Green Hydrogen, Ambitions and Challenges

Abstract

Hydrogen (H) is the simplest chemical element (the first element in the periodic table). At standard temperature and pressure (STP), hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, highly flammable and non-toxic gas. Since it is a highly flammable gas, it can be used as fuel and burned to provide energy. Hydrogen doesn’t exist alone in nature, but it is found in many compounds such as water and organic compounds. There are different categories of hydrogen depending on the source of it such as grey, blue and green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is the hydrogen produced by electrolysis water. It is called “green” because no CO2 emissions during the whole process of manufacturing. Renewable energy sources are used to provide electricity needed to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. After this process, hydrogen can be stored and used as a clean fuel instead of fossil fuel. There are many researchers who work in developing techniques to manufacture, store and deal with green hydrogen since it follows global trends to reduce CO2 emissions and minimize global warming to reduce the impact of drought and climate change. These trends will reduce dependence on fossil fuel and natural gas to produce energy but there are many challenges facing the real application of green hydrogen factories such as lack of water, high pressure (500 needed to liquify hydrogen (which is risky), and containers should be made from expensive strong material to store liquified hydrogen under high pressure. Also, corrosion problems should be considered in choosing containers’ material. These concerns can be solved by converting hydrogen into ammonia (NH4) but it is a complicated process and it may not be feasible economically.