Timur Shalabayev, Executive Director, RES Association "Qazaq Green"

The importance of "green" hydrogen as a sustainable and universal energy carrier has received significant recognition both nationally and internationally. Many countries are considering the possibility of using "green" hydrogen to solve the problems of climate change, ensure economic security and economic growth. In this context, Germany has become a leading global player in promotion of hydrogen technologies and creation of sustainable hydrogen industry.

In order to study the best practices in the development and implementation of hydrogen policy, the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) organized a trip for the Kazakh delegation on October 16-20 within the framework of the Hydrogen Diplomacy Office, which was opened last year in Astana. During the trip, participants were provided with an overview of the adopted Hydrogen Strategy, existing technologies and infrastructure.

HYDROGEN POLICY: DECISIONS WERE MADE-GOALS WERE SET

The Kazakh delegation headed by the Chairman of the Committee on Ecology and Natural Resources of Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Zhanbyrshin Ye.T. during a working trip on hydrogen diplomacy to Berlin (Germany), on October 16, 2023, met with the Director General for Climate Diplomacy, Economic Issues and Technologies in the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany Oliver Rentschler and representatives of the German Energy Agency (dena).

The Kazakh delegation included representatives of interested state bodies, departments, industry experts and the private sector of Kazakhstan. The Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan was represented by Vice Minister of Energy Nurmaganbetov Zh.D.

The German side presented the updated national hydrogen strategy and its role in the energy transition of Germany. During the discussion, the parties discussed the prospects of Kazakh-German cooperation on green hydrogen and decarbonization. At the same time, the parties noted the current geopolitical risks, challenges associated with the transportation and storage of hydrogen, as well as the need to create a new infrastructure and form a global hydrogen market.

The energy crisis in Germany prompted the political forces of the country to reconsider National Hydrogen Strategy adopted in 2020. The new document aims at the growth of the hydrogen market through concrete and enhanced measures that will contribute to the transformation of Germany into a climate-neutral economy by 2045.

It is assumed that in the country, the installed capacity of the electrolyzers will be 10 GW by 2030, which will make Germany a leading supplier of hydrogen technologies. In addition, about one third of hydrogen will be produced in the country, while about 50-70% of the total demand for hydrogen in the country is planned to be imported, i.e. about 45-90 TW of hydrogen. To this end, the efforts of the German Government are aimed at discussing with partners in various regions of the world the issue of starting hydrogen production and further imports to Germany. The government also wants to build 1,800 kilometers of repaired and new pipelines for the "hydrogen start-up network" in Germany as early as 2027/2028.

In continuation of the political dialogue between Kazakhstan and Germany, on October 18,2023 in Brussels (Belgium), the Kazakh delegation met with the Directors of the Departments of the European Commission for Energy DP ENER Cristina Lobillo Borrero and International Cooperation DP INTPA Peteris Ustubs.

During the meeting, the parties discussed the EU-Kazakhstan energy partnership, prospects for green hydrogen, Kazakhstan's plans for the modernization of power grids, as well as further cooperation on implementation of the EU-Kazakhstan Strategic Partnership Roadmap on Sustainable Raw Materials, batteries and Renewable Hydrogen Value Chains for 2023-2024.

Following the discussion, the European Commission expressed its intention to support Kazakhstan in the exchange of standards, best practices and other documents to improve the regulatory framework for hydrogen in Kazakhstan.

HYDROGEN TECHNOLOGIES AND SCIENCE: "PURE" CHEMISTRY AND NO "SPACE"

As part of the trip, the Kazakh delegation visited a number of research laboratories where projects implemented to develop technologies for the production and use of hydrogen.

Thus, on October 17,2023, the delegation met with professors of the North German NRL laboratory. The North German Laboratory (Norddeutsche Reallabor) NRL is an innovative project aimed at exploring new ways to achieve climate neutrality. To this end, industrial and residential premises with particularly high energy consumption are gradually being defossilized and converted to renewable energy sources, especially in industry, as well as in the heat supply and transport sectors.

Professor Hans Schafers noted the importance of the development of hydrogen as an energy carrier in Germany: "At the moment, there are often surpluses of electricity. Storage systems are required. Large gas storage facilities underground. If there is a surplus, we convert electricity to hydrogen, then we convert it to gas and accumulate it in gas storage facilities."

