Large-scale production and transport of hydrogen from Norway to Europe and Japan: Value chain analysis and comparison of liquid hydrogen and ammonia as energy carriers

Low-carbon hydrogen is considered as one of the key measures to decarbonise continental Europe and Japan. Northern Norway has abundant renewable energy and natural gas resources which can be converted to low-carbon hydrogen. However, Norway is located relatively far away from these markets and finding efficient ways to transport this hydrogen to the end-user is critical. In this study, liquefied hydrogen (LH₂) and ammonia (NH₃), as H₂-based energy carriers, are analysed and compared with respect to energy efficiency, CO₂ footprint and cost. It is shown that the LH₂ chain is more energy efficient and has a smaller CO₂ footprint (20 and 23 kg-CO₂/MWh_th for Europe and Japan, respectively) than the NH₃ chain (76 and 122 kg-CO₂/MWh_th). Furthermore, the study finds the levelized cost of hydrogen delivered to Rotterdam to be lower for LH₂ (5.0 EUR/kg-H₂) compared to NH₃ (5.9 EUR/kg-H₂), while the hydrogen costs of the two chains for transport to Japan are in a similar range (about 7 EUR/kg-H₂). It is also shown that under optimistic assumptions, the costs associated with the LH₂ chain (3.2 EUR/kg-H₂) are close to meeting the 2030 hydrogen cost target of Japan (2.5 EUR/kg-H₂).