Hydrogen — desk in development
We are not selling this yet.
Purity is not one number and "green" is not a specification. This page sets out what we are building against, so a buyer planning two to five years out can see whether we will be useful — and so nobody mistakes preparation for an offer.
The desk
Why we are not trading it.
Hydrogen is not held back by chemistry. It is held back by three things at once, and a desk that opens before all three resolve is selling optimism.
Production at scale. Announced electrolyser capacity and operating electrolyser capacity are very different numbers, and final investment decisions have moved more slowly than the announcements. A supply book needs volumes that exist.
Certification. The rules that decide whether hydrogen counts as renewable are now written but still bedding in, and much of what a buyer is really purchasing is the certificate rather than the molecule. Trading a compliance instrument requires certainty about how it will be recognised at the point of use.
Delivery economics. Hydrogen is the hardest common gas to move. Compressed, it is bulky; liquefied, it costs a large share of its own energy content to make; converted to ammonia or a liquid carrier, it needs a reconversion step somebody has to pay for. Until a route to a given buyer is genuinely economic, there is no trade to intermediate.
None of this is a reason to be uninformed. It is a reason not to quote.
Purity
"99.97 %" is the headline. The list underneath is the specification.
Hydrogen for fuel cells is specified by ISO 14687. The grade for proton-exchange-membrane road vehicles sets a purity minimum and then caps thirteen individual constituents — and two of those caps, not the purity figure, are what actually bind.
| Constituent | Maximum | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Hydrogen fuel index | 99.97 % minimum | The headline. Necessary and nowhere near sufficient. |
| Total non-hydrogen gases | 300 µmol/mol | The aggregate ceiling. |
| Carbon monoxide | 0.2 µmol/mol | The one that decides most sourcing. CO adsorbs onto the platinum catalyst and blocks it — a poison at parts-per-billion scale. Reformer-derived hydrogen needs serious purification to reach this. |
| Total sulphur compounds | 0.004 µmol/mol | The tightest limit on the sheet, and irreversible catalyst poisoning. Four parts per billion. |
| Ammonia | 0.1 µmol/mol | Attacks the membrane's proton conductivity. Directly relevant if ammonia was the carrier. |
| Formaldehyde | 0.01 µmol/mol | Catalyst poison. |
| Formic acid | 0.2 µmol/mol | Catalyst poison. |
| Total halogenated compounds | 0.05 µmol/mol | Catalyst and membrane damage. |
| Water | 5 µmol/mol | Corrosion and, at pressure, ice formation. |
| Total hydrocarbons, as methane | 2 µmol/mol | Dilution and catalyst effects. |
| Oxygen | 5 µmol/mol | Safety and catalyst effects. |
| Carbon dioxide | 2 µmol/mol | Converts toward CO in service. |
| Nitrogen and argon, combined | 100 µmol/mol | Inert dilution. |
| Helium | 300 µmol/mol | Inert dilution. |
| Particulates | 1 mg/kg | Mechanical damage and blockage. |
Provenance
The colours are shorthand. Carbon intensity is the number.
Grey, blue, green, turquoise, pink. The vocabulary is useful in conversation and useless in a contract, because none of the colours has a defined boundary and two cargoes of the same colour can differ by a factor of several in actual emissions.
- Grey
- Steam methane reforming without carbon capture. The bulk of today's production, and the incumbent cost benchmark.
- Blue
- Reforming with carbon capture and storage. The honest questions are the capture rate and the upstream methane leakage, and neither is implied by the word.
- Green
- Electrolysis on renewable electricity. Which is where the certification rules below come in, because "renewable electricity" is exactly what they define.
- Turquoise
- Methane pyrolysis, producing solid carbon rather than CO₂. Early, and its footprint depends on what happens to the carbon.
- What belongs in a contract
- A certified carbon intensity in grams of CO₂-equivalent per megajoule, with the methodology and the certifying scheme named — not a colour.
Certification
What makes hydrogen count as renewable in the EU.
