Prospects for the development of hydrogen energy in the Eurasian Economic Union
The Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission approved the report “On the results of the analysis on the prospects for the development of hydrogen energy in the Eurasian Economic Union” and recommended developing cooperation between the EAEU countries in this area.
The document was prepared "in order to implement the Main Directions of Industrial Cooperation within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union until 2025." The hydrogen fuel and energy complex is developing in an increasing number of countries. Including in the "oil and gas surplus" countries, because many of them remain exporters not so much of finished oil and gas products as of oil and gas raw materials (for example, Indonesia, Colombia, Ecuador, Iraq, Oman). Moreover, this direction in the fuel and energy complex is developing more actively in countries that meet their needs in traditional energy resources, mainly through imports (China, Japan, South Korea). It is also important that this direction provides for the development of appropriate technologies and the development of their export supplies. Thus, the possibilities of industrialization of exports of many countries are realized.
Countries where the hydrogen segment is the main one in the prospective development of the fuel and energy complex
The same direction, including within the framework of Eurasian cooperation, is of strategic importance for all EAEU countries, especially for Russia in connection with the tightening sanctions of the West specifically in relation to science and technology-intensive technologies in the Russian Federation. And at the same time against the "traditional" Russian fuel and energy complex, that is, based on the extraction and export of oil, gas and coal. This means that the integrated development of hydrogen energy, along with its well-known environmental benefits and unlimited hydrogen resources, is leading to the industrialization of Russian exports. Moreover, according to the estimates of the UN regional economic commissions (2021-2022), the global demand for hydrogen energy products by 2035 is likely to increase at least twice compared to the beginning of the 2020s. The primary incentives for the aforementioned developments are, firstly, the possibility of extracting hydrogen, to be more precise, from any energy source: from conventional and processed products, from generated electricity, from renewable energy resources (energy from the sun, wind, sea tides, biomass, underground hot water). Secondly, in the Russian Federation, as well as in Belarus, which is an almost 100% net importer of energy resources, R&D in hydrogen energy has been rapidly developing in recent years. Plus, 11 years ago, the Belarusian-Russian Association of Solar-Hydrogen Energy (ASVE) was created with the participation of six specialized research institutes from both countries.
Taking into account the mentioned factors, the EEC "hydrogen" report defines a number of main sectors of cooperation in this area. This, as the EEC Minister for Industry and Agro-Industrial Complex Artak Kamalyan explained, “industrial production of hydrogen; its transportation and storage; application of hydrogen in transport and industrial sectors”. Moreover, the maximum possible presence of the EAEU in the global hydrogen fuel market is estimated at more than 10%.
The same report recommended specific niches for cooperation in hydrogen energy. Firstly, this is the production of low-carbon (the most environmentally efficient) hydrogen through the use of nuclear power, small-capacity hydroelectric power plants and renewable energy resources. Secondly, the production of the same type of hydrogen from fossil fuels. Thirdly, it is the development and testing of technologies for transforming hydrogen into the final product, similar to liquefied and compressed gas. Fourthly, the formation of infrastructure, more precisely, a system for storing and transporting the same products - raw materials, intermediate and finished products. Of course, there should be a comprehensive material and technical support for this industry.
But so far, its development in the EAEU region takes place mainly at the national level. And above all in Russia. In more detail, in the Russian Federation, the tasks in the field of hydrogen energy are reflected in the "Energy Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2035", in the "Concept for the Development of Hydrogen Energy" and in the "Action Plan (roadmap)" accompanying these documents for the development of the industry.
The mentioned sources provide that Russia will create, mainly on the basis of public-private partnership, three clusters for the production of "raw" hydrogen and finished energy products based on it. This is the North-West cluster with a focus on exports to Europe; Eastern cluster, focused on export to Asia; Arctic cluster for fuel and energy supply of the Arctic and subarctic regions of the Russian Federation and Northern Europe. It is tentatively planned to create the Southern Cluster, where the relevant products will be made using renewable energy resources. The same clusters will also serve domestic Russian demand.
Today, according to many experts, it is necessary to reliably determine the dynamics of Russia's "hydrogen" needs, taking into account the current geopolitical internal and external economic factors. In particular, given the rise in the production cost (especially since 2022) of specialized equipment in the Russian Federation and restrictions on its import due to the tightening anti-Russian sanctions of the West, which may well apply to Russian exports of hydrogen technologies/energy products. In turn, these factors are able to shift the timing of the mentioned cluster projects implementation.
Such trends and factors were noted during the international conference on hydrogen energy IH2CON, held in Moscow in early November 2022. Therefore, the main emphasis here was on the need to accelerate import substitution in hydrogen technologies. Thus, Aleksey Kulapin, Director General of the Russian Energy Agency under the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, said at the forum that the interdepartmental group under the Government of the Russian Federation “considered the draft “Comprehensive Program for the Development of Low-Carbon Hydrogen Energy in the Russian Federation”. In this program, which will incorporate several previously adopted documents on the development of the hydrogen industry, "the previous priorities have been changed and an emphasis is placed on the development of technologies." It was also noted that Russia could take 6-10% of the hydrogen energy products world market.
But during the forum, let’s say, possible additions to the aforementioned Comprehensive Program of the Russian Federation with cooperative “hydrogen” projects in the EAEU remained behind the scenes.
As for Russian-Belarusian cooperation, the bilateral ASVE, created, we repeat, in the early 2010s, by mid-2021, prepared with the participation of the Russian Academy of Sciences a project on hydrogen and mixed types of auto engines and a filling network for them. According to the ex-president of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeev, the success of the project is determined, first of all, by the high capacity of the BelNPP, coupled with Russian developments.
The Belarusian side has proposed a project for the production of hydrogen using the energy of the BelNPP and the creation of vehicles that operate simultaneously on lithium batteries and hydrogen cells. According to the academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the project will allow "to develop the automotive industry on electric motors, and later on mixed engines, that is, on lithium or sodium batteries and hydrogen cells." This complex project is scheduled to be implemented towards the end of the 2020s.