German government agrees on national hydrogen strategy



Germany Hydrogen StrategyIn this Monday June 8, 2020 photo a nozzle valve is attached to the dispenser of a hydrogen filling station in Dresden Germany. The German government is to agree its national hydrogen strategy for the coming decades, part of a plan to reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels. (Sebastian Kahnert/dpa via AP)

FRANK JORDANS
June 10, 2020·

BERLIN (AP) — The German government agreed Wednesday on a long-term strategy for increasing production and use of hydrogen as part of a plan to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

While hydrogen is currently produced almost exclusively from fossil fuels, the government wants to encourage its production from excess electricity generated by renewable energy sources.

Experts say this so-called green hydrogen could help smooth out the problem of solar and wind power's fluctuating supply, and replace fossil fuels in industrial processes that require high temperatures such as steel making.

The government plans to invest 9 billion euros ($10.2 billion) to promote hydrogen production and use, including 2 billion euros that will go toward projects in developing countries such as Morocco.

It set a goal of building hydrogen production facilities in Germany with a capacity of up to five Gigawatts by 2030.

Germany’s industry lobby group BDI welcomed the government decision.

“Only with hydrogen at competitive prices, from domestic sources and imports, can the goal of climate neutrality by 2050 be reached,” said BDI deputy head Holger Loesch.

Germany's transport minister, Andreas Scheuer, told the Funke Media group that the widespread use of technology such as hydrogen-powered engines in buses and trucks would be necessary if the country wants to meet its emissions reduction targets in the transportation sector.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has backed a national goal of ending greenhouse gas emissions in Europe by 2050 to meet the goal of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century.

Scheuer said Germany will have about 100 hydrogen fueling stations by the end of 2020 and add a further 10-15 each year, giving it the biggest such network in Europe.

Japan, which like Germany has no major fossil fuel resources of its own, has invested heavily in hydrogen technology. China and South Korea likewise have national hydrogen strategies, as do Australia, Norway and the Netherlands.

Japan looks past electric, bets on hydrogen powered cars

By Susan Phillips March 14, 2019

At Toyota's LFA Works factory in Japan, workers install hydrogen fuel tanks in a new Mirai. (Hiroo Saso)


This article originally appeared on StateImpact.

—

When it comes to electric cars, battery-powered vehicles dominate the roads. Sales of battery electric cars are set to take off. Auto companies are making more models, and countries are passing regulations to reduce carbon emissions. Even states like Pennsylvania have a plan to encourage more residents to buy battery electrics.

But Japan isn’t sure that’s the future — or, at least, the only future for electrified transportation. The country has ambitious goals to become the “hydrogen society,” and right now, the focus is on its automakers.

At Toyota’s LFA Works factory in Aichi prefecture, workers install the carbon-fiber hydrogen tanks on Toyota’s new hydrogen-powered fuel cell car, known as the Mirai — which means “future” in Japanese.

This tiny factory, within Toyota’s larger Motomachi plant, produces only about 10 cars each day. All are assembled by hand.

Hydrogen fuel station attendant Ken Kawakatsu fills the tank with hydrogen gas cooled to minus 35 degrees celsius. He says this Tokyo station gets about a dozen customers a day. (Hiroo Saso)

Plant manager Matsuo Yoshiyuki owns a Mirai and loves driving it.

“I believe in the future of hydrogen,” he said. “It’s very important for the [environment].”

But Yoshiyuki says owning a hydrogen car isn’t very convenient.

“Sometimes I have problems [filling up] with hydrogen,” he said. “There are not enough stations and the hours are very limited.”

A hydrogen fuel cell doesn’t burn anything — it uses a chemical reaction between the hydrogen and the oxygen from the air to produce electricity — and hydrogen-powered cars emit only water. So in a world striving to reduce its carbon emissions, it sounds like a great alternative to the internal combustion engine.

But the Mirai is expensive — even with generous Japanese government subsidies that bring it down from the equivalent of $70,000 to $50,000. The largest cost is the fuel cell, which Toyota says will drop as production ramps up.

A hydrogen fueling station in Tokyo. Only about 100 of these exist in Japan. This one gets at most 15 customers a day. (Hiroo Saso)

Hydrogen’s chicken and egg problem

The lack of hydrogen fuel infrastructure challenges automakers. Only about 11,000 fuel cell vehicles are on the road worldwide, according to Juan Pontes with EV Volumes. About half are in California, where strict emission regulations and tax credits incentivize electric vehicles. It’s hard to convince consumers to buy a car they can’t easily fuel up. And it’s just as difficult to get energy companies to build the infrastructure if there aren’t enough vehicles to make it profitable.

Part of Japan’s goal to be the first “hydrogen society” includes a target of building 900 hydrogen fueling stations by 2030. The country’s roughly 100 stations were subsidized by the government with continued operational support from manufacturers like Toyota.

The energy ministry has ambitious goals in the lead-up to the 2020 Olympics. The city of Tokyo plans to deploy 100 hydrogen fuel cell buses for the games, with a longer-term goal of 200,000 such vehicles in the next six years.

Hydrogen vs. battery electric

With about five million plug-in battery electric cars worldwide, fuel cell cars are in their infancy. Hydrogen’s detractors say the fuel cell doesn’t make sense given the greater energy efficiency of plug-in battery powered vehicles.

But in countries like Japan, where much of the population lives in dense urban areas, it’s not easy to charge up a battery electric vehicle. It’s here where companies like Toyota are banking on the convenience of hydrogen over plug-ins.

The Mirai at a hydrogen fueling station in Tokyo. (Hiroo Saso)

Matthew Klippenstein, co-author of online publication Fuel Cell Industry Review, says without a garage, or regular parking space that has access to an electrical outlet, hydrogen fuel cells make more sense.

“There’s just no behavior change as long as you have [hydrogen] infrastructure in place,” he said. “We go to the same gas station and fuel up in the same few minutes and just keep on tootling on. And I think that is ultimately the reason that Toyota and other carmakers now have more interest in fuel cells.”

Klippenstein says he sees the divide between hydrogen fuel cells and battery electric plug-ins tracking the parallel path as the gasoline and diesel split familiar to American consumers.

“We will see a similar split where batteries will, for decades at least, dominate the light duty vehicle passenger cars whereas fuel cells will ultimately win out in the heavier applications.”

