Barriers and breakthroughs: industry leaders gathered at the Budapest Hydrogen Summit

The 4th Budapest Hydrogen Summit organised by White Paper Consulting brought together 90 companies from 19 countries to discuss the role of hydrogen in Europe’s and the CEE region’s energy transition, the latest developments and opportunities in hydrogen technology. The lack of demand side, the complexity of European regulations and technical challenges and uncertainties are the main barriers of developing the hydrogen economy faster.

Although the regulations in the European Union are ready, they are too complex, which makes hydrogen extremely expensive, emphasised Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, CEO of Hydrogen Europe, in his keynote speech at the Budapest Hydrogen Summit.

During a panel discussion Tamás Mérő, Head of Green Hydrogen Value Chain Management of Mol Group confirmed the problem of regulatory framework. The technical installation of the 10 MW electrolyser at the Százhalombatta refinery – the largest one in Central Eastern Europe – took 2 years, after this, the paperwork lasted 1,5 years to have all the certificates and approvals.

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, CEO of Hydrogen Europe, was very grateful for a group of Central European countries putting the hydrogen agenda on the table in Brussels. National hydrogen associations of Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland raised the topic, and the Czech government also brought it to the European Council’s agenda. Veronika Vohlídková, Executive Director of Czech Hydrogen Technology, explained that the current regulatory framework makes it impossible for Central European countries to reach the targets. They published a position paper recently and are organising a workshop in Brussels, where they are inviting not only the industrial stakeholders but also the policymakers from the Commission.

Ralph Bahke, Hydrogen Area and European Hydrogen Backbone Sponsor, Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) and Managing Director of Ontras gave an insight into German gas TSO’s recent project in East Germany, where the company in the last two weeks started operation of the first repurposed pipeline. He underlined that 80 per cent cost savings can be reached by repurposing the existing methane infrastructure to hydrogen instead of building new ones.

Most of the participants agreed that one of the barriers of the development of the hydrogen economy is the lack of demand. Attila Steiner, State Secretary for Energy and Climate at the Ministry of Energy also pointed out that the Hungarian government intends to focus on the demand side of the value chain during the upcoming discussions with market players. He also emphasised the importance of energy storage capability, which is very important because of the high share of solar power in Hungary, which causes high volatility in energy production.

Ákos Kriston, CEO of Hungarian Gas Storage, revealed the latest developments at their pilot project called Akvamarin at Kardoskút, where they have a two-megawatt electrolyser. As he said, the project has the operational licence, is now part of the MVM Partners Balancing Centre and aims to provide balancing services to power suppliers.

Underground storage isn’t the only long-term solution. János Elek, co-founder and CEO of Hydrogen Revolution, presented an alternative approach to storing hydrogen at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature, at low cost and safe way. The company is currently scaling up its plant to reach the 1,000-litre capacity.

Regarding market demand, Messer has a unique approach. Andreas Noky, Project Manager for Hydrogen Refuelling Stations at the company, highlighted that they are creating demand by contacting potential customers and explaining the possible applications of hydrogen.

István Lepsényi, President of the Hungarian Hydrogen Technology Association highlighted that the goals of the EU – keeping the climate targets and improve competitiveness at the same time – are in conflict. Regarding the Hungarian hydrogen strategy, he thinks that it should be updated with less ambitious but more realistic targets.