Hydrogen

Uses for Hydrogen

Hydrogen has a variety of important uses, including:

• Refining and treating metals
• Processing foods, such as hydrogenating oils or fats (like what you might find in the margarine in your fridge!)
• Refining crude oil in the petroleum industry
• Providing electricity through fuel cells

The main use for hydrogen, though, is as rocket fuel. Liquid hydrogen fuel is used by NASA to get space shuttles into orbit, and hydrogen batteries power the shuttles’ electrical equipment. The hydrogen’s only byproduct is pure water, which the shuttle crew can use as drinking water!

Hydrogen for Transportation

Hydrogen has the potential to make a huge impact on the world’s transportation energy needs. Hydrogen combustion engines and fuel cells could benefit the environment while reducing the world’s consumption of fossil fuels. These engines work by converting hydrogen’s chemical energy into mechanical energy or through a chemical reaction between oxygen and hydrogen.

The problem with using hydrogen in transportation is that it is expensive to produce, store and transport. Now, the US Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy is working on the Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative in an effort to produce large amounts of hydrogen using nuclear energy in an economical and environmentally friendly way. This effort could give the US emissions-free, large-scale hydrogen production that would provide fuel for cars and trucks. The Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative aims to have an experimental, pilot-scale hydrogen production system in place by 2013. Critics say that the cost is insurmountable and that emission-free fuel-cell vehicles won’t be practical for many years.

Governments in other parts of the world, including Japan and Germany, are also devoting funds to building new hydrogen-powered vehicles and refueling stations. Japanese carmaker Toyota announced plans in 2009 to introduce an affordable fuel-cell car by 2015 (Japan Leads the Race for a Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Car, The Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 1, 2010).

Demand for Hydrogen

Many experts believe hydrogen is an important energy resource for the future since it is clean, abundant and can be produced from a variety of resources. However, new systems—including hydrogen production plants and refueling stations for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles—must be designed and built before significant contributions of hydrogen can be used. This would be a very costly endeavor. If the cost and logistical obstacles can be overcome, however, and hydrogen is proven to be a feasible solution to the world’s energy needs, the demand will go up significantly.