100
Million Tonnes H2
The Global Hydrogen utilization amounts to 100 million tonnes annually.
Less than 1% is low-emissions hydrogen.
Refineries
43 Mt H2
- Hydrogen is indispensable to modern refinery operations, driving the transformation of crude oil into the fuels and chemical feedstocks that power every sector of the global economy
- Hydrogen purifies refined products through hydrotreating, stripping out harmful impurities like sulphur to meet strict quality and environmental requirements
- Hydrogen unlocks greater value from crude oil via hydrocracking, converting heavy, low-value fractions into the lighter, high-demand products the market needs
Ammonia
33 Mt H2
- Hydrogen is the essential building block of ammonia production, with the Haber-Bosch process combining hydrogen and nitrogen to produce the compound that underpins 80% of global agricultural fertiliser demand
- Conventional ammonia production emits 2 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne produced, making green hydrogen a critical lever for decarbonising one of the world’s most carbon-intensive industries
- Beyond fertilisers, hydrogen-derived green ammonia is emerging as an energy vector for hydrogen transport and storage, a zero-emission marine fuel, and a source of heat and electricity generation
Methanol / Sustainable Fuels
17 Mt H2
- Hydrogen is the essential feedstock for methanol synthesis, combining with CO₂ to produce a compound that underpins over 70% of global methanol demand — spanning construction materials, clothing, textiles, plastics, and transport fuels
- The vast majority of methanol is currently produced from natural gas, directly linking it to greenhouse gas emissions — making green hydrogen a critical enabler of cleaner methanol production and industrial decarbonisation
- Green hydrogen unlocks a new form of methanol — e-methanol — produced by combining green hydrogen with captured CO₂, offering a promising low-carbon alternative fuel particularly suited to maritime transport, one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise
Steel
6 Mt H2
- Hydrogen is the only viable pathway to zero-emission steel production — through hydrogen-based direct reduction (H2-DRI), it replaces coal in the ironmaking process, emitting only water vapour instead of CO₂, and decarbonising a material vital to construction, transportation, and manufacturing
- Steel production accounts for around 11% of total global CO₂ emissions, and decarbonisation of the sector is not possible in the near- and medium-term without green hydrogen — making it one of the most impactful and necessary applications of hydrogen available today
- Each kilogram of green hydrogen used in H2-DRI cuts approximately 25 kg of CO₂ — a higher saving than any other proposed use of green hydrogen, making steel decarbonisation the top priority application for this critical clean energy resource
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