Hydrogen is considered to be an ideal energy carrier and fuel. It can be produced from water by using a variety of energy sources, such as solar, nuclear and fossils, and can be converted into useful energy forms efficiently and without detrimental environmental effects. The only by-product is water or water vapor (if air is used for flame combustion of hydrogen, small amounts of NOx are produced). When Solar energy - in its direct and/or indirect forms - is used to produce hydrogen from water, both the primary and secondary forms of energy become renewable and environmentally compatible, resulting with an ideal, clean and permanent energy system - the Solar Hydrogen Energy System. Hydrogen can be used in any application in which fossil fuels are being used today, with sole exception of cases in which carbon is specifically needed. Hydrogen can be used as a fuel in combustion engines, turbines and jet engines, even more efficiently than fossil fuels. Automobiles, buses, trains, ships, submarines, airplanes and rockets can run on hydrogen. Hydrogen can also be converted directly to electricity by the fuel cells, with a variety of applications in transportation and stationary power generation. Metal hydride technologies offer a variety of applications in refrigeration, air conditioning, hydrogen storage and purification. Combustion of hydrogen with oxygen results in pure steam, which has many applications in industrial processes and space heating. Moreover, hydrogen is an important industrial gas and raw material in numerous industries, such as computer, metallurgical, chemical, pharmaceutical, fertilizer, transportation and food industries.

Hydrogen power is most often harnessed by hydrogen fuel cells, which are much more efficient than gasoline engines, in addition to being much more clean. While their gasoline counterpart can harness only 20% of the energy you CAN harness from a given amount of gasoline, Hydrogen fuel cells harness somewhere around 50%.

Hydrogen is also the simplest element. An atom of hydrogen consists of only a single proton with one electron revolving around it. Hydrogen was also the first element, born in the first billionths of millionths of a nanosecond after the birth of the universe. Hydrogen is burned in the hearts of stars and is highly flammable. Hydrogen is also found in quite a few organic compounds, notably the Hydrocarbons that make up many of our fuels, such as gasoline, natural gas, methanol, and propane. Hydrogen can be seperated from these hydrocarbons through the use of heat in a process often known as reforming.

SourcesEdit

• International Association For Hydrogen Energy

• The National Hydrogen Association
• Renewable Energy World: Hydrogen Energy