OREANDA-NEWS. Russia has planned to earn from 23.6 to 100.2 billion dollars a year on the export of hydrogen by 2050. RBC writes about this with reference to the draft Concept for the development of hydrogen energy until 2024.

The country has found a new way to make money and wants to supply the world market from 7.9 to 33.4 million tons of environmentally friendly types of hydrogen. The difference in forecasts is associated with different scenarios of demand development. Currently, there is no market for hydrogen energy carriers, but in the future it may become large due to the development of technologies and the scaling of hydrogen energy, the authors of the concept believe.

Russia aims to occupy 20 percent of this market by 2030. Hydrogen demand could grow significantly due to EU plans to achieve full carbon neutrality by 2050. So far in Russia there are no industrial projects for the production of "green" hydrogen, but for their appearance the government is discussing special measures of state support.

The color gradation of hydrogen depends on the way it is produced and the carbon footprint, that is, the amount of harmful emissions. The cleanest, "greenest", is the one that is produced using energy from renewable sources by electrolysis of water. "Blue" refers to hydrogen produced from natural gas. In this case, carbon dioxide accumulates in special storage facilities. In the production of "gray" hydrogen, harmful emissions go into the atmosphere.