Oman looks to a hydrogen future

In order for hydrogen to be a viable alternative fuel for vehicles, its cost needs to be more or less comparable with petrol. It also needs to be green - green hydrogen is hydrogen produced using renewable energy - usually solar or wind energy. 

Toyota's Mirai is an example of a commercially available hydrogen fuelled car, and it uses approximately 1kg of hydrogen per 80 miles driven, whereas a comparable Ford Focus uses about 7.5 litres of petrol to cover the same distance. 

The cost of producing petrol is currently around 50p per litre, so that 7.5 litres costs around £3.75 to produce. Targeting that price for 1Kg of hydrogen is thus important.

At a small scale, these numbers are not yet achievable using electrolysers. However, with industrial-scale production of green hydrogen, it is believed that the cost of green hydrogen is likely to come down to between £2 and £6 per litre. Plans for such industrial-scale production are now starting to materialise around the world.

One such project - on an epic scale - is being developed in Oman. Around $30B is being committed to develop the infrastructure for vast areas of solar farms - approximating the size of Slovakia!  This is to target the production of 1 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030, 3.75 million tonnes by 2040 and 8.5 million tonnes by 2050. At these levels of production, the hydrogen production would be worth twice as much as the Sultanate’s current overseas LNG sales! 

A hurdle will be developing the extensive infrastructure for distributing this hydrogen, particularly as much of that hydrogen will be for export. It will be interesting to see what direction they take on this, and whether this hydrogen will achieve the targeted costs per kg! 

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