Blue hydrogen is produced by natural gas reforming, or by coal gasification with carbon capture and storage (CCUS).
Despite green hydrogen accounting for less than 1% of total production today, the company forecasts in its Green Hydrogen Production: Electrolyzer Markets 2023-2033 report that the water electrolyser market will grow to over $120 billion by 2033.
By comparison, in its Blue Hydrogen Production and Markets 2023-2033 report, IDTechEx forecast the global blue hydrogen market to be worth just $34 billion by 2033.
Although the hype over the hydrogen economy has partly waned, significant public and private capital is still being spent because demand is expected to grow thanks to new markets in methanol and green steel, as well as transport applications.
IDTechEx expects electrolyser manufacturing capacity to increase significantly over the next five years as companies try to capture market share, with significant investment in electrolyser manufacturing by Chinese, Indian, US and Australian players, as well as European firms.
Future blue hydrogen demand will be mainly driven by the UK and the US, which want to decarbonise their large industrial clusters with blue hydrogen and CCUS.
Last month, energy major BP forecast that green hydrogen would account for around 60% of low-carbon hydrogen in 2030, increasing to around 65% by 2050.
Click here to subscribe to the green hydrogen bulletin to receive fortnightly dedicated news, analysis and comment straight to your inbox.
To submit a news, comment, case study or analysis idea for the green hydrogen bulletin, contact the editorial team.
