Is green hydrogen the affordable zero-emission fuel shipping needs?

According to a new study, this clean fuel would add “just cents” to the cost of freight.

Operating cargo ships on 100 percent green hydrogen fuel would add an entirely negligible amount to the cost of shipping consumer products, said a new study published by Transport & Environment (T&E), earlier this week.

Cost of green hydrogen and how it would effect product prices.

It would increase the cost of a pair of Nikes by only 15 cents and a new fridge by $12 on average. The research by T&E, the leading clean transport campaign group in Europe, included an analysis of the cost impact of marine shipping should that transport sector undergo complete decarbonization.

The analysis aligned the proposed increases with the FuelEU Maritime (FEUM) and the maritime Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) targets.

It determined that by fueling container ships with green hydrogen, the impact on the price of consumer goods would be next to nothing.  T&E specifically underscored that the analysis they conducted “debunks claims by the shipping industry” that complete decarbonization is prohibitively expensive and would only result in massive increases in cost that would be passed down to consumers.[aweber listid="6179904" formid="497551345" formtype="webform"]

The research showed that using green hydrogen for marine shipping is equally affordable as fossil fuel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuLvohkOLNY “Green shipping would add less than (€EU)10 cents to a pair of Nikes,” said T&E shipping director Faig Abbasov. “This is a tiny price to pay for cleaning up one of the dirtiest industries on earth. In a year where shipping companies are making bigger profits than Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Netflix combined, it is right to question whether shipping companies are doing enough.” The research indicated that clean energy efforts for decarbonizing the shipping sector by using green hydrogen, across the board, would not have a negative impact on goods shipping prices.

I just got my fav new #Reebok trainers; shipped from #China most likely on a polluting #ship. We just published analysis: if shoes were carried on a ship running on green #H2, my trainers would only cost €0.08 (i.e. 8 cents) more. This is the price worth paying for #CleanPlanet https://t.co/nTdE7PPndW pic.twitter.com/OODjrC7rbR

— Faig Abbasov (@FaigAbbasov) June 28, 2022

Moreover, the added cost of meeting the Fit for 55 (FF55) targets from the strategy proposed in the European Commission would do little to impact the prices consumers would pay for shipped products.  In that case, the T&E report showed that a pair of Nikes would increase in price by far less than a penny, €0.003, a television would cost only €0.03 more, and a refrigerator’s price would rise by only €0.27. Those increases are slight enough that consumers wouldn’t even know they were there.

Most Popular Hydrogen Questions - Who is the largest producer of green hydrogen?

China is the largest producer of hydrogen but a lot of this is grey hydrogen, made from coal. The country does have more than 30+ green hydrogen projects working currently, which does put them in the number one category. The country has stated that hydrogen is one of six industries of the future, making Chinese innovators the largest in patent filings - over 7,261 hydrogen fuel cell patents. Plus, Chinese gas leaders like Sinopec, have been working on the largest green hydrogen project, 300 MW photovoltaic power plant, as well as an electrolytic water hydrogen production plant for the generation of 618 million kWh of renewable electricity and 20,000 tons of renewable H2 per year.[rank_math_rich_snippet id="s-c18eb918-f59a-4a6a-8ad1-a72d71456b26"] This United States is coming in second for green hydrogen production. The most notable is a project is Texas set to start in 2026 where it's been reported to start producing 2.5 billion kilograms of clean H2 annually.