The renewable energy capacity is 150 GW of electricity from wind and solar. The maximum electricity demand in Germany is 80 GW. In order to make Germany climate neutral, we need much more renewable energy capacity. In particular, it will be necessary to increase electricity production from RES by 3 times to 450 GW, which is a big challenge for power grids.

In this regard, according to NRL experts, battery solutions are used only for short-term stabilization in networks, mainly at the household and transport levels. Hydrogen is needed for longer-term energy storage. Germany does not plan to use hydrogen for heating buildings, it is planned to use heat pumps for this. Hydrogen will be used in industrial systems where high temperatures are needed.

The North German laboratory is backed by more than 50 business, scientific and public sector partners from the following regions: Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, West Mecklenburg- Vorpommern and Bremerhaven. The laboratories operate eight electrolyzers with a hydrogen production capacity of more than 40 MW. They are used to replace fossil fuels in industrial processes with hydrogen or its derivatives. In addition, several projects are being implemented in the laboratory that allow the utilization of waste heat in the amount of 700 GWh per year. In the transport sector, several hydrogen fueling stations and fuel cell vehicles are being tested under various use scenarios.

The purpose of the laboratory is to test the way of transformation of the integrated energy system, which will reduce CO2 emissions in the north of Germany by 75% by 2035. Pilot projects planned for this period can reduce CO2 emissions from 350 thousand to 500 thousand tons per year. The large- scale approach gives the project the role of supra- regional model for integration of hydrogen sectors in Germany and Europe.

At the moment, work is underway to connect different sectors: electric power, thermal power, industry and transport. We are talking about a complete systemic transformation of the energy sector through the development of hydrogen energy to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. To do this, 9 working groups have been formed at the laboratory: 4 of them work with potential consumers and 5 on systemic issues.

On October 20, the Kazakh delegation met with representatives of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). At KIT, the H2 group of the Institute of Thermal Energy Technologies and Safety (ITES) operates, which is responsible for development of research and projects related to the potential benefits of hydrogen in energy technologies and industrial areas. The range of these projects extends from experiments concerning fundamental phenomena to applied safety assessment of hydrogen and hybrid mixtures. Areas of research include: methods for assessing the risks of hydrogen, "flame acceleration" and "combustion with detonation", alkaline electrolysis under high pressure, the use of hydrogen in the transport sector.

At the Institute, power to liquid and power to gas electrolysis plants operate at experimental sites. The Institute has developed a reactor that allows the electrolysis of CO2 and water from carbon dioxide to separate them into carbon monoxide and hydrogen and produce synthetic fuel and paraffin.

The Institute has been participating in the Copernicus project since 2016, within the framework of which, at the first stage, work was carried out on the study of Power2X hydrogen production technologies, at the second stage, the developed technologies were scaled. Now the task is to design a 1 MW plant.

Following the meetings at the institutes, the participants concluded that Germany has been conducting the necessary research on hydrogen for a long time and today all the necessary technologies have been developed and are in scaling mode. In the near future, we can expect their commercialization and implementation on the industrial sites of the country.

DEMAND FOR HYDROGEN: TRANSFORMATION OF INDUSTRY

The main consumers of hydrogen in the future will be the industrial sector and transport. And if today cars run on hydrogen in European cities, then the issue of industrial transformation may take a longer time. However, the German industry is already preparing for the transition to hydrogen. An example of this is the transformation of the river port of Duisburg, which was visited by the Kazakh delegation.

The port of Duisburg has existed since 1926. This is a state-owned company. 2/3 is owned by North Rhine Westphalia and 1/3 belongs to the city of Duisburg. The port is an inland port on the Rhine River- one of the most modern container ports in the world.

Traditionally, the Ruhr region specialized in traditional energy sources: coal and steel enterprises were located here. The port was used as a transshipment base for coal supplies. At the same time, the region is undergoing a stage of economic and energy transformation. In 2018, the last coal mine was closed.

Today, the port management is working on forecasting energy consumption in the future. Even now there is an opinion that a lot of such energy will be required. However, it is difficult to make a prediction about what kind of energy mix it will be.

At the meeting, Johannes Eng, Responsible for Corporate Development and Strategy of duisport- Duisburger hafen AG, noted: "We are already considering hydrogen, ammonia, methanol. Today we understand that it will be the import of energy carriers.

