How and where are hydrogen and synthetic fuels produced today and in the future?

Today, hydrogen is most commonly produced as so-called “gray” hydrogen. Hydrogen, as well as other synthetic fuels, are mostly produced from fossil fuels, typically from steam reforming of natural gas. A future CO₂-neutral production of “green” hydrogen must be enabled by production processes based on renewable energies. Green hydrogen can be produced most cheaply where renewable electricity is available in large quantities at low cost, and an electrolyzer can be operated with high full load hours. In addition to national hydrogen production, the German government sees a high potential for imports according to its national hydrogen strategy. Suitable import countries are areas where renewable energies can be produced cheaply. The FfE’s research projects examine, among other things, the suitability of domestic production sites as well as import strategies.

Specifically, we look at the following questions:

• How are hydrogen and synthetic fuels produced?
• What criteria must production sites fulfill?
• How much hydrogen can we produce from surplus electricity?
• From which regions of the world will we import hydrogen?
• Does it make more sense to produce hydrogen regionally or centrally?