In South Korea, where the majority of residents also live in urban areas, automaker Hyundai just announced that it plans to produce 700,000 fuel cell cars a year by 2030.
The Hydrogen Society

A new hydrogen fuel plant is rising several yards from Fukushima’s Daiichi nuclear power plant, the site of the nuclear plant meltdown after the 2011 tsunami.

That accident forced Japan to shut down all of its nuclear reactors, which had provided about one-third of the country’s electricity. Eight have since re-opened. Despite that energy source, Japan has always had to import all of its fossil fuels and is the world’s No. 1 importer of liquefied natural gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Workers push a partly assembled Mirai through the assembly line at Toyota’s LFA Works in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Since there are so few hydrogen fuel cell cars manufactured, all of them are assembled by hand. (Hiroo Saso)

But hydrogen is abundant, and the fuel could be produced anywhere.

Ken Koyama from the Institute of Energy Economics, a Japanese think tank, agrees that hydrogen is a good bet for Japan.

“We are always talking about the long run future,” Koyama said. “It’s not the next year or a five-year time horizon. It’s a 20-year, 30-year, 40-year, 50 years because if we are really thinking about climate change it’s a long-, very, very long-term strategy is critical.”

Producing the hydrogen fuel is itself energy intensive. And critics point out that while the hydrogen fuel cell car emits only water, if fossil fuels are used to produce the hydrogen fuel, then the vehicles still contribute to global warming, just as battery electric vehicles charged with energy produced by coal plants can’t be considered completely carbon-free.

“So it’s not really clean if that is the case,” says Kimiko Haraka of the Kiko Network, a Japanese environmental group.

Haraka is critical of a plan by a number of Japanese companies, including Kawasaki Heavy Industries, J-Power, Iwatani Corporation and Marubeni, to build a plant in Australia that would use lignite coal to produce hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles. She also worries that the many subsidies for hydrogen come at the expense of promoting renewable energy.

Still, Bertel Schmitt, a former car industry advertising executive who lives in Tokyo, says it makes sense for Japan and its automakers to include hydrogen vehicles in their long-game plan.

“They pretty much realize that the exhaust regulations will get tougher and tougher,” he said. “What is being enacted right now, in 2020 in Europe, is nothing compared to what will come five years later, 10 years later.”

For now, though, Schmitt says the internal combustion engine remains the cheapest and most convenient car on the market. Despite massive investment, he says Toyota knows hydrogen won’t be taking over the roads anytime soon.

“They know that the guy sitting in the hydrogen fueling station will be very, very lonely for quite a while.”

Travel for this story was made possible with help from the International Center for Journalists.

The role of hydrogen in our low-carbon transition

Hydrogen fuel has long been hailed as the silver bullet that will free us from fossil fuels, but it's time for a reality check on its production and use in a low-carbon economy .

Mike Childs 

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH

21 Apr 20

Summary
Introduction
The environmental impacts of hydrogen production
Low-carbon hydrogen production
Prioritise using hydrogen when there are no practicable alternatives
Rapid decarbonisation requires a lot more hydrogen
Scale of renewable energy required
ANNEX

View as PDF

Summary

Hydrogen is being hyped as an easy way to provide low-carbon energy for heating, transportation and industry. But as this briefing shows, while hydrogen will be an important component of the low-carbon transition, its production will necessarily be limited over the next decade and it should be prioritised for uses where there’s no low-carbon alternative, such as industry. In other sectors, such as heating, alternative approaches will be needed.
Introduction

The UK has a legal obligation to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest, although Friends of the Earth and others are calling for this target to be achieved earlier. Regardless of the end date, it is cumulative emissions that matter in the fight against climate breakdown, which is why the UK’s Climate Change Act has interim targets in the form of 5-year carbon budgets.

The current fifth carbon budget mandates a 57% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 but will need adjusting because of the new net-zero target. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) will make recommendations in December 2020 for the scale of cuts required by 2030 (the mid-point of the fifth carbon budget), as well as making recommendations for 2035 (the sixth carbon budget).

The role of hydrogen in meeting the reduction targets is increasingly being discussed.

For example:
The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) recently published a report1 stating that the cheapest route to zero-carbon power is 90% renewable energy generation, supported by burning hydrogen to make electricity when renewable energy production is low. It says that using hydrogen reduces total energy system costs by around 20%.
It’s also increasingly suggested that hydrogen could be used for zero-carbon production of steel, cement and other industrial products. The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies has recently published a detailed briefing2 on this issue.
Hydrogen is being promoted for use in some transportation, such as trains and heavy goods vehicles.
Over recent years the gas industry has been promoting a switch for home heating from natural gas to hydrogen3 (although in doing so it has been criticised for significantly under-estimating the costs, not fully considering the risks of leakages from home pipework not suited for hydrogen, and underplaying the challenges involved).2 See below for more discussion of hydrogen in heating.

The future role of hydrogen is broadly accepted but the question of how it should be produced remains. This choice could have a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Key decisions must be made soon and making the wrong choices could perpetuate our reliance on fossil fuels.
The environmental impacts of hydrogen production

There are two broad routes for hydrogen production:
From fossil fuels, either gas using steam methane reformation (SMR) or coal. This is sometimes known as "blue hydrogen."
By electrolysis, using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. This is sometimes known as "green" hydrogen, particularly if the electricity used is from renewable sources.

Virtually all current global hydrogen production is made directly from fossil fuels. Only 2% of global hydrogen production is from electrolysis and it accounts for only 4% in the UK.

Production of hydrogen from fossil fuels is a carbon-intensive process

According to the CCC, hydrogen produced from natural gas by SMR has a carbon-emissions intensity of around 285 gCO₂/kWh. This excludes the impact of fugitive emissions from extraction of natural gas, estimated to be 15-70 gCO2e/kWh,4 although this could be 25-40% higher according to recent research.5 Hydrogen from coal gasification has an intensity of around 675 gCO₂/kWh.

