We think of new opportunities for Ukraine which will enhance its energy security, economy and overall safety. Green hydrogen gives this possibility. Development of hydrogen energy industry in Ukraine is not just creating alternative energy source but a big European project which could definitely change the balance of power and alliances on the European continent. We should not consider the green hydrogen as a purely economic project. It is a political project and a very serious instrument of the European integration with Ukraine. With export of green hydrogen we will indissolubly bind the economies of Ukraine and the European Union– says Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba.

The thing is that for the time being there are several obstacles. A prosaic hindrance to a wide scale plans might be lack of water. According to calculations carried out by the Ukrainian Science Academy, as much as 288 billion m³ of hydrogen would come from freshwater biological resources. To make one cubic metre of hydrogen, 1.5-2 litres of water is needed, which means 432-576 million m³ of freshwater will be taken from the Ukrainian ecosystem per year.

What is more, what has left is difficult to be called water. The concentration of toxic compounds in the Ukrainian rivers exceeds maximum tolerances. Therefore, according to the forecast of the Institute for Water and Melioration, until 2050 Ukraine will have had to be forced to import drinking water.

Just in case, Germany has started to work on taking over the control of hydrogen supply from the Dnieper river area to the European Union markets.

In September, the operators of gas pipes from Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Germany – Operator GTS, EUSTREAM, NET4GAS and OGE presented a joint initiative “Central-European Hydrogen Corridor”. According to assumptions of the project, in 2030 120GWh of hydrogen per day would flow through Slovakia and Czech (bypassing Poland). (source: forsal.pl)