Hydrogen. That is what this post is about. It all started with an article about a new method to produce it that looks really promising. But then we got to the question of what “color” is the hydrogen it produces. I frequently use the terms green hydrogen, gray hydrogen and sometimes blue hydrogen. Green hydrogen is produced via electrolysis using renewable electricity, but what is renewable electricity?
Various parties have invented other colors for hydrogen, but in my mind this is a futile effort. There are a huge number of ways to produce hydrogen. Which of these has the best economics and/or produces the least GHG frequently depends on the production and evaluation methods. I will just say that hydrogen is a Chameleon, and it can be any color it wants to.
This post will look at green hydrogen, and more specifically, the above question (what is renewable electricity?). Then it will look at the new method to produce hydrogen that I found.