Monday, 1 December, 2025/Edition 87

To become an established energy technology, hydrogen development requires an integrated industrial chain across upstream, midstream, and downstream. This is the focus of this week’s Core Elements.

Rasoul Sorkhabi

Editor, Core Elements

Global Hydrogen Review

dee karen/Shutterstock.com

The International Energy Agency has published a report on the global status of hydrogen resource outlook. This is the fifth edition of the report since 2019. Let’s take a look.

Demand: Global demand for hydrogen is more than 100 million tons a year.

Usage by country:

• China (29 percent)

• North America (16 percent)

• Middle East (15 percent)

• India (10 percent)

• Europe (7 percent)

• Rest of the world (23 percent)

Use by sector:

• Industry: 55 million tons, of which about 60 percent is for ammonia production, 30 percent for methanol, and 10 percent for hydrogen direct reduced iron (H-DRI).

• Oil refineries: More than 43 million tons

• Hydrogen-fueld heavy-duty vehicles: About 100 kilotons of hydrogen or about 0.1 percent of total hydrogen consumption. However, hydrogen use by these vehicles increased nearly 40 percent from 2023. 

Hydrogen production with carbon capture:

• Fossil fuels make up more than 80 percent of hydrogen production.

• Less than 1 percent (or 0.6 million tons) of these processes adopted carbon capture technologies. Those that did are housed in 16 hydrogen facilities worldwide, mostly in North America.

• Hydrogen production in the oil and gas industry released about 705 million tons of direct carbon dioxide in 2024, a 3 percent increase from 2023.

Hydrogen storage and transportation:

• If all announced hydrogen storage projects materialize by 2023, about 11 terawatt-hours of power capacity will be available. However, only 5 percent of the plans have reached a final investment decision.

• About 37,000 kilometers of hydrogen pipelines have been announced by 2035; however, less than 6 percent have reached final investment decision. Most of these projects are in Europe and China.

Investments:

• Public funding for hydrogen technologies is maturing. The total announced public funding for low-emission hydrogen stood at $38 billion last year—a decrease by two-thirds, from $100 million dollars in 2023.

• Of these, $4.3 billion was spent on hydrogen production—an 80 percent increase over 2023.

Go deeper: For more information on hydrogen share in the energy mix, see this perspective in Nature Review Clean Technology.

Sponsored

Harnessing Subsurface Resources for Power Generation

Register now to save $100 for the upcoming workshop that will explore the latest advancements in utilizing natural gas, geothermal, hydrogen, lithium, and nuclear for power generation.

Hydrogen Dispersion in Cushion Gases

r.classen/Shutterstock.com

In underground hydrogen storage (UHS) sites, cushion gas plays an essential role in maintaining reservoir pressure, gas transfer, and storage efficiency. However, mixing hydrogen with cushion gases also causes contamination and the need for costly purification.

A study in Nature Scientific Reports has used machine learning (ML) to investigate these problems.

Cushion gases: These gases include nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide.

• In UHS sites using depleted oil and gas reservoirs, cushion gas may be 50 to 70 percent of the total storage volume. In saline aquifers, this may amount to 80 percent.

• Cushion gases are heavier than hydrogen and occupy the bottom portion of the UHS.

Study methods: 

• Experimental methods include gas injection and use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to analyze the composition of effluent gases and fluids.

• Numerical simulation studies, notably computational fluid dynamics.

ML application: Akbari and colleagues applied ML techniques to a database constructed from previous experiments and numerical studies.

What they found: The authors report the following results from their ML study:

• Of the various ML models, Random Forest outperformed other methods, achieving R-squared correlation of 0.9965 for test data and 0.9999 for training data.

• Among the cushion gases, carbon dioxide shows the lowest dispersion coefficient because of its higher density and lower diffusivity.

Go deeper: A paper in Applied Energy offers a model for using carbon dioxide as cushion gas in a sandstone gas reservoir in the Tarim Basin.

Sponsored

DIG Supports Your Geochemistry Needs

• Geochemistry and Isotope Measurement Laboratory
• Exploration, Development, Production, and Environmental
• Oil - Gas – Water
• Serving Global Energy Since 2006

Hydrogen Well Safety

N.Minton/Shutterstock.com

One of the major challenges in hydrogen storage and production is the safety and durability of wells. This issue has been reviewed in a study in Nature Communications.

Well damage in hydrogen extraction: The researchers outline several wellbore damage risks encountered in hydrogen wells:

1. Damage to tubing and casing: Hydrogen molecules diffuse into steel, reducing the ductility and tensile strength of the steel and eventually leading to embrittlement and cracking.

2. Cement failure: Wellbore cement prevents the migration of gas to the surface or annulus. In a hydrogen environment, gas bubbles generated in wet cement can alter the mechanical strength and stability of the cement.

3. Sealant failure: Elastomeric sealing devices are used in wellheads, packers, safety valves, and blowout preventers to isolate fluids within the casing, tubing, and annulus in the well. Hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide can degrade elastomeric materials.

4. Microbial corrosion: Even in oil and gas pipelines, microbial corrosion accounts for 20–30 percent of internal pipeline corrosion expenditure. Hydrogen sulfide generated in hydrogen storage sites can induce metal corrosion.    

5. Pressure buildup in the well annulus: Annulus pressure buildup to pre-bleed levels in gas wells occurs shortly after depressurization. This places extra pressure on the casing, which may lead to failure. Hydrogen wells with damage to tubing and cement increase the annular pressure buildup.

Toward solutions: The researchers suggest innovative technologies need to be developed for metal coatings, rubber fillers, and cement additives to mitigate hydrogen damage to wellbores.

Go deeper: Read this study in the Journal of Energy Resources Technology for more information on hydrogen production and transportation safety and challenges.

👍 If you enjoyed this edition of Core Elements, consider supporting AAPG's brand of newsletters by forwarding to a friend or colleague and signing up for our other newsletters here.

➡️ Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Subscribe to Core Elements here.

✉️ To get in touch with Rasoul, send an email to editorial@aapg.org.