German gas lobby wants more turquoise hydrogen: press

A natural gas lobby in Germany said December 8 it wanted to secure millions of dollars in support to help advance the development of turquoise hydrogen, the Reuters news service reported.

Berlin had a changing of the guard on December 8, with Olaf Scholz succeeding long-time chancellor Angela Merkel. The new coalition government, which counts members of Germany’s Green Party among its ranks, may be pressing the accelerator on the energy transition, Reuters said.

Timm Kehler, the chairman of the Zukunft Gas lobby, said during a virtual conference that turquoise hydrogen should be included in the government’s plans.

"The potential of turquoise hydrogen has not been sufficiently used in the past," he was quoted by Reuters as saying. “The coalition's open approach brings new possibilities.”

To that end, Zukunft Gas has called for more than €800mn (US$902mn) in support for the nascent hydrogen technology.

Turquoise hydrogen involves a process known as methane pyrolysis that yields hydrogen and solid, or black, carbon as byproducts. Production, however, has not yet been proven at scale.

Most attention on low-carbon hydrogen development has been on the production of blue hydrogen, produced from natural gas using steam methane reforming and carbon capture and storage, and green hydrogen, derived from water using electrolysis powered by renewable energy.

Advocates for turquoise hydrogen say it uses less energy and can be produced where it is needed using existing infrastructure.