Industry
Manufacturing
Future-Ready Manufacturing: Partnering in your journey to a sustainable manufacturing enterprise
Highlights
- As hydrogen becomes central to global decarbonization, there is a growing urgency to verify its carbon intensity, origin, and end use. Trust in hydrogen’s value will depend not just on how it’s produced, but how transparently it’s tracked.
- Industries such as automotive, mobility, steel, and chemicals are deeply invested in hydrogen. Traceability will be critical to navigate compliance, qualify for tax incentives, and meet evolving ESG and carbon border requirements across international markets.
- Robust tracking systems will help prevent greenwashing, support cross-border trade, and enable lifecycle visibility. As sustainability becomes non-negotiable, traceable hydrogen is not just a technical necessity, it is a strategic advantage for global value chains.
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The Hydrogen Opportunity
“Hydrogen is the missing piece of the clean energy puzzle.”
— Fatih Birol, Executive Director, International Energy Agency
Imagine a world powered by a single, abundant molecule, versatile enough to fuel ships, heat homes, drive trucks, and power industries, all without emitting carbon. That’s the transformative promise of hydrogen. Today, hydrogen is no longer a future concept; it is rapidly becoming central to policies, partnerships, and private-sector projects across the globe. Governments and industries alike are investing heavily in hydrogen to decarbonize some of the hardest-to-abate sectors, such as steel, cement, aviation, and long-haul freight
However, a silent challenge threatens to slow down this progress. Without clear data on hydrogen’s origin, carbon footprint, and movement across its value chain, buyers may hesitate, regulators may resist, and investors may pull back. That’s where hydrogen track-and-trace enters the picture.
Industries such as automotive, steel, chemicals, aviation, maritime, and energy utilities are already deeply invested in hydrogen as both fuel and feedstock. But without transparent data on carbon footprints and source certification, these sectors face risks ranging from non-compliance and greenwashing to regulatory penalties and investor distrust.
Digital product passports and intelligent traceability platforms are key enablers for this energy future. They provide the digital backbone to support:
- Carbon credit markets
- Incentive qualification (like U.S. 45V tax credits)
- Sustainable procurement
- Global trade in green molecules
- ESG-aligned reporting and auditing
Why Transparency in Hydrogen’s Journey Matters
In a future where green claims are currency, proof becomes power.
Track-and-trace systems for hydrogen are more than a technological upgrade. They are a foundational pillar of market integrity. Here’s why:
- Accountability matters: Buyers want to know if their hydrogen is green (electrolyzed using renewable energy), blue (from fossil fuels but with carbon capture), or grey (from fossil fuels without capture).
- Certifications and carbon credits: Emerging regulations such as the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), and green hydrogen incentives in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act all require accurate carbon intensity reporting.
- Public trust and ESG reporting: Transparent tracking ensures that hydrogen investments are credible and auditable under sustainability frameworks.
- Operational safety: Traceability improves real-time visibility into storage pressures, hydrogen purity, and transport conditions.
Charting the future of hydrogen track and trace
Charting the future of hydrogen track and trace
The Digital Disconnect
Understanding the Present
Although hydrogen projects are gaining momentum, most operate in silos. According to a 2023 report by the Hydrogen Council ([1]), fewer than 10% of global hydrogen projects currently include integrated digital traceability tools.
- The CertifHy initiative in Europe ([3]) has laid the foundation for Guarantee of Origin (GoO) certificates for hydrogen, but these are still limited in scope and geographic reach.
- Projects in Japan, South Korea, and Australia are exploring blockchain-based pilot systems, yet interoperability across platforms remains a challenge.
As it stands, hydrogen traceability is where EV charging standards were fragmented a decade ago, underdeveloped, and ripe for innovation.
Building blocks of a transparent ecosystem
Digital Fabric
To track hydrogen from production to pump, a digital spine is needed that integrates hardware and software across the supply chain. The key building blocks are:
- Blockchain: Ensures immutable records of hydrogen origin, carbon intensity, and transaction history.
- IoT devices and smart meters: Capture data on flow rates, purity, pressure, and temperature during storage and transit.
- Digital twins: Create real-time, virtual replicas of electrolyzers, tanks, pipelines, and trucks.
- AI and predictive analytics: Use pattern recognition to forecast asset failures, optimize routing, and ensure quality compliance.
- Global standards: Protocols equivalent to OCPP (for EV charging) or ISO 14067 must be adopted across hydrogen systems.
Market Momentum and Strategic Forecasts
“Green hydrogen has the potential to be the oil of the 21st century.”
— Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries
- The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects global hydrogen demand to exceed 500 million tons by 2050, with green hydrogen accounting for more than 60% of supply ([2]).
