What is hydrogen?
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe!
Hydrogen occurs naturally in compound form with other elements in liquids (like water/H₂O), gases, or solids.
Today, hydrogen is mainly used to refine crude oil to produce gasoline, lubricants and petrochemicals. To support a lower carbon energy future, low carbon hydrogen fuel could be used more broadly in a variety of industrial processes. It can be also used as a transportation fuel and to heat and power homes.
Hydrogen is odorless, benign and, if released, rises quickly away from the ground. It is flammable, but has been safely managed for decades.
Role in Energy Diversification
The International Energy Agency sees low-carbon hydrogen as meeting 10 percent of global energy needs by 2050, and as critical to achieving net-zero global emissions.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), clean hydrogen’s potential to help address the climate crisis, enhance energy security and resilience, and create economic value makes the production and use of clean hydrogen a priority both in the United States and abroad. The DOE believes zero- and low-carbon hydrogen is a key part of a comprehensive portfolio of solutions to achieve a sustainable and equitable clean energy future.
Hydrogen can be manufactured with a lower carbon footprint than conventional fuels and produced from various energy sources, including natural gas and coal with CCS, and renewables.
Hydrogen does not produce any CO₂ emissions at its point of use, and it may be the lowest-cost option to significantly reduce emissions in some sectors, such as industrial and residential heating, power generation and heavy-duty vehicles.
Fuel switching from natural gas to hydrogen in certain industrial processes provides a flexible and cost-effective solution to reducing CO₂ emissions, particularly when adding carbon capture technology is impractical.
What is ammonia?
Ammonia—one nitrogen atom bonded to three hydrogen atoms—is energy dense by volume and easy to ship and distribute.
It is widely used today as an industrial and agricultural chemical, particularly in fertilizer. It could also one day be widely used for power generation, industrial heat and marine fuels.
Ammonia is both a chemical energy store and a fuel, where energy is released by the breaking and making of chemical bonds. For ammonia, the net energy gain arises from breaking nitrogen-hydrogen bonds which, together with oxygen, produces nitrogen and water.
The ammonia molecule has no carbon and generates no CO₂ when used as a fuel.
CCS History
Renewables