In comparison, the carbon-emissions intensity of the electricity grid in 2019 was less than 200 gCO₂/kWh and is declining fast. Emissions from the global production of hydrogen are more than double the UK’s total territorial emissions.6

Carbon capture and storage will not deliver zero carbon

Hydrogen production from fossil fuels can be partly decarbonised by carbon capture and storage (CCS). However, doing so brings an energy penalty and extra costs. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme,7 CCS rates are generally designed to be 85-90% efficient (ie 10-15% of the carbon emissions aren’t captured). The IEA report suggested that while it should be technically possible to achieve capture rates of 99% using CCS, doing so brings an additional efficiency penalty for the power plant, meaning that even more energy is needed to produce the same amount of hydrogen. This in turn increases the amount of upstream fugitive emissions from the extraction and transportation of fossil fuels.
Low-carbon hydrogen production

Electrolysis using renewable electricity has negligible carbon emissions, although if it uses grid electricity, its emissions will be higher than the carbon-emissions intensity of the grid, because the production process is not 100% efficient. That’s why it’s better to use electricity directly, in electric vehicles for example, rather than converting it to hydrogen. As an illustration, in 2018 hydrogen made using grid electricity would’ve had a carbon-emissions intensity of 288-388 gCO₂/kWh, when the grid’s intensity was 216 gCO₂/kWh.

The carbon intensity of hydrogen production from the electricity grid is therefore already lower than hydrogen made from fossil fuels (see chart below). This difference will only increase over time as the carbon-emissions intensity of the electricity grid reduces. In 2019 it fell below 200 gCO₂/kWh and it’s forecast to drop below 100 gCO₂/kWh by 2030 and 41 gCO2/kWh by 2035.

Carbon intensity of various hydrogen production methods compared to natural gas. Note that data for natural gas include fugitive emissions from natural gas extraction. CCS assumed to be 95% capture rate.

Scaling up production and the real cost of producing hydrogen

Hydrogen production using natural gas (SMR) is an established process. This has the advantage that manufacturing capacity can be ramped up relatively quickly (the H21 project envisages a 12.5 GW hydrogen from natural gas plant, built in a modular 1.25 GW plant each year from 2026), but the downside is that there are unlikely to be significant cost reductions. However, the necessary CCS elements are still in development and in practice unlikely to be available at scale until the 2030s.

The government’s action plan for CCS states that "our ambition is that the UK should have the option to deploy [CCS] at scale during the 2030s, subject to the costs coming down sufficiently."8 The recent Budget stated it will invest "at least £800 million" for a CCS infrastructure fund that will support efforts to "establish CCS in at least two UK sites, one by the mid-2020s, a second by 2030."

Will CCS be at scale in time?

Given the chequered past of developing CCS in the UK, it would be a brave bet that the UK would have large-scale operational CCS facilities by 2030, when significant inroads to decarbonising heating need to be made.

Will hydrogen from natural gas be affordable?

The cost of making hydrogen from natural gas with CCS is also uncertain, because no plant is operational. One recent proposal to the government, for a CCS plant based in Aberdeen with its associated existing infrastructure, estimated the cost at 8 p/kWh, with peak hydrogen production of 6 tonnes/hour from a 200 MW plant.9 Unsurprisingly, this is considerably higher than wholesale natural gas prices, which average 1-2 p/kWh.10Such increased cost would be passed onto the consumer, significantly increasing the price of gas for home heating and making it at least as expensive as electricity.

Electrolysis – scope for cost reductions?

Hydrogen production using electrolysis is a newer technology, which will make it harder to scale up production quickly. However, a recent Bloomberg New Energy Finance (NEF) report says that the cost of electrolysers in North America and Europe has fallen by 40% since 2014, and costs are even lower in China (80% cheaper than those in the West).11

British company ITM has recently secured government support with others to develop a modular 100 MW electrolyser system with peak hydrogen production of 40 tonnes/day (this hydrogen could supply 0.6 TWh/year). Although this is a tiny fraction of the amount needed in the future and less than 2% of current UK hydrogen production, the project aims to "validate a complete production system capable of delivering hundreds of megawatts of electrolysers per year."12 This is the beginning of a process to start scaling up the production of hydrogen from electricity.

Hydrogen production from electrolysis also has the advantage that it can be located near to use, as it only needs an electricity supply and no carbon capture facilities. For example, it could be located at a train depot for hydrogen refuelling.

Cost of making hydrogen by electrolysis uncertain

As this is a newer technology, it has scope for significant further cost reductions, as has been seen in the renewable energy and battery sectors. The CCC suggested the cost might be around 6-8 p/kWh, although it also forecast much lower costs for hydrogen from natural gas with CCS at around 4 p/kWh. The more recent Bloomberg NEF report suggests that the costs of producing hydrogen by electrolysis may be similar to producing it from natural gas with CCS by 2030 and cheaper by 2050.11

According to the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies: "the levelised cost of SMR/CCS is likely to be significantly lower [than electrolysis] at current gas and electricity prices … In the longer term, assuming appropriate scale up and cost reduction of renewable electricity and electrolysis, it will be preferable for [electrolysis] to become the dominant production technology to minimise the continued use of fossil fuels."2

The NIC also sees natural gas being the main source for hydrogen production, albeit alongside electrolysis when electricity prices are low.1 A Navigant Consulting analysis on behalf of the Electricity Network Association assumes that hydrogen production costs will fall to 5-6 p/kWh by 2050, for both hydrogen from natural gas and electrolysis using dedicated renewables.13

Will hydrogen be affordable?

It’s likely that for at least the next decade, making hydrogen from natural gas will be cheaper than from electrolysis, but this may not be true in 10 years’ time. Both approaches are more expensive than natural gas, which poses affordability questions for some future uses, such as in households, where it could increase levels of fuel poverty. Significant scale-up of either approach is highly unlikely over at least the next 10 years, but for different reasons. The lack of CCS facilities at scale will hold back production of hydrogen from natural gas, whereas electrolysis is a developing technology that’s still exploring how to build capacity at scale quickly.

Current and future demands for hydrogen production

The UK currently produces and uses around 700,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year (equivalent to around 29 TWh). This is produced from natural gas using carbon-intensive processes without CCS. Nearly all of it is for refining fuels and ammonia production. Replacement of this with low-carbon hydrogen would be a sensible priority.

In the future, potential additional demand would be very significantly higher than this.

Decarbonising electricity

The NIC has recommended that the best low-cost route for decarbonising electricity production is by achieving 90% renewable energy by 2050, backed up by hydrogen combustion in 55 GW of turbines, producing 77 TWh of electricity.

