Germany should consider hydrogen derived from iron – report

Germany should consider the import of direct reduced iron as a way to produce the hydrogen that is needed to generate electricity in its planned backup power plants, says a report by Norwegian consultancy DNV on behalf of the Climate Neutrality Foundation. This “less conventional” route of hydrogen supply called “Iron-to-Hydrogen” is “a potentially cost-effective and safe option for sourcing green hydrogen for Germany’s back-up power plants,” said the report.

The report does not make a comparison to pipeline imports from neighbouring countries. It instead focusses on domestic production with electrolysers, iron-to-hydrogen, and import through ammonia as a hydrogen carrier.

Using green hydrogen, direct reduced iron (DRI) would be produced in countries with favourable renewables conditions, and then transported to Germany, said the report. At its destitnation, the iron could be oxidised at high temperatures and by adding water and a catalyst to release hydrogen, which is then used to generate electricity. The technology would yet have to be further matured, but should be considered, as it has the potential to be the lowest cost of the three value chains studied, said the report.

However, energy efficiency is lower than with green hydrogen production in Germany or the import of ammonia, said the report. To provide 10 terawatt hours (TWh) per year to the German grid, nearly 60 TWh per year of renewable energy need to be produced in the supplier country. The total energy efficiency of the value chain is therefore 17 percent (domestic production: 31%, ammonia import: 19%). Roughly 21 percent of the original energy is lost in the hydrogen production process, 32 percent is lost in the DRI production process, 7 percent is lost in transport, 3 percent is lost in reconversion and 21 percent is lost in power generation.

In the fight against climate change, hydrogen made with renewable electricity is seen as essential for the decarbonisation of sectors with particularly stubborn emissions, such as heavy industry and aviation. Many experts doubt that green hydrogen will play the large role many industry representatives and governments aim for. This is due to factors like costs, the availability of alternatives and restraints connected to the fuel’s physical properties, such as its comparatively low volume energy density. The German government said the country will largely have to import the fuel due to unfavourable local conditions for additional renewable electricity production to produce the greenhouse gas neutral fuel.