15.4.2016 Recent report details hydrogen market forecast
The global hydrogen (H2) generation market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.2% during the forecast period to reach $152.09bn by 2021, according to the recent report released by Research and Markets, Hydrogen Generation Market by Generation & Delivery Mode, Technology, Application & Region - Global Forecast to 2021.
This growth is attributed to high demand for H2 as a cleaner fuel, government regulations for desulfurization of petroleum products, and decreasing crude oil quality. H2 has potential applications in chemical processing, petroleum recovery and refining, metal production and fabrication, aerospace, and fuel cells.
The demand for H2 is the largest in petroleum refinery and ammonia production. During petroleum refining, H2 is used for desulfurization, and thus, the requirement for H2 in refineries depends on the sulfur level present in petroleum products. Governments are regulating sulfur content in final petroleum products, hence; the demand for H2 generation is increasing.
Captive production of H2 is expected to dominate the market until 2021. However, merchant production is expected to witness an increase in market share because of the effective technologies used by the sole manufacturers in the market; most common technologies used worldwide include electrolysis (water) and reformation (methane). North America is the largest market for merchant H2 production.
Asia-Pacific was the leading market for H2 generation in 2015 with increasing end-user applications of H2 in manufacturing ammonia, and increasing usage in refining crude oil.
The report notes the leading players in the H2 generation market include Linde AG (Germany), Air Liquide SA (France), Air Products & Chemicals Inc. (US), Praxair Inc. (US), Airgas Inc. (US), and Hydrogenics Corp. (Canada) among others.
Be sure to see CryoGas Internationals July 2016 focus issue on hydrogen, to see more insights on this important market segment. |