All manner of industries are piling into the hydrogen rush
Including some grubby ones
“WE ARE BUILDING the energy company of the future…like Tesla did,” declares Seifi Ghasemi, chairman of Air Products. Comparing yourself to the electric-car darling may seem Napoleonic for a purveyor of industrial gases. But Mr Ghasemi, who has thought about one gas in particular, hydrogen, for 30 years, insists the comparison is apt.
He is not alone. Hydrogen is expected to play a big role in greening hard-to-decarbonise sectors such as cement and steel, as well as in long-term energy storage. Today’s smallish and, because almost all the stuff is made from fossil fuels in a carbon-intensive way, dirtyish hydrogen business is forecast to grow into a much cleaner trillion-dollar industry in a few decades. Governments are spending tens of billions of dollars a year to kickstart a clean-hydrogen revolution. A posse of hydrogen-curious firms are keen for a piece of the action.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "The hydrogen rush"
Business October 23rd 2021
- Samsung Electronics wants to dominate cutting-edge chipmaking
- Facebook’s rumoured name-change reflects ambition—and weakness
- The meaning of mission statements
- All manner of industries are piling into the hydrogen rush
- Zhongwang, a Chinese aluminium giant, resists American pressure
- Huawei should dissolve, disperse and seed China’s high-tech future
More from Business
Chinese EV-makers are leaving Western rivals in the dust
They have shone at Beijing’s car jamboree
Can biotech startups upstage Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk?
Smaller drugmakers are enjoying a revival
How to handle populists: a CEO’s survival guide
Western businesses are learning to live with volatile electoral politics around the world