FAQ's

Hydrogen itself is a colorless gas but there are around nine colors to identify hydrogen. The colours of hydrogen refer to the source or the process used to make hydrogen. These colors are: green, blue, grey, brown or black, turquoise, purple, pink, red, and white.

• Green hydrogen is produced through a water electrolysis process by employing renewable electricity. The reason it is called green is that there is no CO₂ emission during the production process.
• Blue hydrogen is sourced from fossil fuels. However, the CO₂ is captured and stored (CCS). As no CO₂ is emitted, the blue hydrogen production process is categorized as carbon neutral.
• Grey hydrogen is produced from fossil fuel and commonly uses the steam methane reforming (SMR) method. During this process, CO₂ is produced and eventually released to the atmosphere.
• Black or brown hydrogen is produced from coal. The black and brown colours refer to the type of bituminous (black) and lignite (brown) coal. The gasification of coal is a method used to produce hydrogen. However, it is a very polluting process, and CO₂ and carbon monoxide are produced as by-products and released into the atmosphere.
• Turquoise hydrogen can be extracted by using the thermal splitting of methane via methane pyrolysis. The process, though at the experimental stage, remove the carbon in a solid form instead of CO₂ gas.
• Purple hydrogen is made though using nuclear power and heat through combined chemo thermal electrolysis splitting of water.
• Pink hydrogen is generated through electrolysis of water by using electricity from a nuclear power plant.
• Red hydrogen is produced through the high-temperature catalytic splitting of water using nuclear power thermal as an energy source.
• White hydrogen refers to naturally occurring hydrogen.

Hydrogen can be stored as a compressed gas in cylinders and tube trailers with pressures ranging from 100-700 bars. This is currently the most common way of storing small volumes of hydrogen.

When high volume transport and storage are necessary, hydrogen can be converted to its liquid form at cryogenic temperatures (below – 253 °C) through a liquefaction process. A liquid hydrogen tanker can carry 8-10 times more hydrogen than a tube trailer with compressed hydrogen.

Because hydrogen must be produced from other energy sources, it is considered an energy carrier rather than an energy source. Once produced, hydrogen can then be stored, transported, and later used in applications such as hydrogen fuel cells, ammonia production, biofuels, industrial metalworking and welding, and other applications.

No. Hydrogen is a colorless and odorless gas and is not dangerous in itself. But when it’s pressurized, there is a risk, as it also does for other energy-rich gases. Hydrogen is not more dangerous than other fuels, such as petrol, but we have to deal with hydrogen from its characteristics.

Power2X is the process of converting surplus electricity produced from renewable energy into energy carriers, such as hydrogen. This hydrogen can then be further processed together with, for example, CO₂ to methane or methanol, and thereby we have energy, in forms that can be stored and transported.

This gives a greater flexibility for long-term storage and utilization of the energy later at any location. Power2X includes Power2heat, Power2gas, Power2liquid, Power2chemicals, Power2fuel, etc.

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device to convert clean hydrogen and oxygen into electricity without any harmful emissions. The only products of the reactions are electricity, water/vapor, and heat. Fuel cells are one of the major parts of the hydrogen value chain where there is a need to convert the green hydrogen back to electrical energy such as for electric vehicles, ships, and planes.

Yes. The operating temperature of a fuel cell is about 70-80 °C, and the temperature of the stack is maintained through an active management system.

The lifetime of a fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) is roughly the same as the conventional vehicles ranging from 8000-10000 hours of dynamic operation or about 300,000-400,000 kms of operation. The performance degradation of a fuel cell is generally gradual with the loss in efficiency and maximum power. Many components inside a fuel cell such as the electrodes and the metal components are recyclable to recover valuables such as platinum.

The storage capacity of the type IV cylinders used in a FCEV is about 5-6 kg at 700 bar pressure. With about a kilogram of H₂ needed to cover 80-100 km, with a typical FCEV we can travel up to 500 km with a full cylinder. Toyota Mirai 2 currently holds the record for covering more than 1000 km in a single fill meaning the average fuel consumption is about 0.55 kg/100 km with a total capacity of 5.6 kg H₂ spread over three onboard storage cylinders.

You can't drive wherever you want in the Nordics just yet. But by planning your trip based on where the stations are, you will get a long way.
Norwegian Hydrogen is working on building a network of refueling stations in the Nordics.

Yes. You can read more about the investment support at www.enova.no.

Hydrogen is used, among other things, to produce ammonia, methanol and hydrochloric acid

A typical water electrolyzer consumes about twice the amount of water (17-18 kg) than it is required to produce a kilogram of hydrogen theoretically.

When producing green hydrogen through water electrolysis, it is CO₂ emission-free and the byproducts are only pure oxygen and heat.

Norwegian Hydrogen is working on utilizing these by-products, or bonus-products, as we like to call them, for useful purposes.

Hydrogen and carbon dioxide form the building blocks for some of the most important chemicals that we need such as methanol, methane, diesel, gasoline, etc. These materials are crucial as they are used in industrial processes, used to produce other useful chemicals and in transport applications as fuels. Currently these chemicals are produced from fossil fuels.

Producing these chemicals artificially through renewable processes is a prerequisite to decarbonize this sector. This can be achieved by sourcing green hydrogen from renewable electricity/ water electrolyzers plant and capturing and utilizing byproduct carbon dioxide from industrial processes and biogas production plants.