The European Commission's ambition is to reach one million tonnes of hydrogen production within four years. By 2030, production will amount to ten million tonnes.

Hydrogen is a crucial building block in the production of so-called electric fuels such as methanol and methane, which can be used to drive heavy transport.

- I am convinced that electric fuels will replace a large part of fossil fuels in the future. It is about a maximum of ten years, says Dinko Chakarov who is a professor of physics at Chalmers and has led a four-year Nordic project on the electric fuel methanol.

Reuses carbon dioxide

The benefits of methanol are many, according to Khakarov. Unlike electricity, it is easy to store, and can be produced and distributed using the current infrastructure for petrol and diesel. 

- In methanol production, carbon dioxide becomes a resource instead of a waste product. In that process, you reuse existing carbon dioxide in the air instead of releasing new ones.

In order to reach the right volume, however, larger facilities are required. At present, Iceland has the only commercial production of electric fuels. There, electricity from the Icelandic state is used to convert water into hydrogen, which is then combined with carbon dioxide from hot sources to produce methanol.

Denmark is one step ahead

But it is also moving in Denmark. Work has begun there on a larger plant for the production of electric fuels with the goal of producing 30 percent of Denmark's need for aviation fuel in ten years' time, Swedish Radio reports.

In Sweden, the investments have instead largely been about biofuels.

- Swedish politicians are investing in biofuels from the forest, which is completely crazy. They generate a lot of carbon dioxide and in addition, the demand for biofuels will decrease as the development of hydrogen engines progresses, says Khakarov.

"Both are needed"

Anna-Karin Jannasch, senior researcher at the state research institute RISE, also predicts a bright future for electric fuels but does not agree that biofuels are unimportant.

- It is needed both. We cannot replace all fossils with the same technology. To maximize the benefits of the green carbon dioxide from biofuels, an alternative is to use it to produce electric fuels, she says.