Santander, (EFE).- The researcher Lourdes Vega considers that climate change mitigation must be faced from a realistic perspective, taking into account that there are no “universal solutions” such as hydrogen, and warns of the need for urgent actions because “we are not doing well”.
“We cannot think that hydrogen is the universal solution to climate neutrality because it is not true: it has the role it has,” the scientist, who directs the CO2 and Hydrogen Innovation Research Center at the Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi.
The researcher, who has been a speaker at the second Climate Action Congress in Santander, points out that all actions to mitigate climate change play an “essential role” for emissions neutrality.
Thus, to achieve emissions neutrality by 2050, hydrogen has a range of 10% of the actions that can be undertaken; renewables 25%; energy efficiency another 25% and the remaining 20% would be carbon capture, details this expert.
“There are different technologies, all of which can help us achieve climate neutrality or zero emissions, but they are all necessary and you have to apply the one that corresponds to your sector,” he insists.
For this reason, it asks to “dimension” what to use that hydrogen for. “There is a lack of a strategic design of how much hydrogen we need.”
In the sectors in which this element is used, Vega predicts that within ten years, past the 2030 horizon, there may be commercial flights between nearby destinations such as Madrid-Santander with ecological hydrogen fuels. “We have no choice,” he adds.
However, he believes that an effort should be made to promote what is known as green hydrogen and blue hydrogen, since 98% of the compound used is gray and very polluting because a lot of energy has to be used to “break” the water molecule. .
“For every ton of hydrogen that we produce, 10 tons of CO2 are produced,” he warns.
Even so, he is optimistic, since he sees progress in the technology for the use of renewable energies, which uses excess solar or wind production to “break” the “so difficult water molecule”, produce hydrogen and store it. CO2, ” A GOOD COMPOUND”
CO2, a good compound?
Vega’s participation in the Climate Action Congress focused on exploring the possibilities of capturing, using and storing CO2 to combat climate change.
The researcher demystifies the “negative” meaning of carbon dioxide, which she defines as “a good compound”, but whose excess is harmful, since it is one of the main causes of climate change.
“One of the possibilities is to capture it before it is emitted into the atmosphere and once you capture it, you prepare it and see if you can use it or store it,” he explains.
This capture is easier to do in processes that emit a large amount of this compound and much more expensive to do it in “air”.
Vega points out that this process, which “is already used but not on the scale that is needed”, has limitations, since emitting CO2 “is free and capturing it costs money” and, currently, only the component that ” the market assumes”.
“Of the CO2 produced last year, 0.6% was used. There is a long way to go, ”he considers.
top of the class
The scientist warns that “we are not doing well” in the steps that are being taken to decarbonize the economy by 2050. “We have to invest much more, much faster and have many more projects.”
For this reason, he advocates putting “the best of the class” to work “together” and well-financed on climate solutions, but he also believes that legal security is necessary and “breaking” the “concept of silos” between the university, industry or the business world.
He defends the idea of patents, as it is understood today. “The idea that I develop a technology and I patent it is mine and my competitor should not come.”
All this will will be expressed if a social awareness that climate change “affects everyone” takes hold, because it considers that if it continues like this, it will not be “adaptable” in time. “We can’t have people fooled,” he says.
And he gives air conditioning as an example, as a daily gesture to reduce the impact of people on pollution. “Do I really need the air to be at twenty, can’t it be at 24 degrees?” she wonders.
Pablo Ayerbe Caselles