Is Hydrogen a Safe Energy Source?

Natural hydrogen is a clean, alternative fuel that only creates water as a byproduct. Currently, it’s gaining popularity as a clean energy source. Hydrogen gas can help countries reach the world’s goal of net-zero emissions.

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White Hydrogen Coalition

10 min readDec 23, 2021

But as hydrogen energy becomes more prevalent, concerns about inevitable associated risks are also rising. Here, we discuss the dangers and perks of using hydrogen as a source of energy:

A Quick Glance at Hydrogen as an Energy Carrier

Hydrogen is the simplest element, with each atom containing only one proton. It is also the most abundant element globally and is present in all-stars, including the sun.

Engineers produce hydrogen from various domestic resources, including fossil fuels and even renewable resources. Hydrogen gas is an energy carrier that can store and deliver a substantial amount of energy. In addition, it can help generate electricity, heat, and power. Typically, people use hydrogen gas in petroleum refining, fertilizer production, and transportation.

During George W. Bush’s term, many people were proponents of natural hydrogen gas. During this period, people nicknamed it ‘freedom fuel.’

Today, many experts believe that using hydrogen as renewable energy can help us achieve a greenhouse-gas-neutral economy by 2025.

From Where do You Get Natural Hydrogen?

Hydrogen energy is versatile, and you can use it in liquid or gas form, which converts into fuel or electricity.

Industries produce more than 70 million metric tons of hydrogen in ammonia production, steel manufacturing, oil refining, fertilizer production, metallurgy, food processing, and more.

Typically, hydrogen comes from steam methane reforming, which uses a catalyst to react to methane and high-temperature steam. As a result, it produces either carbon monoxide and hydrogen or carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

Finally, engineers remove carbon dioxide and impurities to leave behind pure hydrogen.

What is the Hydrogen Color Spectrum?

Hydrogen itself is a colorless gas; however, it is classified into different types and labelled by color, based on the specific process that is used to produce it. Here’s a quick overview of the hydrogen color spectrum:

Blue Hydrogen

People typically produce blue hydrogen from natural gas through steam reforming, which involves natural gas and heated water.

Remember that carbon dioxide is a byproduct, so producers use carbon capture and storage (CCS) to trap it.

Green Hydrogen

Green hydrogen describes hydrogen produced on a CO2-neutral basis via the electrolysis of water. During the process of electrolysis, water is split into oxygen and hydrogen.

Electricity required to obtain hydrogen comes from renewable sources.

Grey Hydrogen

Grey hydrogen is the most common type of hydrogen production. Users create it from methane, natural gas, or by using steam methane reformation.

Black and Brown Hydrogen

Black and brown hydrogen are opposites of green hydrogen and are incredibly damaging to the environment.

Brown hydrogen is made from fossil fuels via ‘gasification’ while black hydrogen comes from natural gas.

Turquoise Hydrogen

Turquoise hydrogen comes from thermal processes in which people break natural gas into hydrogen and solid carbon in the presence of methane pyrolysis. It is a CO2-neutral process, given that the solid carbon remains permanently bound.

Pink Hydrogen

Users create pink hydrogen through electrolysis powered by nuclear energy. Pink hydrogen is also referred to as red or purple hydrogen.

Yellow Hydrogen

Yellow hydrogen is relatively new and refers to hydrogen produced through electrolysis with the help of solar power.

White Hydrogen

White hydrogen occurs naturally and is present in underground deposits. To obtain this type of hydrogen, people mostly employ hydraulic fracturing, which comes with negative strings attached to the environment, as, without rigorous safety regulations, it can poison groundwater, pollute surface water, impair wild landscapes, and threaten wildlife.

Until now, there have been no viable strategies to extract/exploit this hydrogen, however, a revolutionary process, that we employ at the White Hydrogen Coalition, allows us to produce it artificially as a byproduct during the conversion of plastic and waste. This process is called Low-Temperature Conversion (LTC) and is the future of the energy sector.

White Hydrogen Coalition

What are the Different Ways of Producing Hydrogen?

People develop hydrogen fuel through various methods, such as natural gas reforming, electrolysis, solar-driven techniques, and biological processes.

Here, we discuss the chief methods to produce hydrogen:

Thermal Processes

To produce hydrogen gas through thermal processes, engineers typically use steam reforming. It is a high-temperature process involving the reaction of a hydrocarbon fuel with steam.

Currently, various industries reform different hydrocarbon fuels to produce hydrogen gas. It includes diesel, natural gas, gasified coal, gasified biomass, and renewable liquid fuels. Research indicates that up to 95% of all hydrogen gas comes from steam reforming of natural gas.

