Many researchers see a huge role for the gas in decarbonizing economies. Making steel green is just one of the ways that hydrogen is now expected to help decarbonize the world’s economy. Although some have touted hydrogen’s use as a transportation fuel, it’s unlikely to have much impact in that sector or in heating, for which batteries and electrical power already provide more efficient low-carbon solutions. Rather, hydrogen’s biggest contribution will be to clean up industrial processes, from producing plastics and fertilizers to refining hydrocarbons. These industries have conventionally been thought of as harder to decarbonize, and have received less attention from the media, investors and policymakers. Hydrogen might find uses in energy production, too. Liquid fuels made from hydrogen might one day power air travel and shipping. And hydrogen could even help to decarbonize the electricity grid: excess solar or wind power could be diverted into making the gas, which could then be used in other industrial processes or simply to store energy. In this way, hydrogen is expected to act as a bridge between many different sectors of the economy. Hydrogen is sort of unique because of its versatility in the ways you can produce it and in the ways in which you can use it,” says Dharik Mallapragada, a chemical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Policymakers anxious to reach net-zero emissions goals have begun a massive push for hydrogen, notably in the United States and the European Union. In some cases, they are subsidizing the price of low-carbon hydrogen; in others, handing out tax credits for hydrogen producers or for industries that use it. Partly as a result, investment in hydrogen projects is experiencing a boom. The Hydrogen Council, an industry group in Brussels, estimates that the hundreds of large-scale hydrogen projects announced already amount to a possible investment of US$240 billion by 2030 — although so far, only one-tenth of these are fully completed deals. By 2050, the council thinks the market for hydrogen and hydrogen technologies will be worth $2.5 trillion per year. Analysts now project that the world will see a five- to sevenfold increase in hydrogen production by mid-century (see ‘Hydrogen sources’). This should help to cut the world’s carbon footprint — but only if that hydrogen is itself obtained without adding to CO2 emissions, as it is in the Luleå pilot. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03699-0?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=nature&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1668620463-1