Decarbonising industry

The CCC suggests up to 82 TWh of hydrogen might be needed by industry.4
In 2018, the Hybrit project in Sweden started constructing a pilot plant to manufacture primary steel using hydrogen produced via electrolysis, aiming to have a fully commercialised carbon-free process by 2035.
Cement production requires intense heat (>1600 °C), which could be provided by either an electric or hydrogen kiln furnace. The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies says that since neither has yet been developed at commercial scale, it’s not yet clear which option will prove more cost effective.
The chemicals industry is already a significant user of hydrogen. Emissions reductions can be made by increasing the use of hydrogen through process changes. A report commissioned by the European Chemical Industry Council said that "hydrogen is a key enabler for a major part of low-carbon technologies."14
Natural gas is also used in glass and ceramics production, although whether these can be switched to hydrogen is currently unclear according to the Institute of Engineering and Technology.6

Decarbonising transport

Hydrogen has been suggested as a route for decarbonising shipping (in the form of ammonia fuel), long-distance HGVs, trains, buses and cars. The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies suggests that batteries are likely to be a better option for trains in most cases, with batteries recharging when travelling on electrified track. Where the distance between recharging points exceeds 200 km, trains that also have hydrogen fuel cells make more sense.2 Similarly, electric buses and cars are far preferable to hydrogen-powered ones.

Is it realistic to power the whole domestic sector with hydrogen?

Northern Gas Networks’ H21 project is an extreme example, proposing wholescale switching to hydrogen, with all home heating provided by boilers burning hydrogen.

By 2050, it would require around 8 million tonnes of hydrogen (equivalent to 300 TWh) to heat 3.7 million homes and businesses in the north of England. Production of this amount would require 140 GW of electrolysers powered by wind (current UK wind capacity is around 22 GW). And it would consume a vast quantity of water, equivalent to the annual consumption of 1.2 million homes.

Alternatively, producing this hydrogen from natural gas would require around 60 plants the size of the largest in the world,6 and these would not be low carbon. The cost for householders would be substantial, potentially driving many more homes into fuel poverty. It would require the replacement of all boilers and gas cookers, and potentially all pipework in the home.

Decarbonising domestic heating

Another way to start decarbonising heating is by adding hydrogen to the gas supply, up to around 20%. The safety and practicalities of this are currently being tested. More than 20% could be added, but would require changing boilers and gas cookers. But even if this extra hydrogen was produced by renewable energy, it would only have a small impact on reducing emissions.

The most sustainable home heating approach is to use electricity largely or wholly, with hydrogen either as a domestic back-up (using hybrid heat pumps that can switch between electricity and gas) or to produce electricity when renewable sources are low. The former is more energy efficient (because using hydrogen directly in the home is more efficient than burning it to make electricity) and is the route preferred by the CCC,4 but requires ongoing use of the gas grid, whereas the latter approach doesn’t.

Viability

Hydrogen is needed for the move to net zero, replacing natural gas in parts of the energy system where electrification isn’t feasible or is prohibitively expensive. But scaling up hydrogen production will take time, and in practice hydrogen production from natural gas with CCS or electrolysis will be very limited before 2030 and still limited for the decade after.

Yet even meeting existing carbon budgets means more action is needed before 2030 on reducing emissions, and significantly more if the CCC recommends deeper cuts by 2030, which it should.
Prioritise using hydrogen when there are no practicable alternatives

Low-carbon hydrogen use should be prioritised where no alternative readily exists, such as shipping, industry and some heavy goods vehicles. Uses where electric options exist should use this approach, including domestic heating and most transport.

In practice, this means:
In homes the focus must be on energy efficiency and electrification via the installation of heat pumps (with an ambitious stretch target of 10 million installed by 2030). Friends of the Earth, the Energy Savings Trust, and others are calling for all homes to have at least a C-rated Energy Performance Certificate by 2030. Hydrogen should only be used at times of peak demand, either directly through the gas grid for use in hybrid heat pumps or for production of electricity.
In transport a faster transition to electric vehicles is needed, including necessary investments in grid infrastructure. Localised hydrogen production for some heavy transport will be necessary where a switch to electric isn’t possible. For shipping, hydrogen converted to ammonia is likely to be the most practical route.
In industry a switch to electricity should be prioritised where possible, and hydrogen where not. This will have an impact on costs, so measures to ensure that UK manufacturers are not disadvantaged by this move should be taken.

The CCC’s "Further Ambition" scenario suggested that around 270 TWh of hydrogen is needed, with industry using 120 TWh, shipping using 70 TWh, 53 TWh for peak heating and 25 TWh in transport. It envisages only 2 TWh for electricity production, unlike the 77 TWh suggested by the more recent NIC report. The CCC will be producing a new analysis this September and may upgrade its recommended use of hydrogen.
Rapid decarbonisation requires a lot more hydrogen

Based on the CCC’s "Further Ambition" scenario and the more recent NIC recommendation of a 90% renewable energy grid, it’s clear that the UK needs to produce a lot more hydrogen (equivalent to more than 300 TWh).

Furthermore, to reduce emissions as deeply as possible requires this to be met through electrolysis rather than natural gas, because of the fugitive emissions from natural gas extraction and transportation. This will require around 140 GW of windfarms, in addition to the renewables needed to decarbonise the electricity grid to meet other demands.
Scale of renewable energy required

The NIC report suggested up to 237 GW of renewable energy, producing 530 TWh of electricity, will be needed by 2050 to meet the government’s net-zero goal. If all the hydrogen required (see above) were produced by electrolysis, this amount of renewable energy would need to increase significantly.

Currently, total renewable capacity (excluding biomass) is only about 34 GW. In other words, we need to see more than a seven-fold increase in renewable power, yet currently the UK is aiming to increase renewable energy capacity only fourfold by 2050.15

Hydrogen is needed to reach net zero. To meet net-zero ambitions, it should be produced by electrolysis. For this to happen, national and local government need to support much higher deployment rates of renewable energy than they’re currently achieving.
ANNEX

Hydrogen supply projects supported by the government

In February 2020, the UK government announced financial support for several hydrogen production projects across the UK,16 summarised below. A wider range of projects is funded by industry, the UK government, Ofgem and devolved nations in the Institute of Engineering and Technology "Transitioning to Hydrogen" report.6

Dolphyn – involves producing hydrogen from seawater powered by offshore wind in deep waters off the north of Scotland. The government says the funding will enable the detailed design of a 2 MW prototype system.

