Replacing methane, and cleaning up aviation fuels & ammonia

The billion euro subsidies continue to flow hydrogen’s way in Germany, this week from a source which isn’t even exclusively available to projects in this sector.

I’m referring here to the first results from Germany’s ‘Carbon Contracts for Difference’ programme, which this week “awarded more than €1bn of subsidies to five hydrogen-based industrial decarbonisation projects”. Those five lucky hydrogen winners came from a total of fifteen companies and an overall €2.8 billion of funding.

In each case contracts over fifteen years will cover the difference between market carbon prices and the prices required by those projects in order for them to create a viable business case from their emissions savings.

The biggest amount of cash to be doled out to the five hydrogen projects will arrive at the door of the German subsidiary of French glassmaker Saint-Gobain, which “will receive a total of €382.8 million to replace natural gas with a mixture of biomethane and hydrogen in flat glass production”.

Next in the queue is Nordenham Metall (a subsidiary of Glencore), which hopes to gobble up €360 million “to decarbonise lead production through the use of hydrogen, biomethane and biocoke… using technologies that are not yet established on the market”.