BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 13. China is expected to remain the leading country for hydrogen need by 2050, in a 1.5°C scenario, with about a quarter of the global hydrogen demand, driven by the industrial sector (70 percent of its demand), Trend reports via the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
“China is today the largest hydrogen consumer in the world, at about 24 MtH2 per year in 2020. It produces about a quarter of the global hydrogen used for refining and is home to about a quarter of the global ammonia production and over half the global methanol and steel production,” the report said.
According to IRENA, India is forecast to run second with almost a third of China’s demand.
“India’s steel production is expected to quadruple by 2050, which combined with one of the largest iron ore reserves in the world and low-cost renewable electricity opens up the opportunity to use electrolytic hydrogen for direct reduction of iron,” the report noted.
The US is expected to rank third among the largest hydrogen consumers, “going from about 10 MtH2 per year today to over 30 MtH2 /year in 2050, with most of the growth driven by the transport sector”.
“Hydrogen demand by 2050 is expected to be relatively concentrated, with the top ten countries in the world representing about two-thirds of the global consumption,” IRENA noted.
Meanwhile, a total of $4 trillion of investments in the green hydrogen value chain is needed by 2050 to be able to trade about 36 percent of the overall green hydrogen flow.
As IRENA estimates, this volume is essential for the deployment of 10.3 TW of renewable capacity, 4.4 TW of electrolysis, and 1.6 TWh of batteries.
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