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. 2017 Jul 28;375(2098):20160400.
doi: 10.1098/rsta.2016.0400.

Clean energy and the hydrogen economy

N P Brandon  1 , Z Kurban  2
Affiliations

Clean energy and the hydrogen economy

N P Brandon et al. Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci. .

Abstract

In recent years, new-found interest in the hydrogen economy from both industry and academia has helped to shed light on its potential. Hydrogen can enable an energy revolution by providing much needed flexibility in renewable energy systems. As a clean energy carrier, hydrogen offers a range of benefits for simultaneously decarbonizing the transport, residential, commercial and industrial sectors. Hydrogen is shown here to have synergies with other low-carbon alternatives, and can enable a more cost-effective transition to de-carbonized and cleaner energy systems. This paper presents the opportunities for the use of hydrogen in key sectors of the economy and identifies the benefits and challenges within the hydrogen supply chain for power-to-gas, power-to-power and gas-to-gas supply pathways. While industry players have already started the market introduction of hydrogen fuel cell systems, including fuel cell electric vehicles and micro-combined heat and power devices, the use of hydrogen at grid scale requires the challenges of clean hydrogen production, bulk storage and distribution to be resolved. Ultimately, greater government support, in partnership with industry and academia, is still needed to realize hydrogen's potential across all economic sectors.This article is part of the themed issue 'The challenges of hydrogen and metals'.

Keywords: energy; fuel cell; hydrogen.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Storage technologies and power/energy characteristics [77]. (Online version in colour.)
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Schematic diagram showing the three main energy conversion pathways (power-to-gas, power-to-power and gas-to-gas) in a renewable energy integrated energy system. FC, fuel cell. (Online version in colour.)
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
The step conversion efficiencies for the hydrogen supply pathways being considered. Power-to-power and power-to-gas data from [15] and gas-to-gas data from a UKTM model (SMR+CCS efficiency of 75%, transport and distribution (T&D) loss of 5% (distribution only), residential boiler efficiency 84% and residential micro-CHP fuel cell efficiency 88%). (Online version in colour.)
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Hydrogen production pathways; expected transition of large-scale hydrogen production routes. (Modified from [92].) (Online version in colour.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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