Published
October 15, 2024
As part of the clean energy transition, scaling the use of hydrogen will be crucial to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
By the Numbers
By 2050, hydrogen could help decrease as much as 80 gigatons of CO2 emissions from the industrial and transportation sectors—two industries with the highest potential to leverage clean hydrogen. This won’t be possible, however, unless we maintain access to essential chemistries.
Fill Me In
For example, fluorochemistries, including certain PFAS products, are needed in water electrolysis technologies, which use electricity to break water into hydrogen and oxygen. Several technologies exist today, with additional technologies in the early stages of development, both utilizing fluorochemistries to produce clean hydrogen at commercial scale. According to the International Energy Agency, the commercially available electrolysis technologies with the highest Technology Readiness Level (TRL) are alkaline and PEM (proton exchange membrane) electrolyzers. Those in the demonstration stage include solid oxide (SOEL) and anion exchange membrane (AEM) technologies.
Why it Matters
While all are promising, PEM technology has certain advantages among commercially available technologies, such as 1) high efficiency resulting in a more compact design and smaller footprint, 2) better load following when used with renewable energy sources, and 3) faster start-up times to enable rapid hydrogen production during emergency grid disruptions. The long-term scalability and economic viability of PEM systems for the clean energy transition require innovation made possible by fluoropolymers.
Sweeping efforts to ban or overregulate PFAS threaten industries’ access to essential fluorochemistries that make clean hydrogen production possible at scale. We support accelerating the responsible cleanup of PFAS in the environment based on the best science and risk management. Fluorochemistries, including many PFAS, play a critical role in deploying the technologies required to make the energy transition and industrial decarbonization possible.
The Bottom Line
With global demand for PEM technology rising, nearly a quarter of all hydrogen production is expected to be dedicated to PEM by 2030. This underscores the importance of essential chemistries in enhancing membrane performance—without them, the growth of the clean hydrogen economy and clean energy transition would stall.
Join Us
Learn more about Essential Chemistry for America, the Chamber’s initiative to safeguard access to fluorochemistries by highlighting their essential role across major sectors of the U.S. economy.
About the authors
Chuck Chaitovitz
Chuck Chaitovitz is vice president for environmental affairs and sustainability at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
