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FUEL OF THE FUTURE, NOW By Justin Jin

"Fuel of the Future", as hydrogen is often called, risked being forever a dream because the volatile gas is difficult and expensive to handle. But climate change and Russia's aggression are pushing many countries to speed up the transformative leap to renewables. H2, hitherto little talked about, has been catapulted to the forefront to replace fossil fuels. Justin is developing this story around the world through 2022 and 2023.

When a steel-maker uses hydrogen instead of coke to turn iron oxide (right) into pure iron (left), the by-product is water instead of CO2.
A blast furnace uses coke, derived from coal, to melt and purify iron more, releasing a tremendous amount of CO2. Hydrogen technology is expected to fully replace this process in the coming decades.
Mining and steel-making is among the most pollutive industries in the world, responsible for around 8% of global emissions. Here, the world's deepest iron mine in the polar region is aiming to go fossil-free -- while at the same time relocating the city above it.
To fully decarbonise steel-making, producers are starting at the source: iron mining. Here, a Scandinavian iron mining company is going fossil-free. This has huge impact on the health of the miners, who otherwise would be breathing noxious gases including carbon monoxide.
A leading innovator at a power company calculates the cost of using renewable energy and hydrogen to power green-steel making.
The head of R&D at the Scandinavian iron miner tests the hardness of an iron pellet produced by hydrogen technology.
A natural gas depot in Spain supplies the fertiliser, steel and other industries. Hydrogen is expected to replace it in the coming years.
This fertiliser company is launching the world's first hydrogen-made product, a milestone in the decarbonisation of one of the world's most pollutive and hard-to-abate industries. One of the key ingredients of fertiliser is ammonia, which is traditionally made using natural gas, now made with hydrogen.
Energy companies CEOs gather at the control room of a major utilities company in southern Europe to study plans to build a pipeline to carry hydrogen to replace Russian gas.
The world's longest train snakes over the Sahara desert in Mauritania, carrying iron ore produced in a desert oasis to the coast. A plan has been signed to use sunlight to turn water into hydrogen, which in turn can be used to turn iron ore into iron pellets, and upgrading the mining company.
Women wash organically grown carrots in an oasis in the Sahara desert in Mauritania. The planned hydrogen production will require the building of desalination plants, from which some pure water will be diverted to the desert for agriculture.
People look out at fishing boats docked on the Atlantic Ocean.
A boat carries wind-turbine blades into a North Sea port that supplies the construction of the world's biggest wind farms. Hydrogen offers a way to store excessive energy produced by the wind turbines when there is too much wind, and releasing it into the grid when the wind subsides.
A supply ship in the Netherlands lifts the monopile of a wind turbine onboard, ready to be transported to the North Sea between Britain and continental Europe to build the world's largest wind farms.
A technician stands in front of a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzer at a hydrogen energy pilot in the Netherlands, which is pioneering a "hydrogen valley". An electrolyzer is a system that uses electricity to break water into hydrogen and oxygen in a process called electrolysis.
Dutch high school students prepare a hydrogen model car for a race. The two white-blue tubes are hydrogen fuel cells.
A worker refuels a hydrogen bus at the depot in the Netherlands. The process takes around 10 minutes, and the bus needs to be fuelled only once or twice a day.
This state-of-the-art multi-fuel station supplies fuels, including hydrogen, for all passenger and cargo transportation. It is one of the larger hydrogen filling stations in Europe.
King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands views our pictures with his country's chief architects.

This on-going project, initiated by Hydrogen Europe, looks at how in Europe, industries and policy makers are creating a hydrogen future where the waste-product is water, not CO2.

International recognition for Justin includes awards by Picture of the Year International, Magnum Foundation and Hansel-Mieth, Germany's renowned journalism prize, where in 2021 he was awarded top prizes for both writing and photography. Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam hosted his major solo-exhibition.

Justin is working together on this project with his wife, producer Heleen van Geest. Heleen's tenure at Thomsonreuters took her to Afghanistan and Iraq, multi-year stays in Moscow and Beijing, and finally to Brussels, where she headed the global agency's video department for EU and Benelux affairs.

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