RIYADH: Low-carbon hydrogen can be produced at a cost of $2 per kg but the issue is transporting the fuel to where it is needed, according to the chief technology officer of Aramco.
Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative Forum in Riyad, Ahmad Al Khowaiter said the technology for capturing the gas has proven itself reliable “over many years” and is “at scale today”.
Khowaiter claimed that hydrogen is the only option in “many of the harder to decarbonise sectors” as the world seeks to drastically reduce its carbon footprint.
He confirmed that Aramco, the Saudi-state owned oil and gas company, has been operating its own production carbon capture pilot with the capacity to capture 800,000 tonnes a year of carbon for the last six years with “no problems, no challenges”.
“I really do believe that technology is mature, the cost structures are very compatible with the competitive energy costs that are needed for hydrogen” he told delegates at the conference, adding: “It really does allow, for example, low carbon hydrogen to be produced today at scale with very competitive costs.”
Khowaiter went on: “The challenge with hydrogen is transport, so the big challenge is converting it to something that can be transported or compressing it in transport.
“At the point of production we’re talking $1.5 to £2 a kg range, which is far below alternatives for now, as the alternatives have to scale up.”