The rules sit in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1184, which defines when electricity used for electrolysis counts as renewable for a renewable fuel of non-biological origin. Three tests, and they are stricter than "we bought green power".
| Test | What it requires |
|---|---|
| Additionality | The renewable generation must be new, not existing capacity redirected. The plant must have started operating no more than 36 months before the electrolyser, and must not have received significant public support. Electrolysers starting operation before 1 January 2028 are exempt from this test until 1 January 2038 — a transitional window that is itself shaping who builds when. |
| Temporal correlation | Production must be matched to generation in time. Monthly matching suffices until 31 December 2029; from 1 January 2030 matching becomes hourly. There is an exception where the grid electricity price is below €20/MWh, reflecting renewable surplus. |
| Geographic correlation | The electrolyser and the generation must be meaningfully connected — in the same bidding zone, in interconnected zones with comparable prices, or an offshore installation directly connected. |
| Greenhouse-gas saving | Separately, the fuel must achieve at least a 70 % saving against the fossil comparator, calculated under the companion methodology regulation. |
Delivery
Five ways to move it, each with a toll.
Hydrogen's problem is density. Every practical route pays for that in energy, in capital, or in a conversion step — and which one is least bad depends entirely on distance and volume.
| Form | Where it fits | The toll |
|---|---|---|
| Compressed gas | Short distances and modest volumes; 200 bar industrial supply up to 350 and 700 bar for mobility. | Compression energy, and very poor volumetric density even at 700 bar. Trucking it any distance moves mostly steel. |
| Liquid hydrogen | Larger volumes where a cryogenic chain exists. | Liquefaction consumes a substantial share of the hydrogen's own energy, and boil-off is unavoidable at 20 K. |
| Ammonia as carrier | Long-distance seaborne movement, using an existing trade and existing ships. | Synthesis and then cracking back, each with losses — unless the buyer wants ammonia itself, in which case there is no reconversion at all. Note that we do not offer ammonia as a marine fuel; see Marine Fuels. |
| Liquid organic carriers | Handling hydrogen as an ambient liquid in conventional tanks. | Carrier inventory that must be shipped back, and heat for dehydrogenation at the far end. |
| Blending into gas networks | Where a grid permits a hydrogen fraction. | The molecule loses its identity in the blend, and end-user equipment tolerances cap the percentage. Useful for decarbonising gas; not a way to deliver hydrogen as hydrogen. |
When the desk opens
Five things we will ask you for.
If hydrogen sits on your two-to-five year plan, tell us these now. It costs you nothing, it tells us whether the route we build should serve you, and we will come back to you when we can quote rather than when we can talk.
Volume and profile
Tonnes per year, and whether the demand is flat or follows a process. Flat demand and intermittent supply is the central problem in this product.
Purity grade
Industrial, refinery-grade, or fuel-cell grade to ISO 14687. And whether you need the full constituent analysis or a purity figure.
Delivery form
Compressed, liquid, or as a carrier you will reconvert. Include the pressure and the receiving arrangement.
Certification requirement
Whether you need RFNBO-qualifying hydrogen, a certified carbon intensity, or neither. This changes the price more than the molecule does.
Term
How long an offtake you could sign, and whether it runs past 2030 — which is when hourly matching changes the arithmetic.
What you will get back
Nothing until we can actually supply. No indicative pricing, no letters of intent, no capability claims. When the desk opens we will contact the register.
Straight answer
What we will tell you before you ask.
- That we are not offering hydrogen
- Stated at the top of this page and repeated here. No volumes, no indicative prices, no letters of intent. When that changes we will say so.
- That purity percentages are close to meaningless on their own
- The carbon monoxide and sulphur limits are what decide whether hydrogen can feed a fuel cell, and they are two and four parts per billion respectively. Ask for the constituent list.
- That the colour is not the specification
- Blue hydrogen with a poor capture rate and high upstream methane leakage can be worse than the grey it replaced. The number is a certified carbon intensity with a named methodology.
- That 2030 is a real cliff in the certification rules
- Monthly matching becomes hourly. An offtake priced on the current regime and delivering after it is a repricing waiting to happen.
- That we would rather lose the enquiry than fake the desk
- Our Sustainability page makes the same commitment in general terms. This page is what it looks like applied to a specific product.
Enquiries
Every enquiry is answered by the desk that handles it.
Send the product, quantity, delivery basis, destination and timing. We revert with availability, an indication and the documentation that accompanies it. Specifications are released once we know who we are speaking with.