Colloquia

Summary

To become CO2 neutral the Netherlands is planning to disconnect space heating in the residential sector from natural gas as energy resource. This requires new innovations. Sustainable hydrogen is assumed to have potential due to  the similarities between natural gas and hydrogen gas with respect to transportation and end use of the gasses. Furthermore research show the potential of sustainable hydrogen to decarbonize the energy supply chain in the residential sector. This study investigated the interface between the current state of the art of hydrogen heating technology in the residential sector and the current market experience with hydrogen heating in the Netherlands in order to determined to what extent hydrogen heating could penetrate the Dutch residential sector in 2050.

To determine the current status of hydrogen heating technology a literature study is conducted to find the hydrogen technologies available and under development which can be used for heating. To determine the energy performance and economic performance a model has been developed able to model and compare five different hydrogen based heating systems. The model is applied to six typical house types in the Netherlands. Results show that hydrogen technology can energetically perform better compared to natural gas, but still at larger financial costs.

The experience with hydrogen in the residential sector is acquired by interviewing seven ongoing hydrogen projects testing technology in the Dutch residential sector.  Experience shows that hydrogen technology is still only available at a small scale; that hydrogen heating is not economical feasible yet; and that cost, regulation and people’s interest considerations are the main barriers for hydrogen penetration in the residential sector.

The research shows that larger scale hydrogen for space heating in the residential sector still has a long way to go, but technologically feasible and it will be a competing space heating method if costs and societal ignorance will go down.