From Methane to Hydrogen-Making the Switch to a Cleaner Fuel Source The world's overdependence on fossil fuels has created environmental problems, such as air pollution and global warming, as well as political and economic unrest. With water as its only by-product and its availability in all parts of the world, hydrogen promises to be the next grea

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 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 paper examines the potential of hydrogen fuel for hard-to-decarbonise energy uses, including aviation, shipping and other. But the decarbonisation impact depends on how hydrogen is produced.