Hydrogen economy
a proposed system of delivering energy using hydrogen
The hydrogen economy is a term for the role hydrogen as an energy carrier to complement electricity as part of a long-term option to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The aim is to reduce emissions where cheaper and more energy-efficient clean solutions are not available. In this context, hydrogen economy encompasses the production of hydrogen and the use of hydrogen in ways that contribute to phasing-out fossil fuels and limiting climate change.
Hydrogen can be produced by several means. Most hydrogen produced today is gray hydrogen, made from natural gas through steam methane reforming (SMR). This process accounted for 1.8% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2021. Low-carbon hydrogen, which is made using SMR with carbon capture and storage (blue hydrogen), or through electrolysis of water using renewable power (green hydrogen), accounted for less than 1% of production. Of the 100 million tonnes of hydrogen produced in 2021, 43% was used in oil refining and 57% in industry, principally in the manufacture of ammonia for fertilizers, and methanol.
To limit global warming, it is generally envisaged that the future hydrogen economy replace gray hydrogen with low-carbon hydrogen. As of 2024 it is unclear when enough low-carbon hydrogen could be produced to phase-out all the gray hydrogen.
The public source identifies “Hydrogen economy” as a proposed system of delivering energy using hydrogen. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Hydrogen, economy and proposed.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hydrogen economy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.