- According to BloombergNEF, the green hydrogen certification market alone could become a $20 billion industry by 2030
More than 30 countries have already published national hydrogen strategies, many of which mention the importance of traceability and certification ([1]).
Global Hydrogen Production in 2025
Global Hydrogen Production in 2025
Here is the bar graph showing estimated global hydrogen production in 2025:
- Total hydrogen production: ~95 million tons/year
- Green hydrogen production: ~12 million tons/year
This clearly illustrates the gap between total hydrogen output and the still-growing share of green hydrogen, underlining the urgency for scaling up sustainable production.
Source: IEA Global Hydrogen Review 2023, BloombergNEF
Industry-Driven Impact
Anchoring Hydrogen's Promise in Practice
- Cross-Border Hydrogen Trade:
- Heavy Mobility:
- Refueling Infrastructure:
- Industrial Feedstocks:
- Power-to-X Applications:
With countries like Japan, South Korea, and Germany depending heavily on imports to meet their clean energy goals, cross-border hydrogen trade is becoming a linchpin for the global hydrogen economy. However, to ensure transparency in carbon intensity, source verification, and compliance with national sustainability policies, hydrogen product traceability becomes essential. A digital hydrogen passport ensures every shipment carries a verifiable origin, emissions history, and handling log aligning with frameworks like the EU's Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) and ISO 14067.
Hydrogen is increasingly favored for long-range transport applications such as trucks, buses, trains, and even ships where battery electric systems face range and weight limitations. For these segments, especially in government-funded deployments or regulatory zones (e.g., California’s ZEV mandates), traceability helps monitor lifecycle emissions, fueling behavior, and even certify green compliance. This tracking is critical in carbon credit systems or ESG-linked performance indicators of fleet operators and OEMs.
Building hydrogen refueling stations (HRS) is a capital-intensive and strategically sensitive activity. Countries are racing to set up dense refueling networks (e.g., Germany's H2 MOBILITY, California H2USA). Integrating track-and-trace systems within these stations enables auditability of hydrogen quality, prevents contamination from fossil-derived hydrogen, and provides end-users with QR-code-enabled data on what kind of hydrogen they're using green, blue, or grey. This enhances user trust, especially in fleet management and public transport segments.
Industries such as steel, ammonia, and cement are among the hardest to decarbonize. Green hydrogen offers a path forward, replacing coal or natural gas as feedstock or reducing agents. In such cases, traceability ensures process transparency, helps monitor scope 1 and 2 emissions, and supports carbon accounting in global value chains. For example, green steel certified via hydrogen passport systems can carry a premium in global markets, particularly under EU’s CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism)
Governments and financial institutions are increasingly demanding real-time data on energy sourcing, especially to validate tax credits (like the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act’s 45V hydrogen credit). Hydrogen track-and-trace frameworks provide tamper-proof digital ledgers of energy use, electrolyzer input sources, and emissions intensity. This creates compliance-ready reporting for ESG disclosures, sustainable financing, and avoids greenwashing making it a tool not just for tracking, but for building credibility and investor trust.
Navigating Uncertainties and Designing Resilient Systems
“You can't decarbonize the world if you can't trust the molecules you're using to do it.”
— Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, CEO, Hydrogen Europe
- Cost vs. value: While hydrogen track-and-trace adds cost, it enables long-term value by unlocking tax credits, reducing emissions risk, and boosting compliance across supply chains.
- Global harmonization: How do we align Europe’s CertifHy ([3]), Japan’s H2GO, and Australia’s HyCERT. Lack of unified standards hinders interoperability. International frameworks like ISO and EU battery/hydrogen passports are essential to ensure seamless trade and compliance.
- Who owns the data: Producers, transporters, or regulators. Clarity is needed on whether producers, governments, or consumers own hydrogen tracking data with implications for liability, monetization, and transparency.
- Data security & privacy: How do we prevent tampering or misuse of sensitive traceability information? Securing hydrogen data across production, transport, and storage is vital. Blockchain or zero-trust architecture can ensure immutability and prevent tampering or greenwashing. Traceability must respect privacy, especially for commercial contracts or national strategies. Governance policies should define ethical boundaries in data access and sharing.
These strategic questions demand multi-stakeholder dialogue, funding innovation, and regulatory alignment. Only through proactive collaboration can we build a scalable, fair, and future-proof digital hydrogen infrastructure.
As the hydrogen economy scales, the need for traceability will evolve from a regulatory checkbox to a competitive differentiator. The question is no longer whether hydrogen should be traceable, but how fast can we build a system that makes it so.
By embedding digital trust into the hydrogen molecule’s journey, we not only build a more transparent energy system, but also enable new value chains, business models, and climate finance mechanisms.
Let’s not wait until hydrogen becomes a traded commodity before we start building its credibility. The time to act is now.
