RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The H2ar Consortium, a collaborative workspace led by Y-TEC and bringing together 50 leading companies, presented the report on scenarios for the next decade, which shows that Argentina has competitive costs for the supply of low-carbon hydrogen at the international level. The text states that the cost of hydrogen could be 1.40 dollars per kilo for the blue form and 1.50 dollars for the green one by 2030.
The first report of results was presented yesterday. According to the organization, it shows that Argentina faces a historic opportunity, driven by the acceleration of the global energy transition, to consolidate an exporting platform of scale in low-carbon energies.
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The report reveals that the country can develop a strategy of dual production of clean hydrogen, combining generation from natural gas reforming technologies with carbon dioxide (CO2) capture, known as blue hydrogen, and water electrolysis using renewable energies, i.e., green hydrogen.
According to the document, in the case of blue hydrogen, Argentina already has highly competitive costs for its production, while green hydrogen is expected to reach economic parity in 2030.
According to the report, in Argentina, it is currently possible to reach a levelized cost of clean hydrogen from natural gas reforming with CO2 capture and storage of 1.4 to 1.8 dollars per kilo considering gas prices between 3 to 5 dollars per million BTU respectively; In comparison, green hydrogen produced by renewable electrolysis of water is expected to be between 1.5 to 1.6 dollars per kilo in 2030.
These hydrogen costs put Argentina in an excellent position to attract investment and join the developing global value chain.
“The country has an abundance and quality of resources, two necessary conditions to think of itself as a global player. The medium-term strategy for Argentina should be focused on advancing in the validation and scale of experiences and technologies, thinking about consolidating the foundations of this large scale export platform of low-carbon energies”, highlighted Santiago Sacerdote, general manager of Y-TEC, during the event in which the report of results of the eight work cells of the consortium, the result of a year of collaborative work, was presented.
The report also indicates that the adoption of hydrogen technologies and their massification can be accelerated, especially for industry and mobility. The most optimistic scenarios show that the Argentine industry will have opportunities for clean hydrogen in the second half of this decade, mainly in the ammonia, methanol, refining, and steel sectors, which currently use 400,000 tons per year as feedstock.
In relation to mobility, an optimistic scenario envisions that hydrogen-powered regional trains and heavy-duty trucks could also reach cost parity with current internal combustion technologies using other fuels by the second half of this decade.
These scenarios could be further enhanced by implementing a potential hydrogen production promotion scheme in Argentina, an initiative in which the companies of the H2ar Consortium participate within the Economic and Social Council.