Electrolytic Processes

Electrolysis is a helpful way of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. The process occurs in a solid oxide fuel cell, referred to as an electrolyzer.

The cell functions in the opposite manner of a fuel cell. Thus, it creates hydrogen from water molecules instead of utilizing the energy of hydrogen molecules.

Solar-Driven Processes

Solar-driven processes use light from the sun or artificial sources to produce hydrogen. There are various solar-driven processes, including:

Photoelectrochemical — It produces hydrogen using the natural photosynthetic activity of green algae and bacteria
Photobiological — It uses specialized semiconductors to separate hydrogen from water
Solar thermochemical — It uses concentrated solar power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, typically in the presence of other compounds like metal oxides

Is Hydrogen Safe or Dangerous?

Despite consolidated efforts of leading global companies, the adoption of hydrogen remains a dream of the future. The primary reason behind this hesitance is the public’s perception of hydrogen safety.

An insightful anonymous social media survey received 483 responses, revealing that the public has mixed views regarding hydrogen as a safe and clean energy source. Up to 49.5% of respondents agreed that hydrogen is safe, whereas 31.4% believed hydrogen is dangerous.

Furthermore, of the 49.5% who believed hydrogen is safe, only 9.1% regarded it as ‘very safe.’ At the same time, only 4.1% thought it was ‘very dangerous’ among the ones who doubted its safety.

Is it Safe?

The public perceives hydrogen as a highly explosive and flammable gas. While this is true, hydrogen is comparatively safer.

For instance, hydrogen gas requires a higher minimum concentration to burn and produce. Hydrogen needs 4% in the air to become flammable as compared to 1.4% for gasoline, 3.3% for ethanol, 5% for methane, and 0.6% for diesel fuel.

When it comes to auto-igniting temperature, methane and hydrogen are the best sources. In the absence of a flame and spark, these two gases burn at 580°C and 550°C, respectively. These auto-igniting temperatures are higher than gasoline, ethanol, diesel, and propane.

The same survey revealed that 73.2% of participants responded positively to ‘willingness to use hydrogen-powered transportation.’ Remember that the result contradicts the answer to the first question, i.e., ‘is hydrogen a safe energy source.’

Not just this, but in the group of people who believed that hydrogen gas is dangerous, about half were willing to cast away their fears to use hydrogen-powered transport. The underlying reason for this discrepancy is unknown. People likely believe that government agencies will only allow safe modes of public transportation.

Pros of Hydrogen Energy

Let’s discuss the pros of using hydrogen as a new source of energy:

It’s Renewable and Abundant

Hydrogen is a valuable and rich source of energy for various reasons, including the fact that it’s largely available. While it requires a lot of resources to harness, no other fuel source is available in as much quantity as hydrogen.

Hydrogen gas is renewable, so you won’t have to worry about it running out like other fuel sources.

It is a Clean Energy Source

When users burn hydrogen gas to produce fuel, its byproducts are safe and have no side effects. Aeronautical companies use hydrogen gas as a source of clean drinking water.

Typically, once people use hydrogen, they convert it into drinking water for ships, astronauts, or space stations.

It is Very Powerful

In addition to being renewable and lacking harmful emissions, hydrogen is also quite powerful. In fact, hydrogen is three times as powerful as gasoline and other fossil fuels.

It means users can do so much more with little effort.

It is Environmentally-Friendly

Another unique trait that sets hydrogen apart from other fuel sources is that it is eco-friendly and non-toxic. Thus, it benefits humans and animals, as well as the rest of the environment.

In addition, people prefer it over nuclear energy and natural gas since both are hazardous and daunting. It also means that you can use hydrogen gas in places where other forms of fuel are not allowed.

Plus, extraction and use of one kilogram of white hydrogen prevent 7.7-kilogram emissions of CO2. You’ll also enjoy a 99% reduction in carbon emissions by manufacturing natural hydrogen.

It has Almost Zero Emissions

Hydrogen does not generate greenhouse gases like fossil fuel sources. Thus, it can help reduce pollution and improve air quality.

It’s More Efficient than Other Sources of Energy

Hydrogen is efficient because it produces a lot of energy for every pound compared to natural gas or diesel. It means that automobiles using hydrogen energy can travel more miles than a vehicle running on gasoline.

For instance, a conventional combustion-based power plant is around 33% to 35% energy-efficient. However, hydrogen fuel provides electric efficiency of up to 65%, which is almost twice as efficient.

