Hydrogen is an invisible gas, so, why it confusingly has many colourful names/descriptions? In fact, there is no visible difference between the several types of Hydrogen.

Green hydrogen, blue hydrogen, brown hydrogen and even yellow hydrogen, turquoise hydrogen, and pink hydrogen. They’re only colour codes, used within the energy industry to differentiate between the types of hydrogen.

Here is why Hydrogen have different Colour nicknames?

This is depending on the type of production technology used, different colours are assigned to the hydrogen. It is important to know that there is no universal naming convention yet, and these colour definitions may change over time, and even between countries.

Here is a brief guid to understand the Hydrogen Colour Code.

Green Hydrogen: Is produced with no greenhouse gas emissions. It is made by using clean electricity from renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind, to electrolyse water. It is so expensive to produce.

Blue Hydrogen: Is produced mainly from natural gas, using a process called steam reforming. The output of this process is Hydrogen – but also carbon dioxide as a by-product. That means Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) is essential to trap and store this carbon.

Grey Hydrogen: This is the most common form of hydrogen production. Grey hydrogen is created from natural gas, or methane, using steam reforming but without capturing the Greenhouse gases made in the process.

Black and Brown Hydrogen: This is produced using Gasification process using black coal or lignite (brown coal). It is the most environmentally damaging among all other process.

Pink Hydrogen: Generated through electrolysis powered by nuclear energy. Also be referred to as purple or red hydrogen.

Turquoise Hydrogen: Is made using a process called methane pyrolysis to produce hydrogen and solid carbon.

Yellow Hydrogen: Is a relatively new phrase for hydrogen made through electrolysis using solar Power.

White Hydrogen: Naturally occurring geological hydrogen found in underground deposits and created through fracking. There are no strategies to exploit this hydrogen at present.

So, how invisible and colourless is Hydrogen now :)