International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

The European Union’s REPowerEU strategy places green hydrogen at the center of its plan to eliminate fossil fuels and accelerate the green transition. The strategy targets 20 million tonnes (MTPA) of green hydrogen per year by 2030: 10 MTPA to be produced domestically and 10 MTPA imported. Achieving this requires scaling electrolysis capacity from the current 0.3 GW to 120 GW, a remarkably ambitious, if not unrealistic, target. Current green hydrogen production costs range from 100 to 200 €/MWh, several times higher than natural gas prices, which fluctuate between 20 and 40 €/MWh. In contrast, blue hydrogen, which is produced through natural gas reforming combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS), generally costs between 50 and 100 €/MWh. To bridge the cost gap between hydrogen and fossil fuels, the EU established the Hydrogen Bank with €3 billion to kick-start the market through competitive funding mechanisms. The REPowerEU hydrogen targets have drawn criticism due to limited availability of renewable electricity, underdeveloped infrastructure, and the slow pace of electrolysis deployment. Concerns also focus on the inefficiency of hydrogen use in sectors such as passenger transport, short sea shipping, residential and commercial heating, where direct electrification is significantly more effective. Nonetheless, the EU is advancing regulatory frameworks, developing over 40 Hydrogen Valley Projects, and establishing international import corridors to support market growth. This paper examines REPowerEU’s hydrogen ambitions, balancing its potential as a key decarbonization tool against economic, technical, and logistical challenges that may hinder its realization.

Carbon capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technologies are rapidly evolving as a critical component of global decarbonization strategies, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors such as natural gas processing, power generation, fertilizer, cement and steel production industries. Amine-based absorption systems are currently the most established capture method, widely applied in large point sources for natural gas processing and chemical industries. Alternatives such as membrane separation, adsorption, and direct air capture are also emerging, offering benefits for specific applications. CO2 transport is increasingly diversified, with supercritical CO₂ pipelines and liquefied CO₂ shipping offering scalable and flexible solutions. CO₂ storage is focused on deep saline aquifers and depleted oil and gas fields. Carbon capture costs are project-specific and depend on CO2 concentrations, facility size, and technology complexity, with costs ranging from 30 to 120 US$/tCO2. The CCUS chain will undergo substantial development in the next decades, both in technological maturity and economic viability. As of early 2025, the total global CCUS capacity was 50 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) and is expected to reach 1300 MTPA by 2050. Yet, this will cover only 6% of total global CO₂ emissions, far from any net-zero carbon emissions scenario. By 2050, modularization, improved materials, and process integration are expected to reduce investment costs by up to 30%.

Albania has significant renewable energy resource potential from hydro, wind and solar energy. It is a special case regarding electricity generation because most of (99%) is provided using large and medium hydro power plants. So, energy generation in Albania is free from greenhouse gas emissions. But since hydrological conditions change from year to year, the country has been forced to support the import of electricity from countries in the region and mainly from Kosovo. The use of wind energy in Albania would not only reduce dependence on imports but also would affect the decarbonization of the energy sector in the region, which is supported by fossil resources. This study estimates the amount of CO2 that could be reduced if a renewable energy source, such as wind energy, would replace energy generation from the use of fossil fuels sources. In case when the energy is generated from coal thermal power plants in Kosovo, emitting an average of 1,205 tCO2/MWh, results in reduction of 36,632.5 tCO2 for generating 30.6 GWh electricity yearly and in case when electricity generation is from Vlora gas power plant, emitting an average of 0.341 tCO2/MWh results in reduction of 10,379.3 tCO2 for the same amount of electricity generated in first case.

We examine a different approach to complete decarbonization of the Russian economy, in a world where climate policy is increasingly requiring radical reduction of emissions wherever possible. We propose an energy system that can supply solar, and wind generated electricity to fulfill all demand and which accounts for intermittency problems. This is instead of a more usual approach of planning for expensive carbon capture and storage, and a massive increase in energy efficiency and therefore a drastic reduction in energy use per unit Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Coupled with this massive increase in alternative energy, we also propose using excess electricity to generate green hydrogen. Hydrogen is a known technology that can function as storage for future electricity needs or for potential fuel use. Importantly, green hydrogen can be used as a re-placement export for Russia’s current fossil fuel exports and will likely provide higher revenues. The analysis was carried out using the highly detailed modeling framework, the High-Resolution Renewable Energy System for Russia (HIRES-RUS) representative energy system. The modeling showed that there are a number of feasible combinations of wind and solar power generation coupled with green hydrogen production to achieve 100% decarbonization of the Russian economy.