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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The European Commission
on Wednesday unveiled a strategy to scale up renewable hydrogen projects across
polluting sectors from chemicals to steel and push for clean fuels and energy
efficiency to meet the EU’s net-zero emissions goal by 2050, reported Reuters.
European industry and
refineries already use around 8 million tonnes of hydrogen each year, but most
of this is “grey” hydrogen, a version made from natural gas in a process that
produces planet-warming emissions.
The EU’s priority is to develop
“green” hydrogen and largely deploy it for sectors hard to decarbonise or where
electrification is difficult or impossible from 2030 to 2050. But it recognized
the need for a phased, gradual approach where a halfway house of “blue hydrogen”
will play a role.
From 2020 to 2024, hydrogen electrolysers installations
of at least 6 gigawatts of renewable would be set up in the EU, with the
production of up to one million tonnes of renewable hydrogen.
In the
second phase, at least 40 gigawatts of renewable hydrogen electrolysers would be
installed and up to ten million tonnes of renewable hydrogen would be produced
in the EU, from 2025 to 2030.
Cumulative investments in renewable
hydrogen in Europe could reach between 180 billion and 470 billion euros by
2050, and between 3 billion and 18 billion euros for low-carbon fossil-based
hydrogen, the bloc’s executive said.
“Next to being an alternative fuel
and energy carrier, hydrogen can become an important low-carbon building block
for the chemical industry’s production processes,” said Marco Mensik, director
general of of the chemical industry association Cefic.
The EU also said
energy efficiency will be a priority, along with a greater use of electricity
where possible and promoting clean fuels, including renewable hydrogen and
sustainable biofuels and biogas. New classification and certification system for
renewable and low-carbon fuels will be introduced.
The strategy did not
contain any legislative proposals which the Commission said would come next
year.
As MRC informed earlier, Italian oil major Eni is planning to
create a division to focus on new energy solutions which could be headed by its
CFO, as it steps up preparations for a decarbonised future.
Besides,
Shell has deepened its
carbon emissions targets promising to become a net-zero emissions energy
business by 2050 or sooner as pressure mounts on oil majors to help mitigate
climate change. Under the move, Shell said it will reduce the net carbon
footprint of the energy products it sells by around 65% by 2050, up from a
previous goal of around 50%, and by around 30% by 2035, increased from around
20%.
We remind that none of the big oil companies currently meet
U.N. targets to limit global warming despite the most ambitious targets set by
Royal Dutch Shell and Eni.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for
producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 595,170 tonnes in the first five
month of 2020, up by 10% year on year. Deliveries of all ethylene polymers,
except for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), rose partially because of an
increase in capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP
shipments to the Russian market was 457,930 tonnes in January-May 2020
(calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Deliveris of
exclusively PP random copolymer increased. |