HyNet – looks at producing hydrogen from natural gas with CCS and blending the hydrogen into the existing gas grid at volumes that don’t require changes to appliances. The project has been given £7.48 million to permit further project development including engineering design to deliver a "shovel ready" project. Of two potential locations – the Mersey and the Humber – the Mersey is seen as the most attractive.

Gigastack – invovles producing hydrogen from renewable power, using electricity from Orsted’s Hornsea Two offshore windfarm to generate renewable hydrogen for the Phillips 66 Humber Refinery. The £7.5 million funding will also support the development of plans for large-scale production of electrolysers.

Acorn – looks at producing hydrogen from natural gas with CCS for blending into gas consumed in Aberdeen. The £2.7 million grant will enable further engineering studies.

HyPER – this project has been awarded £7.4 million for the pilot development of a novel process for hydrogen production from natural gas developed by the Gas Technology Institute at Cranfield University.



Mike Childs, Policy & Insight Unit, April 2020

1. a. b. https://www.nic.org.uk/publications/net-zero-opportunities-for-the-power-sector/ 

2. a. b. c. d. https://www.oxfordenergy.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Insight-66-Hydrogen-and-Decarbonisation-of-Gas.pdf?v=79cba1185463 

3. https://www.h21.green/ 

4. a. b. c. https://www.theccc.org.uk/2018/11/22/hydrogen-is-a-credible-option-for-the-future-the-uk-must-now-prepare-for-the-key-decisions-on-zero-carbon-energy/ 

5. https://www.carbonbrief.org/methane-emissions-from-fossil-fuels-severely-underestimated 

6. a. b. c. d. https://www.theiet.org/media/4095/transitioning-to-hydrogen.pdf 

7. http://documents.ieaghg.org/index.php/s/CLIZIvBI6OdMFnf 

8. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/759637/beis-ccus-action-plan.pdf 

9. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/866380/Phase_1_-_Pale_Blue_Dot_Energy_-_Acorn_Hydrogen.pdf 

10. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-energy-prices-december-2019 

11. a. b. https://about.bnef.com/blog/hydrogen-economy-offers-promising-path-to-decarbonization/ 

12. https://www.itm-power.com/news/industrial-scale-renewable-hydrogen-project-advances-to-next-phase 

13. https://www.regen.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Regen-Heat-Paper-WEB2-Single-Page.pdf 

14. https://dechema.de/dechema_media/Downloads/Positionspapiere/Technology_study_Low_carbon_energy_and_feedstock_for_the_European_chemical_industry-p-20002750.pdf 

15. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-more-homes-to-be-powered-by-renewables 

16. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hydrogen-supply-competition/hydrogen-supply-programme-successful-projects-phase-2 INSIGHT ENERGY CLIMATE CHANGE


Further reading

Cape Town fire damages 'irreplaceable' archives

The University of Cape Town's Jagger Reading Room has been gutted by a blaze. The loss of invaluable documents casts a spotlight on digitizing history.


The Jagger Reading Room of the University of Cape Town housed many priceless archives that may have been destroyed


A wildfire that started on Sunday on the slopes of South Africa's Table Mountain has destroyed, among others, the University of Cape Town (UCT) campus, ravaging its historic library that housed a priceless African Studies collection described as "unique in the world."

For years, local and foreign academics, students, and researchers have flocked to the university's Jagger Reading Room to gain valuable insights and knowledge through its astounding collection of works pertaining to the African continent.

"If you see inside, everything is gone. There's nothing left, all the books, the history, all gone. It's going to take a long time to rebuild it. I think the main thing is the history," Shurud Jacobs, a caretaker who has worked at the university for more than 10 years, told DW.

Watch video 01:58 Has the fire been contained? DW reports from Cape Town

Loss beyond imagination

Previously known as the J.W. Jagger Library, it was constructed in the 1930s and named after John William Jagger, an English-born businessman who served as Minister of Railways and Harbor in the cabinet of former prime minister, Jan Smuts.

The library's African Studies collection consists of around 65,000 volumes, 26,000 pamphlets, 3,000 African films, and 20,000 other audiovisual items. Some of these are very rare.

Some works were published from as far back as the 1500s to the present. Written in multiple European or African languages, they include newspapers, maps, anti-apartheid works, activist pamphlets, graduate theses, film and audio. The specialist book collections include a Kipling and an Antarctic collection.

Notably, even documents of transitions to independence of some of the other African countries form part of this collection.

The burning library on April 18: The blaze has been meanwhile extinguished

"An African continent, which has suffered several series of conquests, has been struggling to reconstruct its own history and particularly that which is documented," historian and political analyst Somadoda Fikeni told TV news broadcaster Newzroom Afrika. "Therefore, any special collection that is frail, no longer available, or no longer printed very often tends to be priceless in terms of its heritage value and in terms of the knowledge project."

Could be the 'genesis of something new'

The library has yet to determine the scale of the devastation, according to the UCT Libraries executive director, Ujala Satgoor.

The institution's fire detection system did trigger fire doors, which presumably saved many of the most precious records stored at the library's lower levels. The floor razed by the flames however also held vast collections of literature and records that are now presumably lost.

She also told Newzroom Afrika that some of the materials were already being digitized, adding that the library had been purchasing duplicates of some documents over the past 10 years that were housed in its General Section.

"We do have the basis of rebuilding this African Studies collection. But the materials that are salvaged (from the fire) will have to go on a proactive digitization initiative," Satgoor said, however adding that "the magic, the beauty, of working with a tangible hard copy for researchers is invaluable."

Describing the fire as "a quirk of fate," she says that it now forces a serious rethink of how to rebuild the collection and develop it further in different areas within the context of new politics that's emerging across the continent.

"And so, in all of this sadness and horror, there is the opportunity, the genesis of something new to look forward to," she said.

Strong winds fanned the fire that spread from the Table Mountain to the University of Cape Town campus

Losing voices from the past

For many academics and researchers, the African Collection offers a window into the continent's colonial past.

In an interview with The Conversation, UCT academic Shannon Morreira described the fire as "a terrible thing because you lose voices from the past which may carry alternative histories."

She explained how archives are significant for countries like South Africa that have had "fraught and contested histories, or countries whose histories have, for centuries, been told from a particular vantage point."

