Hydrogen in Replacement of Natural Gas
Hydrogen is considered as a versatile energy carrier and global hydrogen projects and policies are increasing rapidly. The UK Committee on Climate Change proposed Hydrogen as a replacement of natural gas, as Hydrogen produces no direct emissions of greenhouse gases to the environment and it can be produced with excess renewable power. Resulting from this, UK industries are focusing on hydrogen usage. The article from The Greenpeace and Climate Action Network Europe, published in 2015, predicts that the world will be able to phase out fossil fuels completely by 2029. Dr.Faith Birol, Turkish Economist and Energy Expert, says,
“Hydrogen is today enjoying unprecedented momentum. The world should not miss this unique chance to make hydrogen an important part of our clean and secure energy future”.
Hydrogen energy was first used to power internal combustion engines 200 years ago. In 2013, Hyundai Tucson FCEV started using hydrogen as a pioneer in the automobile industry followed by Toyota and Honda. In 2020 the U.S has fifty hydrogen fueling stations for the automobile industry.
Six European countries- Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands proposed for EU Legislation and also planned to fund for the hydrogen project from the corona virus recovery fund. The EU countries demand 8 million tons of fuel per year and they target to use ‘clean fuel’ by 2030.
UK government backed companies Unilever, Pilkington, and Essar Oil Refinery are working on the project “HyNet” to demonstrate the ‘fuel switch’ with hydrogen as low-carbon alternative energy. The Keele University started the operation of mixing 20% of hydrogen with natural gas supply to 30 faculty buildings and 100 domestics and claims to be the first big testing project in the UK.
Global countries are still experiencing a few setbacks with hydrogen. Since hydrogen is a low-carbon emission, it is dependent on fossil fuels. Also, storage and supply of hydrogen fuel is really expensive since it is more complex to transport like natural gas or oil. Its highly inflammable characteristic makes the fuel extraction process longer, which may lead the fuel expensive may be higher than natural gas. To meet the predicted hydrogen replacement and usage of hydrogen fuel globally, technological advancement is required more than the technologies that are used for natural gas production.
