HYDROGEN IS HOT – VERY HOT

You risk being very disappointed with this podcast. If you think buildings should be heated with hydrogen or believe that hydrogen is not an essential part of the future energy system, rest assured to be disappointed. Here you will listen to two experts talking about how the production of hydrogen, CCS, and PtX can become an important source of surplus heat for city-wide district heating systems. They even say it can revolutionize the district heating sector the way CHP did – and still does.

Introducing blue district heating

First, all three of us agree that hydrogen looks like the only real option for the hard-to-decarbonize sectors – like heavy industry and transport. Oddgeir Gudmundsson then introduces his idea of blue district heating – to be able to compare the energy efficiency of heating buildings and to compare to blue hydrogen. And you will see that district heating always wins!

Meet the experts

I´m glad to be back after giving my favourite chair to Charlotte Owen, who hosted our diversity podcast. Definitely worth a listen if you care the least about diversity in our industry. But now I’m back with two top experts Jørgen Nielsen, chairman of
DBDH and managing director of VEKS, and probably the only one who actually has a district heating system that harvests surplus heat from (or, as he says, provides a cooling service to) a manufacturer of hydrogen. In the other chair, you will find Oddgeir Gudmundsson, who has looked deep into many aspects of district heating and has made new ways to compare DH and hydrogen – our scientist here!

You risk being very disappointed with this podcast. If you think buildings should be heated with hydrogen or believe that hydrogen is not an essential part of the future energy system, rest assured to be disappointed. Here you will listen to two experts talking about how the production of hydrogen, CCS, and PtX can become an important source of surplus heat for city-wide district heating systems. They even say it can revolutionize the district heating sector the way CHP did – and still does.

How to reap the benefits of hydrogen

The two experts also discuss how cities and nations should plan in the best way to be both carbon-neutral and as energy efficient as possible. And argue that even cities with no district heating should be careful to find ways to reap the benefits of
hydrogen. The answer is to ensure the future city infrastructure is well with district heating.

It is fair to conclude from our talks that the district heating sector should welcome the hydrogen sector 100%. We can support the H2 industry with an improved economy and better performance. But hydrogen should not be used to heat buildings – that is never directly. But very much so indirectly through district heating.

The demand for hydrogen will be enormous in the future – let’s use it in the right and most energy-efficient way.
Listen in, get all the details, and find us on LinkedIn to discuss this highly relevant topic.