China's lead in Green Hydrogen

[OKIsItJustMe]

Presently, most hydrogen production in China (as in the rest of the world) “reforms" “Natural Gas”/Methane. (There are other methods; this is the primary one. We have been doing it for about a century now, and to date it is the least expensive/most profitable way to produce hydrogen.)

This is called “Gray” or “Grey Hydrogen”because “Greenhouse Gases” are produced at the same time. In theory, the GHG's could easily be captured and sequestered. Typically, they are not (since that means more expense and fewer profits.)

Importantly, as natural gas prices rise, producing hydrogen through steam reforming of natural gas becomes more expensive, making other methods of hydrogen production (i.e. “Green Hydrogen”) more cost competitive.

The key to "Green Hydrogen” at this point is electrolysis of water. Electricity from clean sources is used to split H₂O into H₂ and O₂. (Many of us saw this demonstrated in a high school science class.)
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=electrolysis+of+water&ia=videos&iax=videos

There are other possible ways to produce “Green Hydrogen,” but, for now, electrolysis is far-and-away the chief method.

In October of 2024, the International Energy Agency published their Global Hydrogen Review 2024. Since it was published in October of 2024, figures for 2024 are estimates. The following figures are taken from that publication.

In this first figure we can see the phenomenal growth of electrolyzer capacity just since 2020:


We can also see that China’s capacity in 2024 was greater than all the rest of the world combined. In a distant 2nd place was the whole of Europe, followed by the US.

To increase electrolyzer capacity requires manufacturing (or purchasing) electrolyzers. Here too, China has the lead, although the US and Europe are not as far behind.