While underscoring that not all of the UCT's African Collection has an "anti-colonial" stance, historian Somadoda Fikeni explained that it's a mix that gives students insight into the mind of the colonialists.

"It gives us an opportunity to understand the life then, and interpret it within the new lenses of decoloniality," he explained.

De-romanticizing special collections

Fikeni, however, raised a pertinent point about romanticizing special collections or archives that are often tucked away in safe spaces, and inaccessible to the general public. Drawing parallels with widely available ancient works by for example, Greek philosophers or the works of Shakespeare, he said that this event raises the question of what constitutes a "special collection."

"And how does it relate to a knowledge system that gives access to someone in a village with a smartphone or who is in Asia or in the wider diaspora? For, as long as this material is jailed in some basement with signs that say 'Do not touch,' then it says that it is both vulnerable to water and fire as well as ignorance."

CAPE TOWN UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES FIRE TWITTER

 

Germany: Greens campaign for legal cannabis on 4/20

Youthful sin, criminal offense or lifestyle choice: The consumption of cannabis, in whatever form, often divides societies. In Germany it’s illegal, but Annalena Baerboeck and her Green Party could change that.



Hops are king in beer-loving Germany but the Green Party wants to give hemp its due, too

April 19 will go down in German political history as the day Annalena Baerbock was elected the Green Party's first-ever chancellor candidate. Assuming the party is ready to govern, the very next day may well be remarkable as well.

April 20, referred to among marijuana enthusiasts as 4/20, has become an international counterculture holiday, where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis. Many such events have a political nature to them, too, advocating the legalization of cannabis.

On Twitter, the Greens wrote: "Cannabis is the most consumed illegal drug in Germany — the proportion of minors consuming it is increasing. For real youth & health protection there must be rules for the trade and a controlled distribution of cannabis!”

The position is also part of their draft party platform for this September's federal election.

Current legal status of Cannabis in Germany

At the moment, cannabis in Germany is only legal for medicinal use. The plant may only be grown, sold, owned, imported or exported with the permission of the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices and seriously ill people can be prescribed cannabis-based drugs.

Possessing cannabis is otherwise prohibited — punishable with fines or, depending upon the amount, imprisonment for up to five years under the nation's Narcotics Act (BtMG).

Still, punishment for private consumption is relatively mild. A person in possession of only a small amount of the drug can, according to the law, avoid prosecution — but small is a relative term.

Nevertheless, cannabis has grown in popularity, especially among young people in Germany. According to a study by the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA), cannabis use has increased in recent years, with 10.4% of 12-to-17-year-olds and 46.4% of 18- to-25-year-olds having tried it.

Last year, official government figures estimated some 4 million Germans used cannabis.

Daniela Ludwig, the Federal Government Commissioner on Narcotic Drugs and a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU) — the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU — explains: "The figures prove how important it is to educate young people about the health risks of cannabis use and to make it perfectly clear to them that smoking pot is not cool, but can be harmful to health! It's not for nothing that we have therefore launched a new cannabis prevention program."

Watch video 04:36 The race to legalize marijuana

How do the Greens want to legalize cannabis?

The Green Party says it wants “to dry up the black market for cannabis and push back organized crime” with its new drug policy. To do so, they seek to pass legislation that enables the legal and controlled distribution of cannabis in licensed stores. Here are the key aspects:
adult private individuals would be allowed to purchase and possess up to 30 grams of cannabis or three cannabis plants for personal use.
regulated and supervised system for cultivation, trade and distribution of cannabis.

The idea is to relieve police and public prosecutors of having to pursue low-level possession cases, while at the same time increasing financial resources that could be used for prevention, risk reduction and therapy, according to the party's website.
Conservatives stick to prohibition

In 2020, Germany's Bundestag parliament rejected a cannabis control bill put forth by the Greens. The conservative CDU/CSU argued legalization would lead to increased consumption. One of their members, Stephan Pilsinger, pointed out the health risks and long-term consequences of cannabis use, noting that Germany already has enough people addicted to legal substances such as alcohol and cigarettes.

Angela Merkel's CDU is the last of the major political parties in Germany to maintain a strictly prohibitive stance on drug policy, refusing to agree to legalization policies laid out by the Greens, the Social Democrats, the Free Democrats and the Left party.
Cannabis helpful in fighting COVID-19?

Last year, a Canadian study suggested that certain active ingredients in the psychoactive drug could also increase the protection of cells against the coronavirus. Researchers believe some ingredients may reduce the virus' ability to enter cells in the lungs, where it attaches, multiplies and spreads.

"The results on COVID come from our studies on arthritis, Crohn's disease, cancer and others," Dr. Igor Kovalchuck, professor of biological sciences at the University of Lethbridge, said in an email to DW.

If the study proves correct and is peer-reviewed by other researchers in the field, Annalena Baerbock could have a strong argument on her hand for the upcoming elections.

Could Green Party leader Annalena Baerbock become Germany's next Angela Merkel?

Annalena Baerbock is said to be tough, talented and very ambitious. Now, Germany's Green Party has named her as its candidate for chancellor. Is she cut out for the job?


Annalena Baerbock has been sharpening her political profile


Annalena Baerbock has been named the Green party's first-ever chancellor candidate, emphasizing at a press conference on Monday the unanimity with which she and co-leader Robert Habeck had made the decision, and the clarity of their purpose, first formulated at a party conference three years ago: To become a new big tent party for Germany.

"Of course we didn't know then that we'd be standing here today," she said. "But what we knew was that we wanted to open our party up, that we wanted to make policies for a broad society: Inviting, and with clear objectives. And so today begins a new chapter for our party."

"Here, today, I want to make an offer, for the whole of society, as an invitation to lead our diverse, strong, rich country into a good future," she added, warming to the theme.

Baerbock has seen a precipitous rise to power.

Watch video 02:45 Baerbock to be Green Party chancellor candidate

The 40-year-old stepped into the limelight at a party conference early in 2018. Wearing a black leather jacket, the still little-known regional politician — a resident of the eastern state of Brandenburg — stepped to the fore and wowed the delegates who had just made her one of the party's two co-leaders.

That was and is remarkable. After all, the environmentalists already had one shooting star: the relatively young and to many charismatic Robert Habeck was soon whispered about as "chancellor material."

