Abstract. This bachelor’s thesis presents one possibility of utilising green hydrogen as fuel in the heavy transport sector in Finland. The work is a literature review that includes calculations to estimate the potential hydrogen demand of heavy transportation. The topic is relevant because of the increasing concerns about climate change, and the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions asks for environment-friendly solutions in all fields including transportation. Green hydrogen has been recognised as a potential zero-emission fuel in future heavy transportation. However, the technologies that are required for this utilisation are still under development and need improvement before the usage could be possible.
The thesis introduces the EU’s and Finland’s composed strategies to attain carbon neutrality, the EU in 2050 and Finland in 2035. These strategies spell out targets and guidelines for achieving decarbonisation in various fields, such as heating, electrification, industry, and transport. The strategies also predict the future of the hydrogen economy and provide a picture of the potential scale of hydrogen production and use.
The study examines the current state of the sector, the feasibility of implementing green hydrogen as a fuel, and the potential benefits and challenges of its adaptation into the Finnish fuel chain. The required hydrogen demand and electricity need for this utilisation are calculated by using the exemplary consumption of an ICE hydrogen engine developed by the company Cummins Inc and collected data on Finland’s traffic performances from Statistics Finland. The calculation shows that the required demand per year would be 350 000 tonnes of hydrogen and more than 17.5 TWh of electricity would be needed to satisfy this demand. Theoretically, this electricity demand could be achieved with the current renewable electricity capacity of 36.9 TWh (2021). Although it wouldn’t be possible in practise as the total electricity demand is 69.3 TWh, without renewable hydrogen production. The electrical efficiency of electrolyser technology is, however, expected to improve by about 12.5% in the future. With this improvement, the annual electricity needed for green hydrogen production for heavy transportation would decrease to 15.3 TWh
