(414d) H2 Roadmap Alternatives for Decarbonizing Singapore through 2050

In the early 2020, the National Climate Change Secretariat of Singapore published Singapore’s Long Term Low Emissions Development Strategy (LEDS)¹. Singapore plans to reduce emissions by half from its peak by 2050, and reach net-zero emissions as soon as is viable in the second half of the century. Industry, power, and transport are three major CO₂ emissions sectors, whose shares are 46%, 39%, and 13% in 2017 respectively. And around 40% of emissions from power sector are indirect emissions from transport and industry sectors’ power usage. As hydrogen is a versatile energy carrier that can achieve deep decarbonization, Singapore is exploring the potential of hydrogen in the energy mix to decarbonize high-CO₂-emission sectors. In the past decades, researchers have taken many studies on hydrogen roadmap, including the techno-economic analysis of hydrogen production², transport³ or utilization, and the design and optimization of hydrogen supply chain⁴. We also carried out a techno-enviro-economic analyses of hydrogen supply chains, providing insights on the landed cost of hydrogen, carbon avoidance, and carbon avoidance costs. However, there is no comprehensive hydrogen roadmap studies simultaneously considering both local and regional hydrogen supply chains, multiple demand sectors, multiple periods, and comparisons with other decarbonization alternatives.

In light of the aforementioned concerns, this research was undertaken to understand the evolution and development needs of a hydrogen economy in Singapore through 2050. Singapore, as a city-state with only 700 square kilometers of land, relies on importing energy resources. Natural gas, the cleanest form of fossil fuel, has been the dominant fuel for Singapore, where over 96% of electricity is generated using natural gas. As Singapore is exploring the potential of hydrogen in the energy mix to reduce her carbon footprint, importing hydrogen from overseas and producing hydrogen locally are two alternatives under consideration. Thus, the possibility of producing hydrogen in Singapore is thoroughly compared with importing hydrogen from neighbors or distant countries to achieve deep decarbonization of transport, power, marine, and industrial sectors. Both renewable hydrogen production technologies and fossil fuel-based hydrogen production technologies with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) are included to cover the energy source diversity in the ASEAN region. Various hydrogen transportation pathways are considered for the regional hydrogen supply chain. The variation of hydrogen demand over a long-term planning horizon and technological progress, in the form of lower costs, are considered. What’s more, techno-economic analysis of natural gas utilization (power generation and industry heating) with CCS is also investigated, and compared with hydrogen economy as well as other decarbonization options (e.g. importing electricity via regional grid or subsea cables). Several what-if scenarios are explored to derive insights on the landed cost of hydrogen, levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), carbon avoidance, and carbon avoidance costs associated with various hydrogen roadmaps for a hydrogen economy and other decarbonization methods in Singapore.

1. National Climate Change Secretariat, 2020, Singapore’s Long-Term Low-Emissions Development Strategy.
2. Nikolaidis, P., Poullikkas, A., 2017, A comparative overview of hydrogen production processes. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 67, 597-611.
3. Niermann, M., Drünert, S., Kaltschmitt, M., Bonhoff, K., 2019, Liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) – techno-economic analysis of LOHCs in a defined process chain. Energy & Environmental Science, 12 (1), 290-307.
4. Sunny, N., Mac Dowell, N., Shah, N., 2020, What is needed to deliver carbon-neutral heat using hydrogen and CCS? Energy & Environmental Science, 13 (11), 4204-4224.