Hydrogen as an energy carrier

To meet the goals of increasing the amount of energy generated from renewable sources and decreasing CO₂ emissions, several challenges must be overcome. First, the disparity in prime locations for renewable energy production and high-use regions such as large cities or industrial sites needs to be addressed. Second, there is a need for efficient energy storage systems to mitigate the difference in peak energy production periods to peak demand times. One option for a large-scale storage system is to use the produced energy to generate hydrogen from water and to deploy hydrogen gas as the energy carrier. Hydrogen can then be used to fuel the transportation sector, and to provide energy for buildings and various industries. This talk will look at the potential benefits of using hydrogen gas as an energy carrier and will identify the challenges associated with producing sufficient quantities of hydrogen to meet the needs, and delivering it safely to the consumer without requiring building a nation-wide system specifically for the distribution of hydrogen gas. The talk will emphasize the challenges in materials science especially in light the well-known degradation of metal and polymer systems by hydrogen.