The port is already considering the issue of transporting new types of energy to end users to provide the entire region. Supply flows are changing today, but so are the energy carriers themselves. The port is connected to western ports: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp. Therefore, various types of transportation are being worked out today: (pipelines, railways, rivertransport, trucks)."

Since the port is neither an energy producer nor a trader, but a logistics company, the port of Duisburg is interested in energy storage and, in particular, hydrogen, energy distribution, energy utilization (electricity, transport, industry).

The port is working to create the necessary hydrogen infrastructure for the market. For example, coal is now stored in large quantities in the port, but the port is being transformed due to decarbonization. An electrolysis plant is currently being designed jointly with Lhyfe on the site of coal storage sites. It is also taken into account that the current grid infrastructure has limited electricity conductivity. Therefore, we are now thinking about how to supply energy to the regions of the country. To unload highways, it is planned to organize delivery by rail, and then by river transport in all regions. There will not be a single diesel-powered vehicle in the port, all the equipment in the port will be electrified. A hydrogen refueling station is also being designed in the port. To supply electricity, a solar station will be located in the port, and fuel cells and a block thermal power plant on hydrogen will provide electricity at night and during peak loads. The commissioning of the new port is scheduled for mid-2024.

A terminal will also be built for the transportation of hydrogen, ammonia, liquid organic components of hydrogen by river transport. Already today there are technologies for transporting hydrogen by containers, but it is difficult. It is also impossible to transport hydrogen in its pure form (it needs to be cooled). Therefore, a separate hydrogen storage site is being built. Including for transportation by means of ammonia or methanol.

A hydrogen training center (physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering) is also being built on the basis of the port to train specialists specifically in hydrogen for the needs of the port and the region.

The port management has already submitted an application to the Government for funding.

INSTEAD OF A CONCLUSION

Based on the results of the trip and the study of the German experience in the development of the hydrogen economy, several conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, Germany and the European Union consider hydrogen as an energy carrier that allows storing and transporting energy in the long term. Hydrogen will be used as a substitute for gas at industrial and transport facilities. The energy crisis in Europe and the search for new energy sources for further economic growth became the driver for the rapid development of the hydrogen theme. In this regard, all the necessary political decisions have already been made both in Germany and in the EU, work is being completed at universities to develop the necessary technologies, the industry is preparing for the introduction, transportation, storage of hydrogen.

Secondly, our country needs to develop a vision for participation in the global hydrogen economy right now. In this regard, it is necessary to develop a separate document in the state planning system.

Thirdly, the hydrogen economy considers various issues that require an intersectoral and interdepartmental approach in the development of hydrogen policy. There are issues of organization of production, transportation, export/import of hydrogen, training and research, issues of availability of water resources, environmental impact. At the moment, there is issue of creating a production of "green" hydrogen in the country (the Hyrasia One project of SVEVIND in the Mangystau region). This is more a question of creating a chemical industry, which is associated with the second no less important question - will industrial enterprises of Kazakhstan switch to "green" hydrogen as a source of clean energy in the future? And if so, to what extent and in what time frame will our country need hydrogen for the domestic consumption market? Based on the understanding of the answers to these questions, an appropriate strategy should be built for the export (if there is production in the Republic of Kazakhstan) or import of hydrogen. The issue of energy utilization of hydrogen, namely the production of electric or thermal energy to supply the power system of the Republic of Kazakhstan, is already 4-5 order issues that are not yet even in advanced Germany: RES will be developed for electricity generation, and heat pumps will be introduced on a large scale throughout the country forthermal energy. I n this regard, it seems that the strategy for the development of the hydrogen topic in Kazakhstan should be developed by the authorized body in the field of industrial policy with the involvement of various state bodies, and the work on such a document is probably within the power of an interdepartmental working group headed by a representative of the leadership of the government of the country.

The development of the hydrogen economy is a complete transformation of the most diverse fields of activity. It seems that there is a consensus in the world that hydrogen will become an energy carrier in the not so distant future. Should we produce hydrogen? Do we have enough water and energy resources? Will we export or import hydrogen? These are the questions that need to be answered right now. One thing is for sure - the hydrogen future is inevitable, and our country must decide what role it will play in it.