More and more countries across the globe are talking about Green Hydrogen and its beneficial impact that can tackle the increasing problems of Global warming and Climate change. Countries are pushing themselves to adopt clean energy are they are looking forward to seeing Green Hydrogen as one of the options available that can replace traditional sources of energy. Today in this life article, we will be looking at what is Green Hydrogen and how it can be used as a source of energy.
What is Green Hydrogen?
Hydrogen is a colourless, odourless and reactive gas which is only present in nature in combination with other elements. An example of Hydrogen would be H2O (Water). This simply means you cannot find a separate Hydrogen element in the environment, you will always have to extract it within a combination of elements.
There are various ways to produce Hydrogen. And just to differentiate each production method, it has been named with colours such as Green, Blue and Grey Hydrogen. Thus you can clearly understand that all types of Hydrogen i.e, Green, Blue, Grey etc are all the same.
Green Hydrogen is a type of hydrogen produced by the electrolysis method. Water(H2O) is split into two different elements i.e, Hydrogen (H) and Oxygen (O). And the entire process of electrolysis is done with the help of renewable energy sources which is why it is been considered a sustainable source of energy for the future.
After the process gets complete, Hydrogen is stored and oxygen is released into the environment. Thus there is no question of environmental pollution. Another use case of oxygen could be to supply it to industries or hospitals that are always in need of oxygen.
Uses of Green Hydrogen
The primary reason why every country imports Petrol and diesel is to fulfil its transportation needs. But there are various negative environmental and economic impacts that fossil fuels are putting on the world. This is not the thing of today it is continuing for several decades. Fossil fuel has moved the world so far. But now there is a need to replace fossil fuel or at least reduce our dependency on it and develop modern and more better ways to generate energy that could be sustainable.
There could be various use cases for Green Hydrogen. But the main reason why it is getting popular is its use case to power electric vehicles. Yes, you heard it right.
Green Hydrogen gets converted into electricity with the help of Hydrogen Fuel Cells in electric vehicles. Although as of now there are very few vehicles that run on Green Hydrogen and the fuel cells are very expensive.
Impacts of Petrol and Diesel
There are various impacts of fossil fuels like Petrol and diesel which includes.
- Emits harmful gases such as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide into the environment. Which is considered the primary cause of Global warming and air pollution.
- Because Petrol and diesel are not found everywhere in the world, the economy has to take an immense burden of the cost to import them from oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE and other Gulf countries.
- The prices of Petrol and Diesel are growing exponentially making them less affordable for the common people.
- Since it is non-renewable energy we need to create various alternatives that are renewable so that slowly and steadily, the world can shift towards renewable energy.
Can Green Hydrogen improve global warming and Climate change?
Global warming is nothing but an increase in Global temperature by certain degrees every decade. Which is making the earth hotter and hotter every decade.
While climate change is the change in patterns of the weather cycle. With the hotter temperature on the earth, we are already witnessing disruption in climate change every now and then.
And the main cause for both problems is an increase in the percentage of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants that has the property to absorb sunlight and solar radiation which otherwise would have bounced back from the earth’s surface. These gases are the major culprit of Global warming and Climate change.
Green Hydrogen is clean energy and emits no harmful things into the environment. As the adaptation of Green Hydrogen will increase, a substantial improvement in the environment will be noticed and sooner or later it will help in fixing the major issues of the earth’s planet.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages
- Clean Source of Energy – When we burn fuel it gives harmful and toxic gases into the environment. But that is not the case with Hydrogen. Burning hydrogen does not emit any harmful byproducts into the environment making it safe for the environment. Thus we can say Hydrogen is a non-toxic, pollution-free energy source.
- Abundant in Supply Renewable Source – Hydrogen is a renewable source of energy that is available in abundance, Abundance enough that there is no possibility of running out like other energy sources.
- Sustainable and Efficient source of Energy – Green Hydrogen is produced with the electrolysis method. Every Pound of Hydrogen can generate a lot more energy as compared to other fuels and gases. This also means that the mileage problem that we usually struggle with in traditional vehicles will also improve. It is considered a 100% sustainable source of energy.
Disadvantages
- High Safety concerns – Hydrogen gas is colourless and odourless but is highly inflammable as well. Which means there is no way to identify gas leakage. And this raises high safety concerns
- Production of Green Hydrogen is expensive – We just discussed how beneficial hydrogen is but the most important reason why it is not used across the world on large scale yet is the production cost. Currently, it is used mostly in the automobile industry.
- Storage and Transport Difficulties – Hydrogen is a low-density gas which is why it has to be stored in liquid form at low temperatures to maintain its efficiency and effectiveness for storage and transport. As of now, there are not many solutions available for the storage and transport of Hydrogen.
Conclusion
Green Hydrogen is definitely promising to become a sustainable source of energy. As of now, it is not used on a major scale but if the concerns and limitations such as storage, safety, and cost are addressed it can be a game changer in various industries.
