Energy News Monitoring

The creative association Advanced Energy Technologies has presented a map of the global energy hydrogen infrastructure.
The compilers have attempted to demonstrate on a small map of the world the main statistical indicators of the production and use of hydrogen for energy purposes, to display the largest or most notable infrastructure facilities, and to present a list of regional and national development programs. The main purpose of the project is to provide users with the opportunity to obtain understandable and graphic information about the global infrastructure of energetic hydrogen.

According to the information sources shown on the map, the world production of hydrogen is 65-100 million tons per year, of which about 70 million tons are pure hydrogen and 40 million are by-product. Over the past 15 years the total growth of hydrogen production in the world has amounted to about 50%.

The largest consumers of hydrogen in the energy sector are oil refineries, where hydrogen is used for the production of various types of fuel with minimum sulphur content. The main production capacities at refineries are in the USA (more than 26%), Asia-Pacific countries (about 21%) and Europe (about 18.5%). In the vast majority of cases, hydrogen is produced by the steam reforming method.

Another indicator of the intensive development of hydrogen infrastructure is the expansion of the network of hydrogen filling stations in the world, a significant increase in the number of hydrogen fuel cell plants and their unit capacities, the emergence of plants for the production of “green hydrogen”, power-to-gas projects, energy storage and gas into the natural gas grid projects.

The map displays more than 200 facilities for the production, storage, transportation and use of hydrogen, including plants for the production of merchant cryogenic liquid and compressed hydrogen; gasification plants from coal; biomass and waste plants; hydrogen pipelines; underground hydrogen storage facility.

The production of merchant hydrogen is crucial in assessing the level of hydrogen infrastructure development. The map shows the best countries in the world by this indicator based on data from the H2 Tools / Pacific Northwest National Laboratory portal. It also provides information on the main producers of commercial hydrogen, as well as on the owners of the pipeline infrastructure.

The absolute leader in terms of hydrogen infrastructure development in the world is the United States. This renewable energy industry has also developed significantly in Japan, South Korea, Europe and China.

This map can be useful for students and teachers, engineers and investors interested in the development of advanced energy technologies. Mainly publicly available sources of information were used to compile the map. Map of Global Hydrogen Energy Infrastructure is available for free at www.aenert.com.