Our vision of hydrogen

&Flux stands for new economy and new value chains. Our focus is on the energy transition, the raw-material transition, the circular economy and climate adaptation. We have an excellent portfolio of sustainable heat and CO2 as a raw material for future-proof industry. But hydrogen? You haven’t heard us talking about that yet. Why not?

It’s simple. The world of hydrogen could sometimes almost be compared to a religion. We have our own evangelists, all kinds of denominations (blue, green, yellow, turquoise), various gospels (TKI, PBL, TNO, Gasunie/Tennet) and beautiful celestial images from fantastic to phenomenal and perhaps even a little exaggerated. As &Flux, we’re not going to make much of a difference here. We feel little need to take part in this explosion of words, studies and ambitions.

We want to make a difference in the real world. Added to that, like so many others we do believe in the wonderful effect of hydrogen. But then with the following caveats:

1. Please only use hydrogen (as sustainably as possible) when there is no alternative. We cannot make very high temperatures in industry without hydrogen if we want to phase out fossil fuels. The same applies to hydrogen as a raw material in industry. We now manufacture it from natural gas, and we must replace it with a sustainable variant. You can heat a house with resources other than hydrogen!
2. Try to stay realistic. Yes, large-scale use of hydrogen is the future, but putting too much emphasis on the prospects more than 10 years from now doesn’t give you a perspective for action today. And that can also damage the credibility of hydrogen as a solution!
3. Against today’s grey cost-price reference, no other more sustainable variant can compete. It is too easy to say that the SDE++ should fill that gap. Or to request funding for all the studies that are needed. We are convinced that today’s grey reference is simply the wrong reference and cannot serve as a compass for the future.
4. Investing now in sustainable hydrogen will pay off on an industrial scale before 2030. If you invest in the right place. And if you use the correct reference that clearly shows the derivative costs and benefits.
5. Build value chains that work. With partners who dare to invest because they can see the value case. Look for a way to help each other function better in the chain. It sounds a little sentimental, but whoever learns to share…

&Flux sees this as a unique opportunity to invest in a large-scale hydrogen chain in accordance with our own propositions. We will tell you more in mid-March. To be continued therefore!