Research and Markets now offers a new market research report titled, ‘Global Hydrogen Generation Market By Merchant & Captive Type, Distributed & Centralized Generation, Application & Technology - Trends & Forecasts (2011-2016).’
According to the report, the estimated size of the global hydrogen production market is 53,000,000 t in the fiscal year 2010, of which 12% is represented by merchant hydrogen, while the remaining by captive production. Merchant hydrogen is the gas produced by hydrogen manufacturers, while if the gas is produced by the consuming companies themselves, then it is captive production.
The estimated market value of the global hydrogen production industry is $82.6 billion in the fiscal year 2010. With the ever-increasing demand for hydrogen fuel cells, reducing quality of crude oil and lowering level of sulfur in petroleum products, the volume of the global hydrogen production market is expected to grow at 5.6% CAGR during the period between 2011 and 2016.
Hydrogen can either be manufactured on-site or centrally. On-site production or distributed production avoids issues related with delivery and logistics, which in turn facilitates the growth of the on-site generation system market. Latest on-site hydrogen production technologies produce hydrogen at a lower cost than that of supplied commercial hydrogen, making them a suitable option for various industries. When hydrogen is manufactured at a centralized plant, the gas has to be supplied through different delivery modes, including trailers, cylinders, pipeline and much more to the consumption point.
Hydrogen finds its use in various industries such as fuel cells, aerospace, metal fabrication and production, petroleum refining and recovery and chemical processing. Ammonia manufacturing and petroleum refinery sectors are the major consumers of the gas, while its use as an automotive fuel is an up-and-coming market with a huge potential.