Hydrogen Fuel
by Oliver St John
The potential of hydrogen to provide energy has been known for a long time, due to the 1937 tragedy involving the Hindenburg aircraft. Hydrogen is flammable, and releases a great deal of energy upon combustion, hence the disaster. The lessons learned from it, however, have been invaluable in the development of hydrogen as a fuel.
Hydrogen is the lightest element in the universe. While it has neither odor nor color, and as such is not noticeable to us, it is the most abundant element in existence. On earth specifically, it forms part of water, fossil fuels and organic matter. Hydrogen easily bonds with other elements, so it is rarely found alone. To use hydrogen as a fuel, it must be extracted from another substance, such as water or methane (natural gas). Unfortunately 96 percent of hydrogen used globally is derived from nonrenewable sources. Using the typical methods, deriving hydrogen from fossil fuels brings with it most of the the same problems associated with combustion of said fuels. When acquired from clean, renewable sources, however, it can provide an all but limitless supply of energy with minimal impact on the environment.
In order to fully utilize the energy in hydrogen, one must use a fuel cell. The only by-product of fuel cell use is water, since hydrogen will simply oxidize to water. There are few energy needs which could not be met by a hydrogen-based fuel cells. Many systems that currently use a battery storage system may find hydrogen a better option due to the fact that hydrogen is easy to store in quantity. Fuel cells of various sizes have the potential of replacing a wide variety of society's energy needs, including cars, power plants, and even small devices such as iPods or phones.
Hydrogen is an extremely inviting option for a clean energy future. There are, however, a number of significant issues with the widespread deployment of this kind of technology. For one thing, it will take a number of years to refine the technology sufficiently, and funding for such development is not easy to come by. If the tax incentives available to the oil industry were applied, however, the production could be brought on in just a few short years. For another, there is the matter of the technology used to derive hydrogen from the source materials. Currently, the process is energy-inefficient and less than clean. In order for hydrogen to provide a significant supply of clean energy in the future, there will need to be a meaningful commitment from the energy industry to developing economical and clean methods of extracting hydrogen from renewable sources.