Is Hydrogen Economy realizable for the Global Energy System?


The feasibility of H2 economy is building on the research and development outcomes of H2 production, storage, transportation/storage/distribution, and conversion for realizing a sustainable energy economy in the foreseeable future, for various applications. In the H2 production process, the electricity cost for the electrochemical water splitting process is one of the major barriers for a sustainable energy system and/or economy. However, there are opportunities for large-scale H2 generation using wind, solar, tidal and hydro as renewable energy sources. H2 can be compressed or liquefied and stored for small and medium scale applications or transported through pipelines for large-scale applications. In general, the technologies related to H2 storage, transportation and distribution are well developed. The major barriers in the transition to H2 economy are known to be economical, technical, implementation/execution compared to the existing well established fossil fuel based technologies. However, sustainable nature of renewable resources for green H2 production, large scale H2 storage and transportation/distribution, and efficient and cleaner energy generation technology developments are projected to offset the limitation in the next few decades.