More than two billion people,nearly one out of three people, around the globe depend on polluting open firesor inefficient stoves to cook their food, which harms their health, as well asthe climate and the environment. In cities across Sub-Saharan Africa, charcoal,firewood, and kerosene dominate the market for cooking fuel.
To address this problem, many"clean cooking" programmes with alternative fuels and technologieshave been implemented with varying levels ofsuccess and impact. In areas where electric cooking is not a viablealternative, hydrogen cooking can provide a clean and effective solution.
Green Hydrogen Valleys can play a key role in providing large-scaleaffordable hydrogen for clean cooking.This is why Impact Hydrogen isdeveloping a programme to make hydrogen cookers market readyand develop an infrastructure to make hydrogen cooking widely available and affordablewhere it is most needed. Hydrogen Valleys can make this ambition a reality, asthey provide the necessary scale and interconnections with a region’s energysystem.
The goal of Hydrogen Against Hunger is to address the ongoing food crisis in the Horn of Africa through the development of Hydrogen Valleys. In such regions, large scale production of hydrogen will entail large scale water desalination,making it possible to extend access to (affordable) water for the regionalagricultural sector. Moreover, green ammonia produced from hydrogen is afeedstock for fertiliser production, which is direly needed to improve agricultural yields. Making more water and fertiliser available for regionaluse, combined with investments that boost agricultural innovation, climateresilience and dryland restoration, can make a great difference in the region'sfood security. Hydrogen Valleys and the economic prosperity that they bring tothe region can play a key role in achieving this.
Transport is an important and even necessary part of a Hydrogen Valley. However, the transport sector emissions account for a whopping 27% of the total greenhouse gas emissions. In urban areas, harmful automotive emissions are responsible for anywhere between 50 and 90 percent of air pollution, leading to health problems of citizens, including respiratory diseases. It is therefore without question that there is a great need for drastic measures to be taken in the transport sector so that Hydrogen Valleys can be developed sustainably and the global transition to clean energy can be accelerated.
While in some countries electrification of personal vehicles is the most efficient way to transform the sector, in other countries it is too expensive for the majority of citizens to buy new or even second-hand electric vehicles. With our collaboration on the Hybronium project we aim to develop opportunities for projects retrofitting existing vehicles to hydrogen motor engines. These projects could provide the off-take side of our Hydrogen Valleys and contribute to job creation and economic development regionally, and to cleaner cities and healthier citizens.
