Green hydrogen is hydrogen generated entirely by renewable energy or from low-carbon power.
Green hydrogen has significantly lower carbon emissions than grey hydrogen, which is produced by steam reforming of natural gas, which makes up the bulk of the hydrogen market.
Different color hydrogens can be made, depending on the way it is produced. Blue hydrogen is made by using steam reforming to combine natural gas with heated water. The result is hydrogen with carbon dioxide as a by-product.
By-products, such as carbon dioxide, are greenhouse gas that can be captured for storage using technological mechanisms called carbon capture and storage. The process of creating grey hydrogen from fossil fuels generates greenhouse gases that cannot be captured. Black hydrogen is created by gasifying fossil fuels.
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Ecosystems are being destroyed, putting lives and livelihoods at risk. The changing weather patterns are having an adverse effect on agriculture, decreasing food security and threatening water security.
A sufficient amount of food is lost every year in sub-Saharan Africa to feed the people of Kenya. Green hydrogen is an alternative energy source that we can explore, as we need to quickly reorient our energy and electricity systems to eliminate the production and usage of fossil fuels.
In order to prevent global warming, it has become urgent to decarbonize world economies. The use of green hydrogen presents the possibility to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors such as aviation, shipping, and chemical production.
Since then, the creation of a green hydrogen economy in Africa has gotten a lot of attention, given to the continent’s high renewable energy resource and investment from industrialized countries searching for ways to decarbonize their own sectors.
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Green hydrogen is ideally suited to decarbonization in traditionally “hard-to-abate” sectors such as industry (e.g., building and steel manufacture), centralized energy systems, and transportation and mobility. As the production of hydrogen becomes commercially viable and pipeline infrastructure is improved to handle hydrogen blends, natural gas will provide the foundation of hydrogen integration.
African countries can position themselves as major producers and exporters of green hydrogen as the hydrogen economy evolves within the continent. Investing in green hydrogen can lead to co-benefits in local communities, such as ensuring that residents have enough water for their daily activities before it is used to produce green hydrogen for electricity.
It is Predicted as well that hydrogen will headline in Africa next year as a medium to transport energy to international markets.
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