Hydrogen Europe has today published its position paper on the Industrial Emission Directive (IED), the European law which regulates emissions-intensive industrial processes. The position paper can be accessed here.

The European Commission’s proposal for the IED groups electrolysis-based hydrogen production with other polluting chemical production processes. This subjects the technology to burdensome permitting rules without justification, going against the rationale of the agenda of cutting red tape for clean tech.

The Council, on 16 March, recognised that electrolysis-based hydrogen production technologies should be considered separately from other forms of production because electrolysis-based hydrogen production does not produce the emissions that would justify its inclusion in the IED. But the proposed text only excludes electrolysis plants below 60 tonnes per day (tpd), despite the fact that the emissions profile is not affected by size.

In its position paper, Hydrogen Europe recalls the absence of direct emissions in the electrolysis process and its negligible environmental footprint. Finally, it reiterates that the European Parliament’s Committee for the Environment (ENVI) should urgently reconsider hydrogen’s inclusion in the IED.

You can read the current legislation here.