Hydrogen energy for tomorrow: Advanced hydrogen production technologies
The future vision for hydrogen is that it will be cost-effectively produced from renewable energy sources and made available for widespread use as an energy carrier and a fuel. Hydrogen can be produced from water and when burned as a fuel, or converted to electricity, joins with oxygen to again form water. It is a clean, sustainable resource with many potential applications, including generating electricity, heating homes and offices, and fueling surface and air transportation. To achieve this vision, researchers must develop advanced technologies to produce hydrogen at costs competitive with fossil fuels, using sustainable sources. Hydrogen is now produced primarily by steam reforming of natural gas. For applications requiring extremely pure hydrogen, production is done by electrolysis. This is a relatively expensive process that uses electric current to dissociate, or split, water into its hydrogen and oxygen components. Technologies with the best potential for producing hydrogen to meet future demand fall into three general process categories: photobiological, photoelectrochemical, and thermochemical. Photobiological and photoelectrochemical processes generally use sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Thermochemical processes, including gasification and pyrolysis systems, use heat to produce hydrogen from sources such as biomass and solid waste.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-83CH10093
- OSTI ID:
- 161466
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/GO-10095-065; ON: DE95000270; TRN: AHC29601%%21
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Aug 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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