A definitive definition for blue hydrogen should be agreed upon at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow so that its producers are allowed to sell it, demanded the CEO of gas infrastructure company Snam on Saturday.

“At COP26 we need to define what blue hydrogen means, because if you have blue hydrogen with little CO2 capture and a lot of methane leakage, it is very damaging,” CEO Marco Alvera told the Saudi Green Initiative forum in Riyadh.

“Blue hydrogen must be defined, has to be certified, so the people producing very low or no carbon and no methane leaking in the hydrogen can have a tradable market,” he said.

Over the last year, a flurry of hydrogen deals has been signed by Snam, an Italian company that generates the majority of its money from gas transportation.

The ability of hydrogen to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is being touted by a number of governments and energy companies. But there is high uncertainty of its prices as well as usage options.

Steam-methane reforming, currently the standard process, is used to recover blue hydrogen from natural gas and this process also captures the CO2 emissions in underground or subsea storage units.

This fuel is increasingly being considered to by stopgap measure until green hydrogen, which is extracted using renewable energy, can completely fulfil demand for green fuel. It is opposed by some environmentalists.

Alvera also expressed the expectation that COP26 will enable consumers become more active.

“We need to get Amazon to start certifying net zero products. That will create a big offset market,” he said, noting this would also require a means of certifying the supply chain of products.

(Source:www.leaderpost.com)