Hydrogen: fuel of the future?

It’s been hailed as fuel of the future. Hydrogen is clean, flexible and energy efficient. But in practice there are huge hurdles to overcome before widespread adoption can be achieved.

00:00 How hydrogen fuel is generated.
02:04 How hydrogen fuel could be used.
02:46 Why hydrogen fuel hasn't taken off in the past.
03:40 Is hydrogen fuel safe?
04:31 Hydrogen's advantage over batteries.
05:00 How sustainable is hydrogen fuel?
06:13 Why the hype about hydrogen may be different this time.

[erickarton]

You can’t start a hydrogen video without saying “hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe”

[flooooow]

I can see that this professor really get a passion in hydrogen energy field! That's a pure and intrinsic enthousiasm to hydrogen energies.

[kushalvora]

The economist forgot to point out that upcoming gen 4 nuclear reactors can produce alot of >600c heat as a waste product. That heat could be used for thermal splitting to create hydrogen instead of standard electrolysis. This method at scale could reduce the cost of hydrogen at less than 2 dollars per kg.

[jaredspencer]

I appreciate the distinction between short-term decarbonization, which will come from green electricity, and long-term decarbonization, which will tackle industries that can't be decarbonized with green electricity alone. Hopefully the short term push for green electricity will be so successful that energy-negative processes, like producing hydrogen, will be worth it.

[stevensamuel]

been the fuel of the future for 30 years lol

[edward]

it takes 12kg of water to produce 1kg of H₂, so it’s not just a matter of sustainable input energy. there’s a lot of water required too.

[Googs]

The world needs a truly clean hydrogen energy carrier.

[mggroarke]

I understand one of the big problems of Hydrogen is its embrittlement affect on metals and alloys which means that existing infrastructure cannot be used to store and transport the fuel. No mention of it in this video.

[anormalking]

Even if Germany invested so much money on focusing on Hydrogen, it has still a shame for phasing out of nuclear power in favour of gas energy ( from the Russian Nord Stream, for which they invested far more money in order to become a refurbisher in Europe). Keeping nuclear would have made Germany a very nice green hydrogen productor.

[hbarudi]

Waste of Alternative energy to make hydrogen? No, you should not treat hydrogen as a fuel, but an an energy STORAGE material offering a replacement for the battery and being better for upgrading things like aircraft to alternative energy since hydrogen is very lightweight compared to lithium.

[ronking]

Hydrogen is NOT a fuel. It is energy storage! Kinda like a battery. Using green energy to make hydrogen is like using green energy to charge a battery. Energy in energy out. Bottom line is we need both.

[agriman]

NASA were using hydrogen in space in the 1960’s and today we’re still reliant on fossil fuels in 2021….crazy!!

[wesalois]

Transporting and storing hydrogen is far more costly than any other fuel source.

[Nainara]

The value proposition for hydrogen-fueled cars seems shaky considering the increasing popularity of EVs and growing recharging infrastructure support. It may find a niche as an alternative to bunker fuel and jet fuel for ships and airplanes.

[maxheadrom]

There are some imprecisions in the piece. Hydrogen is very energy dense but when the fuel cell is added, this energy density decreases. (I think there's a video by Real Engineering about this)

Hydrogen is a battery and not a fuel - just like is mentioned early in the piece. It is an energy loss (some call it "a waste of green energy") but it has several advantages among them fast recharging (it's just like refueling) and the possibility to ship energy from resource abundant green energy producers to places that can't produce but need the energy. (btw, that's why Japan chose Hydrogen instead of Li-ion batteries). There are other problems, though: the first method of obtaining Hydrogen will put one atom of Carbon for every 4 Hydrogen atoms produced.

There's something else we can do with Hydrogen: make Hydrogen atoms colide with each other at high speeds so they will form a Helium atom that weighs a tiny bit less than the two Hydrogen atoms. This tiny difference becomes energy by the famous equation everybody knows and very few understand: E=mc² where E is Energy (probably Joules), m is mass (probably Kilograms) and c is the speed of light (in meters/second, probably). E(J)=m(kg) x 90.000.000.000.000.000(m/s). Since there are 16 zeros after the 9, even a tiny amount of mass will produce a huge amount of energy and that's called Hydrogen Fusion. We might be about to turn the last corner and reach very long lasting source of clean energy (some people call virtually infinite but we should have learned not to use "infinite" carelessly): MIT has produced an alloy that enables the superconductive magnets needed for the plasma containment that allow for 10 times more current than the Niobium-Titanium currently used. That might make the ITER reactor go from a huge laboratory into the first commercial Hydrogen fusion power plant ever.

A suggestion for you guys at The Economist: start to think how to make society run when energy becomes free and clean because with energy we can do anything - and everything. BTW, when that happens, everything will run on Hydrogen Fuel Cells.

[johno]

"Current hydrogen production methods using natural gas do produce some greenhouse gases"...
Understatement of the year.
90 percent of world hydrogen production is still made in this way and it produces almost as much CO2 as the entire aviation industry.
The green methods mentioned here are simply untried or tested at the scale required for large scale rollout.
To produce 1 tonne of hydrogen takes 45 mWh of electricity and 11000 litres of water.
For fully green hydrogen production, to put what would be needed into perspective, to enable a full scale roll out by 2050, the UK would require SEVEN TIMES the total wind power it currently has. All doing nothing else but powering electrolysers

[jamiearnott]

Excellent video, and has given me some food for thought. If only someone thought of storing excess wind, tidal, wave or any other alternative as hydrogen. I know the national grid in the UK would find something like that useful. Also it could negate the usage of natural gas power stations where the global supply is tenuous and at record high prices. My government has a department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. the politicians could save their political capital when the energy costs reach records and the country faces an energy crisis. IN the UK a large percentage of electricity production is renewable wind, with sights also set on tidal/wave. The UK already has the largest offshore wind in the North Sea. Where to store such energy as and when needed - hydrogen of course is more energy dense than any manmade battery. The man in the video is right(Vijay), with investment hydrogen applications certainly has a niche ;-)

[bdeithrick]

Best putting the electricity straight into the battery. Most efficient use. FACT.

[eugeneleroux]

Should we not quote the current price of H2 in USD/MJ to ease comparison ?

[ducklordyellowflash]

the new honda steering wheel looks sick