In an interview given this Monday to Jornal Nacional, President Jair Bolsonaro mentioned the potential of the so-called green hydrogen as a source of energy that will be explored in a possible second government. , and whose production could be equivalent to “50 Itaipu plants”.
Many people have been asking themselves what this fuel would be since then. Does it really have all this energy and economic potential suggested by the president?
What is green hydrogen?
(Source: Water Treatment)
If you still remember your chemistry and biology classes, you must know that hydrogen is the most abundant chemical element in the world. universe: it is equivalent to the total of 75% of the mass that makes up everything that exists in the cosmos. In the human body, it is the most frequent element in terms of number of atoms.
It happens that hydrogen needs to be produced. The most used means for this is the electrolysis of water: it is decomposed and the hydrogen and oxygen are separated by means of electricity. This isolated hydrogen is used to generate energy for fuels, input for industries, heating of buildings, etc. But there is a catch: electrolysis has an environmental impact. That is, the process causes the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere, increasing the global average temperature.
Because of this, hydrogen is classified according to the way in which it is obtained. Gray hydrogen is what is generated from fossil sources such as natural gas. Blue hydrogen is also obtained by fossil energy, but during its production process, the carbon that is generated is captured, preventing it from being emitted to the environment.
Finally , we have green hydrogen, produced by clean and renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectric, wind, biomass, biogas, etc. When classified as clean, this means that there is no emission of CO2 into the atmosphere.
What is the potential of green hydrogen for Brazil?
)(Source: Órigo Energia)
According to specialists, Brazil has great potential to produce and export this green hydrogen, with good profit possibilities. Some say that this will be the “fuel of the future”.
“Brazil’s potential has already been identified internationally. We know that all countries that have sun during the day and wind at night will be rich countries “, declared Mônica Saraiva Panik, director of Institutional Relations of the Brazilian Green Hydrogen Association (ABH2), during a seminar organized by the Federation of Industries of the State of Ceará.
Therefore, hot regions during the day with the wind at night, like the Northeast, would be perfect for the production of this commodity. Recently, it was announced that Unigel, one of the largest industries in Latin America in the fertilizer and ammonia segment, intends to install the largest Brazilian plant for green hydrogen in Bahia.
The promise is that the factory starts operating in 2023 and generates 10 thousand tons of this type of energy a year. Part of the green hydrogen will still be converted into green ammonia — which serves as a raw material for the steel, fertilizer and oil refining sectors.
Another expectation around green hydrogen is that it generates a lot of profits for the country. Due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, the situation of the international fuel trade is very inflated. Therefore, further exploring this commodity seems to be one of the great possibilities for generating revenue for Brazil.
The country’s climate makes hydrogen green has even more potential here. “We have all the conditions to produce green hydrogen under internationally competitive conditions”, says Duna Uribe, executive and commercial director of the Pacem Industrial and Port Complex, in Ceará. However, she recalls that there must be a regulation in the entire production chain of this fuel, since it is an extremely explosive gas.
