Green Hydrogen: The Fuel That Could Decarbonize Heavy Industry

Some of the hardest emissions to eliminate come from industries that need extremely high heat or a chemical reducing agent that renewable electricity alone cannot provide. Green hydrogen — produced by using renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen — is emerging as the leading candidate to decarbonize these sectors.

Steel: The Highest-Profile Application

Traditional steelmaking uses coal-derived coke as a chemical reducing agent to strip oxygen from iron ore, a process that accounts for a significant share of global industrial emissions. Green hydrogen can replace that coke entirely in direct reduced iron processes, and several full-scale green steel plants are now moving from demonstration to commercial production in Europe and beyond.

Shipping and Long-Haul Transport

Green hydrogen and its derivatives — particularly green ammonia and green methanol — are gaining traction as marine fuels for a shipping industry with few other credible decarbonization paths for long ocean voyages, where battery weight makes electrification impractical.

Major shipping lines have begun ordering vessels capable of running on these hydrogen-derived fuels, betting that supply will scale in time to meet incoming international shipping emissions regulations.

The Cost Challenge

Green hydrogen remains significantly more expensive to produce than hydrogen made from natural gas, and closing that gap depends on continued declines in renewable electricity costs and electrolyzer manufacturing scale. Government subsidies in the US, EU, and elsewhere are explicitly designed to bridge this cost gap while the industry matures toward commercial competitiveness.