Future of Hydrogen Production - 4/19/07

A brochure titled “Where will the Energy of Hydrogen Production come from” was recently published by the European Hydrogen Association which examines the roll that hydrogen will play in our future.

The report concludes that fossil fuels including oil, coal, and natural gas will be insufficient to meet the world’s growing energy needs.  It also addressed the different ways that hydrogen could be produced from fossil fuel, nuclear and renewable energy.  The report states that renewable energy must play a large part in the future of our energy production.

Renewable energy has the potential to meet the worlds demand for energy.  Solar energy theoretically could supply ten times the world’s current energy needs. 

The report states when using hydrogen as a fuel the paradigm of energy extraction relative to energy use must be inverted.  Burning of fossil fuel to produce electricity is where the greatest energy conversion losses occur. The report stated in the future the conversion of renewable energy to hydrogen will cause high energy loss but the result would be high efficiencies of fuel cells converting hydrogen to electricity.

The reports also stated we hydrogen was produced from natural gas used in hydrogen powered vehicles will only produce half the emissions of gasoline powered vehicles.  Hydrogen produced from renewable sources like solar would result in only 1/7 the emissions.

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