ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

Environmental Impacts of Hydrogen

Executive Summary

The “fuel choice” question heated up in the 1990s, complicated by competing life-cycle and “well-to-wheels” studies by government, industry, and nongovernmental organizations. A growing number of scientists in government and industry openly challenged the conventional wisdom of the incremental path. Their research suggested that the direct use of hydrogen would be the quickest and least costly route—to the consumer and the environment—toward a hydrogen infrastructure. Their studies pointed to an alternative pathway that would initially use the existing infrastructure for natural gas (the cleanest fossil fuel and the fastest growing in terms of use) and employ fuel cells in niche applications to buy down their costs to competitive levels, spurring added hydrogen infrastructure investment. As the costs of producing hydrogen from renewable energy fell, meanwhile, hydrogen would evolve into the major source of storage for the limitless but intermittent flows of the sun, wind, tides, and Earth's heat. Some of the experts argued that there were no major technical obstacles to the alternative path to hydrogen. As one researcher put it, “If we really wanted to, we could have a hydrogen economy by 2010. But the political and institutional barriers appeared formidable. Both government and industry had devoted more resources toward the gasoline- and methanol-based route than to the direct hydrogen path, though they were open to the latter: remarked one industry executive, “everyone is placing bets on several horses.

Table of contents

Executive Summary2

Introduction4

Objectives7

Disucssion8

Conclusions11

References14

Appendices15

Environmental Impacts of Hydrogen

Introduction

Environment change is an issue that negatively affects both developed and developing countries. Although many governments are challenged with protecting the environment, companies have an interest in protecting the environment and the well-being of future generations, as it provides them with opportunities to develop environmentally friendly products for environmentally friendly consumers. (Panda, 2008: pp201) Further, globalization has given consumers access to information they did not previously have, which has made consumers more informed of the manufacturing processes of products and proactive. As a result, consumers seek environmentally friendly products. The term environmentally friendly can encompass numerous aspects but generally refers to products, services, or practices designed to minimize harm to the natural world. (Godfrey, 2008: pp 38) Clearly, the expectation is that firms will be candid about how they conduct their businesses and about how they manufacture their products. For example, consumers may be interested in the green attributes of products (e.g., whether they are biodegradable, recyclable, etc.), as well as in the manufacturing process (e.g., they may look for assurance that environments were not polluted or that rivers were not contaminated by the processes used to manufacture the products).

Hydrogen is another renewable energy resource. Like natural gas or propane, hydrogen can be burned in homes and factories, and it can be shipped in existing natural gas pipelines. The by-product of burning hydrogen is water vapor, and it emits no carbon dioxide. A(James, 2009: pp124) promising new technology is the hydrogen fuel cell. A fuel cell resembles a battery, but it uses hydrogen and oxygen, which react with a cathode and ...