The announcement of a hydrogen fuel initiative in the President's 2003 State of the Union speech substantially increased interest in the potential for hydrogen to play a major role in the nation's long-term energy future. Prior to that event, DOE asked the National Research Council to examine key technical issues about the hydrogen economy to assist in the development of its hydrogen R&D program. Included in the assessment were the current state of technology; future cost estimates; CO2 emissions; distribution, storage, and end use considerations; and the DOE RD&D program. The report provides an assessment of hydrogen as a fuel in the nation's future energy economy and describes a number of important challenges that must be overcome if it is to make a major energy contribution. Topics covered include the hydrogen end-use technologies, transportation, hydrogen production technologies, and transition issues for hydrogen in vehicles.

This book highlights the opportunities and the challenges of introducing hydrogen as alternative transport fuel from an economic, technical and environmental point of view. Through its multi-disciplinary approach the book provides researchers, decision makers and policy makers with a solid and wide-ranging knowledge base concerning the hydrogen economy.

The road to global security," writes Jeremy Rifkin, "lies in lessening our dependence on Middle East oil and making sure that all people on Earth have access to the energy they need to sustain life. Weaning the world off oil and turning it toward hydrogen is a promissory note for a safer world." Rifkin's international bestseller The Hydrogen Economy presents the clearest, most comprehensive case for moving ourselves away from the destructive and waning years of the oil era toward a new kind of energy regime. Hydrogen-one of the most abundant substances in the universe-holds the key, Rifkin argues, to a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable world.

Hydrogen Economy: Supply Chain, Life Cycle Analysis and Energy Transition for Sustainability, Second Edition explores the challenges for the transition into a sustainable hydrogen economy. In this book, experts from various academic backgrounds discuss the tools and methodologies for the analysis, planning, design, and optimization of hydrogen supply chains. They examine the available technologies for hydrogen production, storage, transport, distribution, and energy conversion, providing a cross cutting perspective on their sustainability.This second edition of Hydrogen Economy is fully updated with new technologies and tools for design, optimization, assessment, and decision-making, and includes twelve new chapters divided into two new sections. Section III examines advanced hydrogen routines and technologies, including fuel cells and hybrid electric vehicles, new storage technologies, and biohydrogen production from waste, allowing for a more complete life cycle assessment of the entire supply chain. Section IV provides new insights into policy and future developments, discussing the role of Grey, Blue, and Green hydrogen in the energy transition, the application of hydrogen in decarbonization of heavy industry, hydrogen safety, and more, substantially broadening the scope of the 2nd Edition.Providing a broad overview of the subject and well-recognized tools to manage hydrogen sustainability, Hydrogen Economy Second Edition is an invaluable resource for engineering researchers and PhD students in energy, environmental and industrial areas, energy economy researchers, practicing hydrogen energy engineers and technicians, energy and environmental consultants, life cycle assessment practitioners and consultants. - Provides a broad perspective of the issues related to environmental, social and economic sustainability of hydrogen energy and its future perspectives - Presents the current applied research and available tools for managing and assessing hydrogen energy sustainability, such as LCA, optimization, multi-criteria decision making and supply chain optimization - Explores how experts in the field handle all issues related to the application of life cycle assessment for hydrogen production, storage, transport, distribution, safety, and end use

There is no need in the 1970s to explain the writing of a book on "Environmen tal Chemistry. " The despoliation of the environment by man's activities has long been clear to chemists. However, it has been the subject of public debate for a short time-since the late 1960s. Curiously, there has been little reaction in the textbook literature to reflect this concern. Apart from some brief and sketchy paperbacks for schools, there has not yet been published a substantial review of environmental chemistry. One reason for this is the breadth of the chemistry involved: it could scarcely be covered by one or two authors, for it is as wide as chemistry itself. The ideal way to write such a book would be to gather a couple of dozen authors in one place and keep them together for 6 months of discussions and writing. This not being very practical, it was decided to do the next best thing and to attempt to network a number of men together in mutual correspondence and interaction, which would lead to a book that had the advantages of the expertise of a large number of persons, and lacked many of the usual disadvan tages of the multi author book. Thus, synopses of the various articles were sent to each author, and they were encouraged to interact with each other in attempting to avoid repetition and in keeping their symbols uniform and their presentation style coordinated.

