“Hydrogen is an essential part of the European strategy to achieve climate neutrality by 2050,” is how the President of the European Patent Office (EPO), António Campinos, defines the importance of the resource for the European area. A study by the EPA in cooperation with the International Energy Agency (IEA) also suggests that European companies are focusing more on innovations in the field of hydrogen.
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According to this, 28 percent of the patent applications between 2011 and 2020 are accounted for by the EU member states. The market leader in the international patenting of hydrogen is Japan (24 percent), followed by the USA (20 percent) and Germany (11 percent). The USA is the only nation in the top group to record a decline in the number of registered patent families. Most registered hydrogen patents are for hydrogen generation technologies. Above all, low-emission solutions are increasingly coming to the fore.
use of hydrogen
In Europe, hydrogen is mainly used industrially. Almost half of the hydrogen is used in refineries, and around a third is used to produce fertilizers. The chemical application area uses around 12 percent of European hydrogen like the Statista graphic indicates. The steel and metals industry consumes around four percent – here the EPO has recently observed an increase in patent applications with the aim of decarbonising steel production.
Although the patent applications in the field of end uses for hydrogen have not yet reached the same level of momentum as in production, the experts still rate the importance of the resource for the energy industry, especially in Europe, as particularly high. According to DNV forecasts, the hydrogen share in final energy consumption in Europe will be almost 11 percent in 2050. When it comes to the use of hydrogen as a source of energy, Europe will thus be a leader among the regions of the world.
(jle)