Cons of Hydrogen Energy

While hydrogen gas offers numerous excellent and admirable benefits, it also has multiple disadvantages. In a gaseous state, hydrogen is quite volatile and flammable.

Here are some of the cons of hydrogen energy:

Expensive Extraction

Steam reforming and electrolysis, the main processes of hydrogen extraction, are pretty expensive. It is also the main reason the public can’t use it for everyday use. As of now, only hybrid vehicles use hydrogen.

Researchers have been seeking new, innovative, and cheaper ways to harness hydrogen. Until then, hydrogen will remain an exclusive energy source. That is exactly where LTC comes into play when talking about a revolution in the industry.

Hard to Transport

Despite being lightweight, moving hydrogen is tricky. The fact is that collecting even small amounts of hydrogen gas can be expensive.

As a result of this challenge, transporting hydrogen gas is time-consuming and costly.

Dependent on Other Fuels

Hydrogen gas is renewable, non-toxic, and has a minimal environmental impact. However, its separation in water requires other non-renewable sources like natural gas, coal, and oil.

It means that fossil fuels are necessary to produce hydrogen gas.

Challenging to Replace Existing Infrastructure

Since people have been using fossil fuels for decades, their infrastructure already exists. Large-scale adoption of hydrogen fuel for automobiles requires new refuelling infrastructure.

Is Hydrogen Safer than Conventional Fuels?

Although no energy fuel is 100%, natural hydrogen is known to be safer than conventional fuels:

Unlike conventional fuels, hydrogen gas is non-toxic. Other traditional fuels like natural gas are toxic or contain toxic substances.
When automobiles run on hydrogen fuel cells, they only produce water. But conventional fuels release harmful chemicals, causing air pollution in the process.
A hydrogen leak or spill does not contaminate the environment or threaten the health of wildlife or human. However, leaking, spilling, or combusted fossil fuels can pose various ecological and health threats.
Hydrogen is lighter than other gases, 14 times and 57 times lighter than air and gasoline vapor. Thus, hydrogen rapidly rises and disperses, which reduces the risk of ignition at ground level. On the flip side, gasoline vapor and propane gas are heavier than air, meaning they will remain at ground level, causing fires.
Hydrogen fuel has comparatively lower radiant heat. This means the air around hydrogen’s flame is not as hot as other fuels. Thus, hydrogen is less likely to cause secondary fires.
Hydrogen requires comparatively more oxygen to combust and explode. Hydrogen fuel is explosive at oxygen concentrations between 18 to 59%, whereas gasoline is explosive between 1 to 3%.

What do studies say?

An insightful study reveals that hydrogen fuel cells can help reduce emissions in the following ways:

More than 50% and up to more than 90% emission reductions compared to gasoline vehicles
More than 35% reduction in emissions over battery-powered and diesel lift trucks
Approximately 1.5x (and up to 2x) better fuel economy than internal combustion engine (ICE) buses
More than 60% emission reduction compared to truck engines idling
Between 35% to 50% emission reduction in conventional heat and power resources
More than 80% reduction in emissions by using biogas or hydrogen from low or zero-carbon sources

Uses of Hydrogen as an Energy Source

Typically, U.S. industries use hydrogen gas to refine petroleum, treat metals, produce fertilizers, and process foods. Here we look at the different uses of hydrogen fuel:

Rocket Fuel

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) first used liquid hydrogen as rocket fuel in the 1950s. Since then, NASA has strictly used hydrogen fuel cells to power the electrical systems of spacecraft.

Produce Electricity

Hydrogen fuel cells create electricity by combining with oxygen atoms. Hydrogen gas reacts with oxygen in a way that resembles an electrochemical cell to clean water, electricity, and small amounts of heat.

Various types of fuel cells are available, including:

Small fuel cells can help power laptops, computers, and cell phones
Large fuel cells offer electricity for backup and emergency power in buildings

Transportation Fuel

Hydrogen is an excellent fuel for automobiles as it offers incredible domestic production potential. In addition, a fuel cell is up to three times more efficient than gasoline.

The usage of hydrogen in vehicles is still in a state of constant improvement, however, it is already a very legitimately viable option at present, and quite a few manufacturers currently offer hydrogen-powered vehicle models currently.

The Bottom Line

Several properties of hydrogen make it safer to handle and use. It is the primary reason hydrogen generation marketing is likely to reach $199.1 billion by 2023. In addition, the global market for hydrogen fuel electric vehicles will reach 583,360 units by 2030.

Lower your carbon emission by joining the White Hydrogen Coalition. Our innovative solution helps create a cleaner future by transforming plastic and waste into cleaner energy sources.