Getting Hydrogen Right for Poland’s Industrial Decarbonisation

The brief argues that Poland should prioritise clean hydrogen deployment in heavy industry, specifically in refining, fertilisers, chemicals, and primary steel. It recommends a staggered production strategy, starting with low-carbon hydrogen (natural gas with CCS) to ensure stable, cost-competitive baseload supply while the electricity grid is decarbonised to support future renewable hydrogen. Additionally, it suggests aligning deployment with industrial clusters, such as the Silesia-Opole region, to share CO2 transport and storage infrastructure and meet EU mandates.

• Poland's industrial hydrogen consumption is concentrated across eight major sites, primarily in chemicals, fertilisers, and refining, producing approximately 7.8 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
• Decarbonising Poland's primary steel sector using the direct reduced iron (DRI) method would require an additional 240kt of clean hydrogen, based on a current capacity of 5Mt of finished steel per annum.
• To meet EU Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII) mandates, Poland must reach at least 180kt of renewable hydrogen consumption in industry by 2030, increasing to 257kt by 2035.
• Renewable hydrogen is currently too costly and intermittent for large-scale industrial use in Poland; modelled costs are €11.99/kgH2 for grid-connected and €9.17/kgH2 for direct line supply, compared to grey hydrogen at just over €3/kgH2.
• Low-carbon hydrogen produced from natural gas with CCS is proposed as a more cost-effective alternative with a modelled LCOH of €3.99/kgH2, providing the stable baseload supply required by inflexible industrial processes.
• The document recommends a 'cluster-led' approach to decarbonisation, citing the Silesia-Opole region in Southern Poland as an ideal candidate due to its concentration of cement, lime, plaster, steel, and hydrogen users.
• Poland has significant onshore CO2 storage potential exceeding 15Gt, which could offer lower costs than exporting CO2 to offshore North Sea projects.

APA

Gomersall, J., & Carr, A. (2025). Getting Hydrogen Right for Poland’s Industrial Decarbonisation. Clean Air Task Force. https://www.catf.us/resource/getting-hydrogen-right-for-polands-industrial-decarbonisation/

Chicago

Gomersall, Jack, and Alex Carr. Getting Hydrogen Right for Poland’s Industrial Decarbonisation. Clean Air Task Force, 2025. https://www.catf.us/resource/getting-hydrogen-right-for-polands-industrial-decarbonisation/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gomersall |first1=Jack |last2=Carr |first2=Alex |title=Getting Hydrogen Right for Poland’s Industrial Decarbonisation |publisher=Clean Air Task Force |date=20 October 2025 |url=https://www.catf.us/resource/getting-hydrogen-right-for-polands-industrial-decarbonisation/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gomersall2025getting, author = {Gomersall, Jack and Carr, Alex}, title = {{Getting Hydrogen Right for Poland’s Industrial Decarbonisation}}, institution = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2025}, month = oct, url = {https://www.catf.us/resource/getting-hydrogen-right-for-polands-industrial-decarbonisation/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }