Hydrogen has been promoted as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels as it does not emit greenhouse gases when burned. Large-scale production of hydrogen requires large amounts of electricity due to the inefficiency of the conversion process. This means that if hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels, the climate change mitigation potential of hydrogen production is limited or non-existent. This can also be referred to as ‘grey’ hydrogen production. It is therefore important to assess the full life cycle of hydrogen production to determine whether its use actually results in emissions savings.
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