But since her rise to the party's co-chair post, Baerbock has not slowed down. The 40-year-old has sharpened her political profile and projected herself as an expert on how to tackle climate change.

Nor has she shied away from thorny foreign policy issues. She's spoken out on the threats posed by far-right populism and xenophobia. So, when in the winter of 2019 the party again convened, Baerbock got a massive 97% backing from the delegates, beating the "man at her side," who got an impressive 90%.

Watch video 02:25  Baerbock: 'Right-wing radicalism was not taken seriously'

Early on, Baerbock was driven by ambition. Born in 1980 in the small town of Pattensen in Lower Saxony, she was a natural athlete, placing third at Germany's national trampolining championship. She was only 16 when she went to spend a year in the United States. Later, she studied law in Hannover before going on to the London School of Economics, where she studied international law. As a result, Baerbock gives interviews in fluent English — something that even in this day and age still can't be taken for granted among German politicians.

Since she became party co-leader, the Greens have been polling comfortably above the 20% mark. Add to that the party's good showing in European elections, as well in as regional votes in Germany.

But not all is rosy, with the Greens still struggling to gain ground in eastern Germany. But here, too, Baerbock is an asset — and is learning fast, because her family of four has long been based in the eastern city of Potsdam

Watch video 02:55 Germany's Greens see chance for 'new chapter' in transatlantic relations

Faster fossil fuel phaseout and autobahn speed limits

Both Baerbock and Habeck have few inhibitions about talking to members of other parties, including conservatives, to seek possible common ground. And there has been much speculation about a possible conservative-Green coalition in Berlin after the 2021 election.

But Baerbock has worked hard toward a well-defined party platform, which differs clearly from the conservative bloc's policies. For instance, she wants to see Germany phasing out coal-powered energy far earlier than the current target date of 2038. She also backs a speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour (80 miles per hour) on the "autobahn," as German highways are known. She also opposes a hike in German defense spending.

This leaves little room for doubt that any potential coalition between Greens under Baerbock and the conservatives could be a volatile arrangement.

WHO COULD SUCCEED ANGELA MERKEL AS GERMAN CHANCELLOR?

Armin Laschet

CDU chairman Armin Laschet, a staunch supporter of Angela Merkel, heads Germany's most populous state. Conservatives routinely underestimated the jovial 60-year-old, famous for his belief in integration and compromise. But recently, his liberal non-interventionist instincts have led to him eating his words more than once during the coronavirus crisis. PHOTOS 123

'Transatlantic' Green Deal

In a recent interview with DW, Annalena Baerbock welcomed President Joe Biden's decision to bring the US back into the Paris Climate Agreement. But the Green Party co-leader also mapped out some clear and concrete climate goals of her own.

"We Europeans, including the German government, need to take advantage of the current situation to realize the proposals that the US administration has put forward concerning climate-neutral cooperation. We need to get moving and point the way towards a European and transatlantic Green Deal."

In their recently published election manifesto, the Greens have not — as has so often been the case in the past — flagged a preference for a governing coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD). In any case, that alliance would still require the participation of a third party to reach a majority, with the most likely candidate being the socialist Left Party. A coalition between the Greens and the conservatives would likely not need a third partner to govern.

The city of Potsdam, where Baerbock lives with her husband and two children, will see a high-profile duel in the run-up to the September election. The Brandenburg state capital will provide the backdrop for a head-to-head clash between Annalena Baerbock in the Green corner and Social Democrat (SPD) Finance Minister Olaf Scholz in the red: One chancellor candidate against the other.

This article has been translated from German.

SEE

The Green Party candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as Chancellor could control a fiercely left-wing German Government

 LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment (plawiuk.blogspot.com) 

DEEP PURPLE IN EUROPE 1993 REMASTERED

 

BACKGROUNDER

Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik fuels anti-France violence in Pakistan

Issued on: 17/04/2021 - 

Supporters of the Pakistani political party Tehreek-e-Labbaik block a road in Lahore in a protest demanding the expulsion of the French ambassador to Pakistan, April 16, 2021. © Arif Ali, AFP

Text by: Cyrielle CABOT

Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik played a major role in fomenting this week’s anti-French protests in Pakistan, prompting Islamabad to announce the group’s dissolution on Thursday as France’s embassy told French nationals to leave the country over safety fears.

The Pakistani government blocked social media and instant messaging apps for several hours on Friday to try to prevent further violence, a day after Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed announced the dissolution of Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) under the country's anti-terrorism law.

The party’s leader, Saad Rivzi, was arrested on Monday, hours after he called for a new march demanding the expulsion of the French ambassador. His detention triggered days of unrest.

After emerging from the socially conservative Barelvi school of Islam – which is the dominant strain in Pakistan, officially an "Islamic Republic" – the TLP has established itself as a major player in Pakistani politics by campaigning for the death penalty for anyone found guilty of blasphemy, which remains a criminal offence in the country.

“TLP was originally created as a political movement to demand the release of a bodyguard accused of having assassinated the governor of the Punjab region in 2011,” explained Jean-Luc Racine, a specialist in the Indian subcontinent and an emeritus research director at the CNRS think-tank in Paris. In 2015 it became a political party headed by Khadim Hussein Rizvi, the father of the current leader.

France became one of the TLP’s targets when the Charlie Hebdo trial started in September 2020. The gruesome massacre of 12 people at the satirical weekly’s office in January 2015 was the first major incident in a wave of Islamist violence in which more than 250 people have since been killed in France.

A month after the start of the trial, France was shaken by the October 16 beheading of teacher Samuel Paty by a Chechen Islamist militant outraged by his decision to share Charlie Hebdo’s controversial cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in a class discussing freedom of expression. Paty showed the images to his civics class while emphasising that students could choose not to look at them if they were offended.

In response to Paty’s murder, President Emmanuel Macron vowed that France would never give up its liberal Enlightenment values, including the right to mock religion. He hailed the slain teacher as a “hero” for representing the secular, free-thinking values of the French Republic. France has a long tradition of caricatures taking on political and religious authorities – including Charlie Hebdo’s mockery of Catholicism.

The weeks that followed saw mass protests in Muslim countries – with people taking to the streets and burning French flags and images of the French president. In Pakistan, the TLP played a central role in fomenting the demonstrations. The party demanded that Pakistan sever diplomatic relations with France and send the French ambassador, Marc Baréty, packing.