Lately it has become a matter of conventional wisdom that hydrogen will solve many of our energy and environmental problems. Nearly everyone -- environmentalists, mainstream media commentators, industry analysts, General Motors, and even President Bush -- seems to expect emission-free hydrogen fuel cells to ride to the rescue in a matter of years, or at most a decade or two. Not so fast, says Joseph Romm. In The Hype about Hydrogen, he explains why hydrogen isn't the quick technological fix it's cracked up to be, and why cheering for fuel cells to sweep the market is not a viable strategy for combating climate change. Buildings and factories powered by fuel cells may indeed become common after 2010, Joseph Romm argues, but when it comes to transportation, the biggest source of greenhouse-gas emissions, hydrogen is unlikely to have a significant impact before 2050. The Hype about Hydrogen offers a hype-free explanation of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, takes a hard look at the practical difficulties of transitioning to a hydrogen economy, and reveals why, given increasingly strong evidence of the gravity of climate change, neither government policy nor business investment should be based on the belief that hydrogen cars will have meaningful commercial success in the near or medium term. Romm, who helped run the federal government's program on hydrogen and fuel cells during the Clinton administration, provides a provocative primer on the politics, business, and technology of hydrogen and climate protection.

Can hydrogen and electricity supply all of the world’s energy needs? Handbook of Hydrogen Energy thoroughly explores the notion of a hydrogen economy and addresses this question. The handbook considers hydrogen and electricity as a permanent energy system and provides factual information based on science. The text focuses on a large cross section of applications such as fuel cells and catalytic combustion of hydrogen. The book also includes information on inversion curves, physical and thermodynamic tables, and properties of storage materials, data on specific heats, and compressibility and temperature–entropy charts and more. Analyzes the principles of hydrogen energy production, storage, and utilization Examines electrolysis, thermolysis, photolysis, thermochemical cycles, and production from biomass and other hydrogen production methods Covers all modes of hydrogen storage: gaseous, liquid, slush, and metal hydride storage Handbook of Hydrogen Energy serves as a resource for graduate students, as well as a reference for energy and environmental engineers and scientists.

It is just a matter of time when fossil fuels will become unavailable or uneconomical to retrieve. On top of that, their environmental impact is already too severe. Renewable energy sources can be considered as the most important substitute to fossil energy, since they are inexhaustible and have a very low, if none, impact on the environment. Still, their unevenness and unpredictability are drawbacks that must be dealt with in order to guarantee a reliable and steady energy supply to the final user. Hydrogen can be the answer to these problems. This book presents the readers with the modeling, functioning and implementation of solar hydrogen energy systems, which efficiently combine different technologies to convert, store and use renewable energy. Sources like solar photovoltaic or wind, technologies like electrolysis, fuel cells, traditional and advanced hydrogen storage are discussed and evaluated together with system management and output performance. Examples are also given to show how these systems are capable of providing energy independence from fossil fuels in real life settings.

Hydrogen may someday fuel our cars and power and heat our homes and businesses and revolutionize the way we use energy. Moving to a hydrogen economy could help reduce our reliance on foreign oil, improve local air quality, and reduce the risk of climate change. Despite the potential of hydrogen, there is no guarantee that the hydrogen economy will happen as the obstacles are considerable and the competing visions are many. Pathways to a Hydrogen Future seeks to untangle the competing visions of a hydrogen economy, explain the trade-offs and obstacles and offer recommendations for a path forward. The results are based on a detailed simulation model developed at Sandia National Laboratories: "The Hydrogen Futures Simulation Model (H2Sim)". The H2Sim is a high-level strategic tool for evaluating the economic and environmental trade-offs of alternative hydrogen production, storage, transport, and end use options in the year 2020. An executive version of H2Sim is included with the book allowing readers to explore the various scenarios discussed. H2Sim's ease of use and its ability to provide answers to these types of questions make it a powerful educational and policy making tool. The model's structure is ideal for exploring "what-if" questions, such as: Can fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) compete economically with current cars if the FCVs are 2.5 times as efficient? Should the hydrogen be produced at fueling stations or at central locations and transported to fueling stations?* Includes an executive version of H2Sim allowing readers to explore the various scenarios discussed * H2Sim's ease of use and ability to provide answers makes it a powerful educational and policy making tool * The model's structure is ideal for exploring "what-if" questions, such as: Can fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) compete economically with current cars if the FCVs are 2.5 times as efficient? Should the hydrogen be produced at fueling stations or at central locations and transported to fueling stations?

Hydrogen energy has the potential to make a major contribution to the resolution of pressing social and environmental problems such as carbon emissions, energy security and local air pollution. Yet why isn't the global energy system switching to hydrogen?