Hydrogen Fuel as a Derivative Fuel Alternative

A hydrogen fuel is a fuel alternative in which the primary form of stored energy for mobile applications and load balancing is hydrogen (H2). In particular hydrogen fuel is proposed as a replacement for gasoline and diesel fuels currently used in automobiles.

There are two primary uses of hydrogen fuel today. A part of it is used to produce ammonia (NH3) through the Haber process, which before is primarily used directly or indirectly as fertilizer. The other half of present hydrogen production is used to convert heavy petroleum sources into lighter fractions suitable for use as fuels.

Because the world population and the intensive agriculture used to support it are both growing, the demand for ammonia is growing. Hydrocracking, the conversion of heavy petroleum sources into lighter fractions, represents an even bigger growth area, as rising oil prices encourage oil companies to extract poorer source material, such as tar sands and oil shale.

Since there is inefficiency in producing hydrogen fuel, it will always be more expensive than the electricity that produced it, if you do the price comparison at the production site.

But, for situations where customers are 1000 miles away from the production site, it is cheaper to distribute hydrogen through a pipeline system than electricity through the power grid.

Highly effective generators or fuel cells that run on hydrogen could replace electrical distribution systems. The same systems are presently used with natural gas to generate electricity. A system that produced hydrogen from other energy sources would integrate carbon emissions at the production site.

This could be an advantage for the reason that the emission control system may be better maintained and easier to inspect than systems on automobiles owned by individuals.

Unluckily, pure hydrogen is not widely available on our planet. Most of it is sheltered in water or hydrocarbon fuels. Pollution decline at the production site may be balance by energy losses when converting to hydrogen.

Just as the guarantee of hydrogen should not lead us to ignore practical near-term solutions, the challenges facing hydrogen should not lead us to abandon efforts to achieve renewable hydrogen for the future.

Competence alone cannot wean us off foreign oil or provide the striking cuts in global warming gases that must be achieved. Renewable-based hydrogen fuel is one of the most promising long-term options for transportation. Because the evolution will take decades, and will face many challenges, we must start today down the road to the future.

The basis of hydrogen is the most significant environmental issue challenging the technology. When the hydrogen fuel is made from natural gas, like it is today in most business applications, hydrogen fuel vehicles offer large environmental gains compared with today's cars.

A fresh and sustainable hydrogen future, however, depends on the crucial move to renewable sources of hydrogen. Hydrogen made from wind, solar, or biomass energy can be an affordable solution in the long term, but strong policies need to be in place to ensure their development. This development increased research and development funding for renewable energy technologies and strong electric-sector policies to encourage renewable energy consumption today.

To sum up, many experts agree that a clean hydrogen fuel vehicle for the future faces many challenges and will take time to develop. Therefore, we must move forward with more efficient conventional and hybrid vehicle technology today. Specifically the critical economic and environmental problems given by automobile trek, however, we cannot afford passing up the very promising long-term potential of renewable hydrogen fuel.