The Pakistani government signed an agreement with the party to convince it to dial down the protests – agreeing to the boycott of French products and promising a parliamentary vote by April 20 on expelling the French ambassador.

But as that deadline approached, Islamabad distanced itself from the TLP – a position underscored by Rizvi’s arrest on April 12. More than 200 TLP activists were arrested during the subsequent clashes with police. At least two police officers were killed and at least 340 people were wounded.

The TLP’s electoral strength has so far between limited. In the 2018 parliamentary elections it won just 2 million votes in a country with a population exceeding 210 million. But the party wields influence through its formidable capacity to mobilise its activists. “That’s its strength,” Racine said. “The TLP can get a huge quantity of protesters onto the streets and block roads for days.”

Demand for Asia Bibi’s execution

In 2017, the TLP spearheaded protests in the Pakistani capital Islamabad over a minor change to the oath taken by electoral candidates referring to the Prophet Muhammad. The government said it was a “clerical error” and soon U-turned. But the demonstrations continued – with at least six people killed and some 200 people injured – until Pakistan’s federal law minister resigned, acceding to the protesters’ demand.

The Islamist party then gained international notoriety in 2018, when the Asia Bibi affair hit the world’s headlines. A member of Pakistan’s persecuted Christian minority, she was arrested in 2010 for alleged blasphemy and spent eight years on death row until she was acquitted. In response to her acquittal, the TLP organised mass demonstrations calling for her to be sentenced to death.

“The TLP is relatively popular among young people, especially in the Pakistani working class,” Racine said. “That is because the party’s policy platform is not just about changing how Islam is practiced in the country – but also about tackling Pakistan’s socioeconomic inequality. This obviously speaks to young people in precarious positions, who are losing out under the current system.”

“This week’s events show that Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government is unable to negotiate with radical movements,” Racine continued. “They’re popular among large sections of the population – so the government finds it difficult to take a firm stance against them.”

Pakistani journalist Zahid Hussain expressed a similar view in the country’s English-language daily Dawn: “The government only managed to postpone the crisis. What has been happening now was inevitable. The way the administration has collapsed in the face of mob violence is alarming to say the least, and underscores how we are failing to deal with rising religious extremism.”

So why did the Pakistani government change tack and decide to shut down the TLP entirely?

“They could be thinking that dissolving the TLP might help improve Pakistan’s image abroad, seeing as the country has long been criticised for financing terrorism,” Racine said, although he noted that there is no evidence the TLP has “anything to do with other terrorist groups present in Pakistan, including the Taliban”.

An anonymous Pakistani diplomatic source told French newspaper Le Figaro on Thursday that “Pakistan wants to normalise relations with France” and that “Pakistan’s interior minister publicly expressed his concern on Wednesday that his country’s reputation is suffering because of the TLP’s actions”.

But Racine warned that getting rid of the party would by no means get rid of the movement: “There’s been a repeated phenomenon in Pakistani history in which the government bans radical groups and then they re-emerge in other forms and with other names.”

Although protests have died down since Friday, Racine said “it remains to be seen how TLP activists will act without a leader and without an institutional framework” after Rizvi’s arrest and the group’s official dissolution.

This article was translated from the original in French.

HE DONE IT

Mahamat Idriss Deby, son of slain president, emerges as Chad’s new strongman

Issued on: 21/04/2021 - 

In this April 11 photo, 37-year-old Mahamat Idriss Deby (C), four star general and head of the Republican Guard in Chad, is seen at a polling station in N'djamena. © Marco Longari, AFP

Text by: FRANCE 24

A son of Chad's slain leader Idriss Deby Itno is to take over as president in place of his father, according to a charter released Wednesday by the presidency.

The charter said General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, 37, who on Tuesday was named transitional leader as head of a military council following his father's death, will "occupy the functions of the president of the republic" and also serve as head of the armed forces.

The four-star general was not on any list of heirs to the throne drawn up by experts, who said they believed the veteran warlord and president had not chosen a successor and seemed to worry little about it.

But Mahamat immediately took charge of a transitional military council and appointed 14 of the most trusted generals to a junta to run Chad until "free and democratic" elections in 18-months time.

Commander in chief of the all-powerful red-bereted presidential guard or DGSSIE security service for state institutions, he carries the nickname Mahamat "Kaka" or grandmother in Chadian Arabic, after his father's mother who raised him.


"The man in black glasses", as he is known in military circles, is said to be a discreet, quiet officer who looks after his men.

A career soldier, just like his father, he is from the Zaghawa ethnic group which can boast of numerous top officers in an army seen as one of the finest in the region.

"He has always been at his father's side. He also led the DGSSIE. The army has gone for continuity in the system," Kelma Manatouma, a Chadian political science researcher at Paris-Nanterre university, told AFP.

However over recent months the unity of the Zaghawas has fractured and the president has removed several suspect officers, sources close to the palace said.

Born to a mother from the Sharan Goran ethnic group, he also married a Goran, Dahabaye Oumar Souny, a journalist at the presidential press service. She is the daughter of a senior official who was close to former president Hissene Habre, ousted by Idriss Deby in 1990.

The Zaghawa community thus look with some suspicion on Mahamat, some regional experts say.

'Too young and not especially liked'

"He is far too young and not especially liked by other officers," said Roland Marchal, from the International Research Centre at Sciences Po university in Paris.

"There is bound to be a night of the long knives," Marchal predicted.

>> The death of Idriss Deby: What next for Chad after president killed on frontline?

Brought up by his paternal grandmother in N'Djamena, Mahamat was sent to a military lycee in Aix-en-Provence, southern France, but stayed only a few months.

Back home in Chad, he returned to training at the military group school in the capital and joined the presidential guard.

He rose quickly through the command structure from an armoured group to head of security at the presidential palace before taking over the whole DGSSIE structure.

Mahamat was acclaimed for his efforts at the final victory in 2009 at Am-Dam against the forces of nephew Timan Erdimi's forces. Those forces had launched a rebellion in the east and had reached the gates of the presidential palace a year earlier, before being pushed back after French intervention.

He finally moved out of the shadow of his brother Abdelkerim Idriss Deby, deputy director of the presidential office, when he was appointed deputy chief of the Chadian armed force deployed to Mali in 2013.

That brought Mahamat to work closely with French troops in operation Serval against the jihadists in 2013-14.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)