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The German minister for the Environment Svenja Schulze, announced on July 10, 2019 that her ministry by the end of this year will set up an International PtX-Secretariat managed by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Berlin as part of her t“Action Programme for Electricity-Based Fuels”.presented by the Environment ministry also on July 10, 2019... The PtX secretariat will define the climate and market potential of Power to X and establish an international network to collect finacing and harmonize regulation. Subsequently on July 18, 2019 the Federal Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) announced a 100 mln annual budget to be accompanied by a German hydrogen strategyby the end of this year. On the same day six Green MPs drafted a position paper on hydrogen production – and expressed their unequivocal support for the first time.
The German environmental
NGO BUND and the research institute Öko-Institut in a position paper on July 29, 2019 noted that PtX technologies are not ‘necessarily more environmentally-friendly than coal mining' jf the electricity required to power the energy-intensive PtX process does not entirely make use of renewable energies, According to the position paper, another important aspect is ‘sustainability monitoring’ when importing PtX products as Germany will have to import hydrogen or processed e-fuels, as the expansion of renewable energies in Germany is limited due to there being a lack of space.
Power-to-gas is the name given to the process in which water is broken down into components made of oxygen and hydrogen by electrolysis. the hydrogen can then be processed into synthetic natural gas, petrol, diesel or kerosene, using CO2, the so-called E-fuels that could be used for heating as well as in the transport sector, especially for heavy-duty, air and sea transport. Steel producer ThyssenKrupp plans to become carbon-neutral by 2050. “By 2050, we can reduce our steel-production-related emissions by 80%,” said Thyssenkrupp’s board member Donatus Kaufmann.
Shell ITM Power is currently building the world’s largest hydrogen electrolysis plant in the German city of Wesseling on the Rhine that should start operations in 2020, producing 1,300 tons of hydrogen per year. Electrolyzer proces according to the latest
IEA Hydrogen report could go down to €200/kW by 2050.
