hydrogen is one possible answer for our dependence on the fossil fuels that power our cars and buses
even though vehicles that use hydrogen to spin their wheels have been on the market for years
the technology is still struggling to gain traction that could change in the near
future as the european union and other countries have committed to expanding their use of green
hydrogen yes i specifically said green hydrogen because there are a couple ways of producing it
and not all of them move us toward the goal of cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions today the
most common hydrogen is known as gray hydrogen and it's created from fossil fuels like in a process
called steam methane reforming by combining ultra hot steam with the methane in natural gas and a
catalyst the water vapor and methane react and produce hydrogen gas carbon monoxide and some
carbon dioxide a second step called the water gas shift reaction uses the carbon monoxide steam and
another catalyst to extract more hydrogen gas giving off co2 as a waste product worldwide
about 95 percent of our hydrogen is gray i think the problem here is pretty obvious sure you can
use hydrogen in a fuel cell powered car and only give off water as a local waste product but if the
hydrogen was made through steam methane reforming you're just shifting your carbon emissions from
your tailpipe to a plant somewhere there is a way to make the process more eco-friendly by capturing
the co2 and storing it or using it for other industrial applications and hydrogen made this
way is called blue hydrogen still what we're after is the good stuff the gilt free stuff the green
stuff hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe it's found in this thing called water
which you may have heard of hydrogen can be pulled out of said water using electricity in a process
called electrolysis using electricity from wind or solar power could vastly cut down on how much
carbon dioxide the whole process creates hydrogen made this way is you guessed it green hydrogen of
course there's a catch green hydrogen is much more expensive to produce than gray or blue hydrogen
while a kilogram of green gas goes for about six dollars today the gray stuff is priced at
just a buck 60 per kilogram still the european union imagines natural gas as an important tool
for getting to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. by improving electrolyzing machines and reducing
the cost of renewable energy green hydrogen could compete with its gray counterpart as soon as 2030
then it could be applied in transportation particularly for large vehicles like buses
trucks and ships where the drawbacks of current batteries make them less than ideal but hydrogen
has potential far beyond trucks or boats and the eu has drawn up a road map of the ways green
hydrogen could help them hit emissions targets it could be used to decarbonize the gas grid and
deliver heat and power around europe adding it to the grid doesn't require huge upgrades and energy
producers could convert to use pure hydrogen essentially hydrogen could be a way to produce
energy in one place and then transport it for use or storage somewhere else solving a big problem
of renewables finally hydrogen could be used in industrial processes to generate heat or replace
coal based blast furnaces in steel production right now steel production is responsible for as
much as nine percent of global carbon emissions it all sounds very tempting tempting enough that the
eu proposed investing billions of dollars in green hydrogen separately the uk is ramping up their own
use of hydrogen with buses and trains powered by the technology just entering service in a few
trial cities with reimagined transportation and a converted grid using hydrogen from clean sources
europe could be a model for the world to follow if we're hoping to make fossil fuels a thing of the
past if you want to know more about the promise of hydrogen fuel check out josh's video here so do
you think green hydrogen is the answer or is there another green tech you think will revolutionize
the world let us know in the comments be sure to subscribe and i'll see you next time on seeker