Hydrogen Energy: Significance, Sources, Problems, and Prospects (A Review)
V. S. Arutyunov
Abstract
According to the estimates made in this paper, neither hydropower and nuclear power engineering nor, the more so, other renewable power sources are capable in principle to ensure the commercial hydrogen production volumes required for noticeable reduction of the global carbon dioxide emission. Before mastering the thermonuclear synthesis energy, only the conversion of hydrocarbons can be the real source of hydrogen for commercial power generation. Therefore, making these processes more efficient is the best way to reduce the carbon footprint of the power generation. It should also be noted that hydrogen as a power carrier has serious drawbacks, the main of which is the low volumetric energy content. Transportation and storage of hydrogen, compared to natural gas, are considerably more money- and power-consuming. The most feasible way to overcome the yet unsolved problems of hydrogen storage and transportation is to set up decentralized low-tonnage production of hydrogen directly on the consumption sites. Such technologies have been already developed in Russia, and active efforts should be made to implement them.