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Hydrogen
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Atlantis Brief
Hydrogen is thw cleanest and most abundant fuel we could use and should have already been using on a far larger scale for the last decades
- Hydrogen can be transported directly to end-consumers just like natural (methane) gas or oil, but instead is 100% clean
- A hydrogen infrastructure is currently available commercially in several other countries, clean production jsut needs to be increased
- Hydrogen has the potential to replace fossil fuels in many industries
- Buses using hydrogen fuel-cells have been actively working since 2006, plus multiple hydrogen based car options have been developed
- According to UK Engineers, there is no technical reason why hydrogen cannot replace natural gas to make electricity, heat homes, and for cooking
Producing endless clean hydrogen is wasily possible with today's technologies, replacing old fossil fuel options with hydrogen in industrial processes
and in residentail and transport use will mean no change to how we live or workd or how much energy we consume but will reduce pollution and GHG
(Greenhouse Gases) on a huge scale
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Indepth Study
An Introduction
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. It is also a 100% clean fuel carrier that, when burned for energy, produces no emissions.
When it comes to the ultimate solution for both storage and transport of clean energy, the potential of hydrogen is limitless:
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Benefits
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Hydrogen can be produced from 100% clean sources. In order to isolate hydrogen, all you need is water and electricity. In theory, if we were to use
the excess electricity produced from solar and wind power plants on sunny and windy days, we would be able to produce 100% clean hydrogen
Hydrogen can be stored for long periods as a liquid or compressed gas. When stored in stationary fuel cells, hydrogen can be quickly utilized as a backup
source of power or as a primary power source for remote locations
Unlike the other storage options such as pumped hydro and batteries, hydrogen can be transported directly to end-consumers just like natural gas or oil.
In fact, delivery technology for hydrogen infrastructure is currently available commercially in the U.S. and several other countries. Today, hydrogen is
transported from the point of production to the point of use via pipeline, over the road in cryogenic liquid tanker trucks or gaseous tube trailers, or
by rail or barge.
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Applications
Because of its versatility, hydrogen has the potential to replace fossil fuels in many industries
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When it comes to transport, hydrogen has the potential to replace oil as the dominant energy source. Making this transition would have a huge effect on
global GHG emissions.
The first hydrogen-powered fuel-cell buses began operating in Beijing on an experimental basis in 2006. Since then, multiple companies have been
conducting hydrogen-powered bus trials in dozens of cities around the globe. In addition to public buses, there are also currently three models of
hydrogen cars publicly available in select markets with many other companies working to develop their own hydrogen cars.
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Natural gas currently makes up nearly 15% of all global final energy consumption. In its natural form, it is mostly used as a fuel for heating and
cooking. In addition to being consumed directly, natural gas is also used to generate nearly 23% of all the world’s electricity.
According to leading Engineers in the UK, there is no technical reason why hydrogen cannot replace natural gas to make electricity, heat homes, and for
cooking [5]
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| Calculated using IEA (2019) online free version: WorldEnergyData.org [4] |
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According to a 2019 study about fossil fuel emissions, if we were to replace all natural gas with cleanly-produced hydrogen, we could potentially
reduce global CO2 emissions by up to 8 gigatons (about 21%) per year.
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Current Obstacles
One of the biggest problems with hydrogen nowadays is that 96% of all production comes from fossil fuel sources. If we truly want to use hydrogen as a
clean alternative to natural gas, it doesn’t make any sense to produce it from fossil fuels. Instead, we need to aim to produce all hydrogen from water
using a process called electrolysis.
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| Hydrogen applications and research activities in its production routes through catalytic hydrocarbon conversion: Reviews in Chemical Engineering (2017) [7] |
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| Hydrogen electrolysis process |
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Electrolysis is the very simple process of using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Until recently, the cost of electricity has been a roadblock to producing industrial quantities of hydrogen gas through electrolysis. But low-cost renewable electricity technologies have removed this barrier.
If we were to use the excess electricity produced from solar and wind power plants on sunny and windy days, we would be able to use clean electricity to produce 100% clean hydrogen.
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Delivery technology for hydrogen infrastructure is currently available commercially in the U.S. and several other countries. Today, hydrogen is
transported on a small-scale from the point of production to the point of use via pipeline, over the road in cryogenic liquid tanker trucks/gaseous
tube trailers, or by rail or barge. However, although it has already been proven possible on a small-scale, if we want to expand delivery to include
all residential and industrial customers, we will need to invest in very large-scale infrastructure changes in countries like the U.S. and across Europe.
According to NREL, there are around 4 million kilometres of total natural gas pipeline in the United States alone
[9].
As a short-term solution, they propose mixing hydrogen into the natural gas supply. Ranges noted as being acceptable generally for end-use systems fall
within 5%–20% hydrogen.
While hydrogen replacing 5-20% of natural gas is a step in the right direction, to get to 100%, we will need to invest in converting the entire energy
infrastructure of countries that use an extensive gas supply network. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, converting existing natural gas
pipelines to deliver pure hydrogen may require substantial modifications. Current research and analyses are examining methods to do so
[10]
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| Natural Gas Infrastructure U.S. Department of Energy [8] |
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Data Sources
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+34 910 180 818 
+44 20 3514 1012 
