hydrogen has been hailed as a fuel of the future that could help end the world's dependence on fossil fuels and Aid the transition to net zero emissions but for this hydrogen Revolution to take place some big obstacles need to be overcome so is the hype about hydrogen Justified [Music] hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe it's essential for Life the sun is mostly made of it and it's present in almost all living things but on Earth pure hydrogen is very scarce instead it mainly exists combined with oxygen in the form of water so
how does this abundant element get turned into a fuel that could help save the planet first Hydrogen needs to be obtained this is done by splitting molecules hydrogen is an energy carrier unlike let's say petroleum which is a primary energy source you have to make hydrogen from something to do this requires an input of energy you can use methane through a process called steam reforming or a source of electricity through electrolysis once you have some hydrogen you can either burn it directly or mix it with with oxygen in a fuel cell which is rather like
a battery the reaction in the fuel cell produces electricity and heat and the only waste is water one of the benefits of hydrogen in a hydrogen vehicle let's say the only emission that comes out of the tail pipe is pure drinkable water in contrast of course to the internal combustion engine which puts out loads of nasty chemicals and carcinogens this means that as long as the energy used to produce it is sustainable hydrogen can be a truly green fuel NASA started using hydrogen fuel cells to generate electricity in its space capsules in the 1960s today
it's not just being considered as a rocket fuel in space but also for Planes Trains and Automobiles as well as the industrial sector the most likely early applications are going to be in heavy industry for example uh steel and cement making these are heavy heavy greenhouse gas polluters um and they consume lots of energy a lot of coal in particular uh and it's very hard to replace that with electricity which is probably how most of the decarbonization of the global economy will happen this isn't the first time hydrogen has been hailed as a fuel of
the future so why has it never taken off until Renewables existed at scale making hydrogen required vast amounts of fossil fuel or nuclear energy which made hydrogen both more expensive and less efficient than other ways of storing and delivering energy until climate change moved up the political agenda hydrogen simply wasn't worth it the existing fossil fuel infrastructure has been in place for decades it's trillions of dollars of invested Legacy equipment and the companies that built it defend their assets and so it makes it very difficult for government to force that Legacy equipment to be pushed
aside in favor of radically new rival equipment like hydrogen infrastructure or for that matter renewable energy the passengers look down to see the east coast of America gliding by beneath them they has also been a battle against public perception of hydrogen safety sparked by the Hindenburg disaster in 1937 within seconds there was a terrific explosion a and Brilliant Orange Flames formed the backdrop for a tableau of death hydrogen gas is very flammable and does need to be stored in a specific way but fears about its safety are overblown the Hindenburg did not explode because of
the hydrogen it's been shown that's a misperception and what's more industry has shown that hydrogen Vehicles can be safer than internal combustion vehicle cars that use gasoline which of course is an explosive product across the world hydrogen every day is used by industry perfectly safely one advantage hydrogen has over batteries is that it's much more energy dense which means that with a very high pressure storage system it takes much less space in order to make a vehicle go any distance if you have a hydrogen tank on board a vehicle you can refuel quickly compared to
batteries and electric cars but we do have issues of cost we have issues of refueling stations and fueling infrastructure that have to be built out so that's another obstacle that uh end in the way of hydrogen there's also a question over how sustainable hydrogen really is despite some advances in the technology to generate it it still requires energy intensive processes that are fueled largely by fossil fuels or lots of electricity the only way to make truly green hydrogen is to produce it using sustainable energy at the moment a lot of the hydrogen that's used in
the world is made from natural gas but that does produce some greenhouse gas emissions some people see this as terrible and other people say this could be a bridge it can help build the market until there's enough renewable energy and electrolyzers become more efficient and uh more cost- effective but even if renewable energy is used in the electrolysis process the energy content that comes out is less than what goes in which leads some to argue that hydrogen is just a waste of renewable energy they have a point there are a lot of applications in which
electricity is simply the best thing to use and more efficient but there are other applications in heavy industry particularly or long-distance transport for example where hydrogen could find a niche in quite a big Niche unlike earlier waves of enthusiasm hydrogen fuel could be here to stay this time technological advances are making hydrogen production more efficient and cheaper and this along with government's commitment to decarbonize is helping Drive a new hydrogen economy we see huge improvements in the vehicles or the processes that use hydrogen and we see much more sophistication among the companies that are using
it according to a study by McKenzie there are more than 350 large scale Global projects underway right now the projected total investment in the hydrogen sector amounts to an estimated $500 billion we're seeing much more interest from Venture capitalists uh entrepreneurial activity scientific advances moving from the Laboratories to Pilot plants and ultimately getting towards the marketplace because they know a market that will pay for lowc carbon approaches or green hydrogen is coming Germany has announced a 7 billion Euro program and the Chinese government wants to have 1 million fuel cell powered vehicles on its roads
by 2030 when we think about the tools that are needed to get to a net zero carbon world there's no doubt that hydrogen will play a role in the short term electrification is going to lead the decarbonization charge but longer term I think there is a great potential for a real hydrogen Revolution that would play a big role in a decarbonized society I'm VJ vus waren The Economist Global energy and climate Innovation Editor to keep up to date with all of our climate change coverage please click on the link thanks for watching and don't forget
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