The 3rd meeting of the National Hydrogen Council was held on September 30, 2021 in Bercy with the objective to accelerate the production of hydrogen by electrolysis to accelerate the production of hydrogen by electrolysis to decarbonise industry and heavy transport.
Founded in January of 2021, the National Hydrogen Council (CNH) held its 3 th meeting to take stock of progress the implementation of the National Strategy hydrogen development decarbonised presented a year ago, on 8 September 2020.
The objective of this plan, endowed with € 7 billion by 2030, including € 3.4 billion for the period 2021-2023: to move towards the production of “green hydrogen” by electrolysis.
Produce hydrogen without CO2 emissions
Why do we need hydrogen? Because it is necessary in the process of a large part of our industries (steelworks, cement factories, refineries, textiles, fertilizers, etc.). The need for hydrogen in France is around 900,000 tonnes per year.
The problem is that the production of hydrogen is 90% carbonated today because of the technologies used (methane steam reforming, etc.), whose CO2 emissions are around 9 million tonnes per year.
The challenge is therefore to produce hydrogen without CO2 emissions. This “green hydrogen” is produced by “electrolysis” , a process using an electric current to extract the hydrogen from the water molecule (H2O).
Control the entire production cycle
With the carbon-free production of electricity by nuclear power, the production of green hydrogen by electrolysis is today an industrial reality.
The Government’s objective is to develop this industrial potential of electrolysis for a capacity of 6.5 GW of electrolysers installed in 2030.
Mass transport
The second strategic objective that hydrogen will fulfill is mass transport.
The transport sector is indeed the leading source of CO2 in mainland France with 30.1% of CO2 equivalent emissions, ahead of agriculture (19.6%), tertiary residential (18.5%) and industry. manufacturing and construction (18%) ( source: Citepa data. Secten report, 2020 edition )
“ I am certain that for public transport in the broad sense, hydrogen is the right solution. This will be the solution for the completely carbon-free aircraft. […] For planes with a capacity of 80 to 100 people, hydrogen can be a perfect solution ”, indicates Bruno Le Maire.
“ For trains, […] hydrogen trains, this already exists. It is already rolling . This works very well in conditions of profitability, maximum security “, adds the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Recovery before continuing:” Hydrogen can also be a solution for small utilities or medium utilities . […] This can also be the case for company fleets ”.
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