Hammad Murtaza, Consultant at Avalon Consulting, shared his perspective on “Hydrogen at the Helm: Consulting for the Industries of Tomorrow,” submitted as part of Cordence Worldwide’s “The Insight Initiative,” a global blog and position paper competition for young consultants in the YPN network.
He highlights how hydrogen is becoming central to industrial decarbonization, with industries shifting from fossil-based grey hydrogen toward cleaner blue and green alternatives. He notes the strategic challenges companies face uncertain economics, emerging regulations, and incomplete supply chains and emphasizes that coordinated planning, technology assessment, and stakeholder alignment will be critical. He underscores that consultants play a key role in helping industries navigate this transition and shape the emerging hydrogen economy.
There’s something almost strange about hydrogen. The universe’s most ample element, which is colourless, odourless, lighter than air has become the centre of attraction and trillion-dollar investment strategies worldwide. Yet for all the headlines about hydrogen cars and fuel cells, the real revolution is happening in places most people never think about: the enormous industrial complexes that forge our steel, refine our chemicals, and produce our fertilizers.
This isn’t a story about clean energy’s glittery future. It’s about dirty, important industries facing an existential question: How do you decarbonize processes that have relied on fossil fuels for over a century?
Walk through any modern city and you’re encircled by hydrogen’s industrial fingerprints. The steel in skyscrapers, the ammonia-based fertilizers that grew your food, the refined petroleum products that moved your goods, all depend on industrial processes consuming roughly 90 million tons of hydrogen annually. That’s more than the entire aviation industry’s fuel consumption.
Here’s the catch: 95% of that hydrogen comes from fossil fuels, primarily natural gas through the process of steam methane reforming. Every ton of this “grey” hydrogen releases roughly 10 tons of CO2. Industrial hydrogen alone accounts for nearly 3% of global emissions which is more than the entire shipping industry.
The scale is staggering, but so is the opportunity. Industrial hydrogen isn’t just about cleaning up existing processes; it’s about reimagining how we make things.
The hydrogen economy has developed its own rainbow of possibilities. Grey hydrogen dominates today, but the future belongs to its colourful cousins: blue hydrogen (grey hydrogen with carbon capture), green hydrogen (renewable-powered electrolysis), and pink hydrogen (nuclear-powered electrolysis).
Each colour tells a different story. Green hydrogen, although environmentally ideal, costs three to five times more than grey hydrogen. Blue hydrogen offers a bridge, maintaining cost competitiveness while dramatically reducing emissions.
Industries are making different bets. Steel manufacturers descend toward green hydrogen for direct reduction processes that eliminate coking coal entirely. Chemical companies explore blue hydrogen as feedstock replacement. Refineries navigate between current hydrogen needs and post-petroleum planning.
For consultants, industrial hydrogen presents a fascinating paradox: advising clients when technology is proven but economics are volatile, policy landscapes evolve rapidly, and infrastructure doesn’t exist at scale.
Consider steel, the traditional blast furnaces operate with predictable decades-old economics. Now executives must evaluate direct reduction plants using green hydrogen technology proven in demonstrations but never deployed at modern unified mill scale. Capital requirements are enormous, hydrogen supply chains don’t exist, and “green steel” premiums remain uncertain.
Yet pressure mounts everywhere. The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism imposes tariffs on high-carbon imports starting 2026. In India the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme is tightening energy efficiency targets, the Renewable Energy Purchase Obligations (RPOs) are expanding into green hydrogen mandates, and large domestic manufacturers like Tata Motors JSW Steel, etc are committing to low-carbon supply chains. Investors and lenders are increasingly applying ESG criteria to capital allocation, making carbon intensity a direct factor in valuation and financing costs.
Strategic consulting becomes part technology assessment, part scenario planning, part psychology. Executives aren’t buying equipment; they’re betting company futures on a hydrogen economy that’s simultaneously inevitable and uncertain.
The most intriguing aspect of industrial hydrogen transition is its circular dependency. Steel companies won’t invest in hydrogen-ready plants without assured supply. Hydrogen producers won’t build large facilities without committed off-takers. Pipeline developers won’t lay infrastructure without both.
This creates opportunities for consultants to facilitate “coordination solutions”—helping multiple stakeholders align investments simultaneously. We’re seeing this in industrial clusters from the Gulf Coast to the North Sea, where integrated hydrogen ecosystems emerge through orchestrated public-private partnerships.
Rotterdam Port exemplifies this approach. Rather than waiting for market alignment, they actively coordinate steelmakers, chemical companies, hydrogen producers, and infrastructure developers to create Europe’s largest industrial hydrogen hub. Its industrial policy meets systems thinking meets deal-making.
Industrial hydrogen is quietly reorganising global economic geography. Countries rich in renewable resources—Australia, Chile, Morocco—place themselves as green hydrogen’s “Saudi Arabias.” Traditional energy exporters like Saudi Arabia and UAE invest billions maintaining energy superpower status in a hydrogen world.
Energy-intensive industries face geographic reckoning. Will steel production migrate to regions with abundant cheap renewable power? Can chemical complexes in energy-poor regions compete by importing green ammonia?
These aren’t just commercial questions; they’re reshaping industrial strategy at the highest levels. For consultants, this means understanding technology, economics, and geopolitical implications of energy transition.
The most challenging aspect might be timing. Move too early: pay green premiums for unproven technology. Move too late: get locked out of markets demanding low-carbon products.
Steel demonstrates this perfectly. Modern blast furnaces have 30–40-year lifespans. A furnace built today using traditional technology might operate until 2065—well past most countries’ net-zero commitments. But hydrogen-based direct reduction, while proven small-scale, has never been deployed at multi-million-ton integrated production scale.
The Massive Consulting Opportunity
For consultants, industrial hydrogen represents possibly the largest technology transition since computing’s advent. Every major industrial process is reconsidered. Continental supply chains are redesigned. New international cooperation forms emerge.
This isn’t just technology consulting or strategy work. It’s helping clients navigate fundamental uncertainty while making billion-dollar bets. It requires combining deep technical knowledge with geopolitical awareness, financial modelling with risk management, strategic thinking with practical implementation.
Perhaps most fascinating is the human dimension. We’re watching industrial leaders grapple with technological and economic uncertainty reminiscent of the early internet era and the best consultants aren’t just providing analysis; they’re helping executives build confidence for unprecedented decisions. How do you value a steel plant that might operate for decades in a world where carbon pricing, hydrogen costs, and trade policies remain fundamentally random?
The hydrogen economy won’t appear overnight, but today’s choices about tech choices, partnership structures, and geographic strategies will determine which companies and countries lead this transition.
In a world where the universe’s most abundant element is becoming industrial strategy’s most critical variable, consultants who understand both technical possibilities and strategic implications will find themselves at the centre of the next industrial revolution.
The hydrogen economy is coming. The question isn’t whether, but who will shape how it unfolds. For consultants, that represents both the challenge and opportunity of a generation.
Hammad Murtaza
Hammad Murtaza is a management consultant with Avalon Consulting, bringing over 4 years of experience in strategy formulation and business development. Hammad has worked with client across geographies in performance improvement, cost optimisation, market entry strategy projects, growth strategy and commercial due diligence. Hammad holds an MBA in General Management from the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from ZHCET, Aligarh Muslim University, reflecting a strong foundation in both technical and business disciplines
Email: hammad.murtaza@consultavalon.com
