Is Hydrogen an Energy Source or a Carrier?

By Sanjay Singhal Vice President Diversified Portfolio.

Editor: Sundy Srinivasan - COO

Design and Layout: Adriana González Social Media 

Recently there has been a lot of hype around Hydrogen and how it is likely to replace fossil fuel as source of energy in future. While technological innovations will continue to reduce the cost of Hydrogen production, it is important to answer the basic questiom - Is Hydrogen an Energy source or just a carrier or storage mechanism?

For any material to be considered an energy source, it should be available in nature and the energy cost of its extraction should not be more than the energy it provides. This is true for time tested energy sources such as wood, coal, oil, natural gas, etc. Let´s examine Hydrogen against this criterion.

Hydrogen is not available freely in nature. It need to be extracted from either water or hydrocarbon sources (Coal , Oil, Gases). Let´s look at these cases.

Case 1: Green Hydrogen

Case 2: Blue / Gray Hydrogen

As a carrier, energy density by weight in Hydrogen is much higher than other carriers, however comparing energy density by volume, Diesel / Oil still fare better than Hydrogen.

As non-green energy carrier => Oil / Diesel is much better.

As Green Energy carrier, Hydrogen has a role but must compete with battery storage devices.

So, as it is clear from above, Hydrogen is NOT a source of energy. It is a carrier which can store and move energy from a GREEN stationary source such as Solar / Wind Energy to mobile energy consumption needs such as cars, vessels etc. That is precisely the value of Hydrogen.

For more details on this topic and to analyze what is good for your project, please contact Zentech Inc. at zentech@zentech-usa.com.