The participants of the round table discussion HYDROGEN ENERGY: TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS FOR A JUST ENERGY TRANSITION, which took place on October 8 during the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum 2024, talked about the development prospects for this sector in Russia and the tools that can be used to support it.
Yuri Volkov, Chairman of the Hydrogen Energy Committee at the CIS Business Centre and Director for Government Relations at H2 Invest called hydrogen a promising energy carrier that can solve the decarbonization tasks. “For the former Soviet countries, and Russia in the first place, it is essential not only to stay in line with the global trends but also to set the development vectors for the new sector so that we have a technological advantage that can ensure competitiveness of our economy. For this, we need to work on the collaboration mechanisms that will include the state, the academic community, and businesses — the mechanisms associated with the energy transition and the new energy industry,” he emphasized.
According to Konstantin Romanov — CEO of Gazprom Hydrogen, during energy transition focusing on innovative technologies should be in the spotlight. He explained that is why the company invests into lots of research, development, and pilot operation works. “For instance, I mean the technologies for methane pyrolysis and hydrogen sulfide based production of hydrogen gas. Obviously we’ve got a lot of hydrogen sulfide at some of our mining sites, and this is a restricting factor that prevents us from scaling up our gas mining. We need to do something with that hydrogen sulfide. At the moment, we use it to make sulfur and hydrogen, and these two new products might be used to find some additional solutions to promote hydrogen energy,” the expert specified.
Mr. Romanov added that natural hydrogen can also become a growth point for this energy sector: “This topic causes the hottest discussions, but it is difficult to deny that there are places where hydrogen emits. Of course, collecting it is a challenging task, but we are working on it. We are looking for some geological formations that will allow it and ensure we can proceed to mining.” It is essential that such activities are regulated by the state, and the first step towards such regulation was registering natural hydrogen in the All-Russian Classifier of Natural Resources, which was reminded to the audience by Mr. Romanov.
Matvey Airapetov, Deputy Director of Department in the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation remarked that hydrogen energy is at its initial stage but is already seen as a highly promising sector. He explained that they had compiled an atlas of hydrogen-related initiatives, which is currently being updated, to realize how much equipment and technologies the industry can provide for the energy sector. “Unlike players from abroad, we don’t stick to green hydrogen only, as CCUS (carbon capture, utilization, and storage) technologies are enormously potent, too,” Mr. Airapetov outlined.
The research performed in 2022 revealed that there are 118 companies in Russia who have the competences required for the hydrogen energy sphere, and there are 280 initiatives in progress — starting with the lab sampling stage and finishing with the final product stage. Matvey Airapetov explained that to produce the necessary equipment, the pool of promising R&D works was compiled, and a subsidy for the research, development, and engineering parts was provided.
He elaborated that besides the equipment production issues there are the issues of its testing. That’s how they came up with hydrogen testing grounds in Yamal and Sakhalin — there they will be able to test all kinds of equipment to see if they comply with safety regulations and standards. Moreover, these grounds will also be suitable for equipment certification.