: SSRN online
Book Volume: 358
Article Number: 122485
URI: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261923018494
DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.122485
Open Access Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261923018494
In many industries, low-carbon hydrogen will substitute fossil fuels in the course of the transformation to climate neutrality. This paper contributes to understanding this transformation. This paper provides an overview of energy- and emission-intensive industry sectors with great potential to defossilize their production processes with hydrogen. An assessment of future hydrogen demand for various defossilization strategies in Germany that rely on hydrogen as a feedstock or as an energy carrier to a different extent in the sectors steel, chemicals, cement, lime, glass, as well as pulp and paper is carried out. Results indicate that aggregate industrial hydrogen demand in those industries would range between 197 TWh and 298 TWh if production did not relocate abroad for any industry sector. The range for hydrogen demand is mainly due to differences in the extent of hydrogen utilization as compared to alternative transformation paths for example based on electrification. The attractiveness of production abroad is then assessed based on the prospective comparative cost advantage of relocating parts of the value chain to excellent production sites for low-carbon hydrogen. Case studies are provided for the steel industry, as well as the chemical industry with ethylene production through methanol and the production of urea on the basis of ammonia. The energy cost of the respective value chains in Germany is then compared to the case of value chains partly located in regions with excellent conditions for renewable energies and hydrogen production. The results illustrate, that at least for some processes – as ammonia production – relocation to those favorable regions may occur due to substantial comparative cost advantages.
APA:
Egerer, J., Farhang-Damghani, N., Grimm, V., & Runge, P. (2024). The industry transformation from fossil fuels to hydrogen will reorganize value chains: Big picture and case studies for Germany. Applied Energy, 358. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.122485
MLA:
Egerer, Jonas, et al. "The industry transformation from fossil fuels to hydrogen will reorganize value chains: Big picture and case studies for Germany." Applied Energy 358 (2024).
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