Gastech 2022: Wood is seeing a lot of demand for hydrogen

In our next exclusive studio interview from Gastech 2022, Julian Walker sat down with James Holbeach, Global Director of Energy and Flow Assurance at Wood, about the role natural gas plays in the road to net zero and how Wood is supporting the energy transition through hydrogen. Here are some key takeaways that James highlighted during his interview; Wood sees strong growth for the hydrogen and we learn why natural gas is set to play a key role in hydrogen’s production. We also hear why hydrogen is set to go global. How important is natural gas? “Natural gas will play an important part in the transition towards other cleaner fuels. It is also going to play a really important role around hydrogen through the production of blue hydrogen and bringing the right commercial level for the use of hydrogen by businesses.” What is Wood doing around hydrogen? “Wood is doing a lot of things across the entire energy value chain when it comes to hydrogen. From the initial production of hydrogen through our steam methane reforming (SMR) technology, as well as the transport and operations of both every colour of hydrogen you can think of. In my division, we are looking at the operations of hydrogen networks and looking at some of the complexities involved with hydrogen as a fluid and associated fluids like carbon dioxide.” Is hydrogen set to go global? “I speak to a lot of midstream operators in every country in the world and from what I am hearing every single midstream operator is looking at hydrogen. They are all looking at their existing assets of pipelines to transport hydrogen in the future.”