What Is The Major Downside Of Hydrogen Power?
Introduction
Hydrogen power has emerged as a promising clean energy source that could help address climate change and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. There is growing interest and investment in hydrogen as an energy carrier and fuel globally. Many governments, companies, and organizations are exploring the potential of hydrogen to store and deliver energy for electricity, transportation, industry, and buildings.
Hydrogen is seen as a versatile energy vector that can enable the transition to a clean and sustainable energy system. When produced from renewable sources through electrolysis, hydrogen can be a completely zero-emissions fuel. Known as “green hydrogen,” renewable hydrogen holds great potential to decarbonize a range of sectors. With its high energy density and ability to be stored, hydrogen can help tackle intermittency issues of renewables and provide a clean substitute for fossil fuels.
Major industry players, energy companies, vehicle manufacturers, and governments are ramping up investments and strategic plans around hydrogen. There is a burgeoning pipeline of large-scale green hydrogen projects under development globally. If costs continue to fall and infrastructure expands, hydrogen could emerge as a major pillar of a decarbonized energy system this century.
Efficiency Challenges
One of the major downsides of hydrogen power is its current low efficiency across the production and usage cycle. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, hydrogen fuel cells have an efficiency rating between 40-60%. However, this doesn’t account for the losses incurred during hydrogen production and storage.
Most hydrogen today is produced via steam reforming of natural gas, which itself has an efficiency of around 65-85% according to some estimates. When combined with fuel cell efficiency, the overall energy efficiency from natural gas to electricity via hydrogen can be as low as 25-50%.
Storing hydrogen also leads to losses due to boil off, which can be up to 1% per day for compressed hydrogen storage. Additional losses occur during transportation and distribution of hydrogen.
Overall, the current hydrogen production and usage cycle results in substantial efficiency losses compared to direct use of electricity. Improving production methods like electrolysis and reducing storage and transportation losses will be key to making hydrogen more energy efficient and competitive.
Storage Difficulties
Hydrogen has very low density as a gas, which presents major challenges for efficient storage (https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-storage). In order to store enough hydrogen for practical applications, it needs to be compressed or liquefied. Compressing hydrogen gas to high pressures of up to 10,000 psi requires heavy, expensive tanks and compressors. Liquefying hydrogen into a cryogenic liquid at extremely cold temperatures below -423°F also requires specialized, costly equipment. The process of liquefaction itself consumes approximately 30% of the energy contained in the hydrogen. The boil-off and losses associated with liquefaction pose additional complexities for storage. Safety issues also arise with the high pressure compression and cryogenic temperatures needed. Overall, no inexpensive, highly efficient method exists yet for storing large amounts of hydrogen. Much research continues into novel storage methods like metal hydrides and carbon nanotubes, but major breakthroughs are still required for widescale hydrogen deployment.
Transportation Obstacles
Transporting hydrogen poses numerous challenges. Trucking hydrogen as a compressed gas is inefficient due to its low density. Pipelines encounter difficulties with hydrogen embrittlement, which can lead to cracking and leaks. According to the Department of Energy, hydrogen embrittlement causes issues for pipeline steels due to hydrogen drifting and trapping in the metal lattice. Research in the journal ScienceDirect also found that hydrogen blending in natural gas pipelines led to embrittlement and cracks during transients. Overall, transporting hydrogen through trucks, trains or pipelines faces efficiency, safety and technical obstacles that must be addressed before large-scale adoption.
Safety Risks
While hydrogen is not inherently dangerous, it does come with some safety risks that must be properly managed. Hydrogen is prone to leaking because the small hydrogen molecules can penetrate materials like metals and plastics that contain tiny flaws or cracks.
Hydrogen is also flammable over a wide range – from 4% to 75% concentration in air. This is a much wider flammability range compared to gasoline, which has a flammability range of just 1.4% to 7.6% (Source). This means hydrogen can ignite more easily than other fuels.
The potential dangers of hydrogen were infamously highlighted by the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, when the hydrogen-filled airship caught fire while attempting to dock. Though the exact cause is still debated, the flammable nature of the large amounts of hydrogen onboard was clearly a major factor leading to catastrophe (Source). Proper safety protocols for storage, handling, and use are critical when working with hydrogen.
Cost Barriers
Hydrogen currently faces significant cost barriers across its supply chain that prevent it from being cost competitive with fossil fuels. Producing hydrogen from renewable electricity via electrolysis can be expensive, with costs estimated at around $5/kg in 2019 according to the IEA (IEA, 2019). Building out the infrastructure for hydrogen production, storage, and transportation also requires major capital investments. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that a hydrogen pipeline would cost $1 million-$2 million per mile, making it difficult to distribute (DOE, 2011). Storing hydrogen can also be challenging and costly at scale. Progress is being made on reducing costs, but most experts believe hydrogen is not yet competitive with existing energy solutions.
Regulatory Hurdles
One major downside of hydrogen power is the lack of codes, standards, and regulations for hydrogen infrastructure and use. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Program, there are not yet comprehensive codes and standards in place for safe hydrogen production, storage, distribution, and use. This regulatory uncertainty creates challenges for deploying hydrogen technology and expanding infrastructure. For example, without consistent safety regulations, each local jurisdiction may have different permitting requirements for hydrogen filling stations. Lack of national equipment standards also hinders development of common components like hoses, valves, and tanks across the supply chain.
Progress is being made by organizations like the National Fire Protection Association, which published the NFPA 2 hydrogen technologies code in 2020. But more work remains to establish a full suite of model codes and standards at the federal, state, and local levels as noted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s fuel cell technologies office. Until more comprehensive regulations are in place, the regulatory hurdles and red tape will continue hindering wider hydrogen deployment.
Public Perception Issues
One of the biggest downsides for the adoption of hydrogen power is public perception and lack of education around its safety. Many people associate hydrogen with volatility and danger given its history with the Hindenburg disaster and use in bombs or missiles [1]. Surveys have shown a significant number of respondents view hydrogen as generally dangerous compared to more familiar fuels [2]. However, when proper safety precautions are followed, hydrogen does not pose substantially higher risks than other flammable fuels like natural gas or gasoline [3]. More education is needed to inform the public on hydrogen’s safety profile and the measures taken to mitigate risks in generation, storage, and transportation.
Limited Infrastructure
One of the biggest hurdles for the widespread adoption of hydrogen as an energy source is the lack of infrastructure for producing, storing, and distributing hydrogen. Currently, there is very little infrastructure in place to deliver hydrogen fuel to consumers.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, there are only 48 hydrogen fueling stations open to the public in the United States as of 2022 (Hydrogen Fueling Infrastructure Development). This pales in comparison to the approximately 150,000 gas stations across the country.
Most hydrogen today is produced at large industrial facilities and used for petroleum refining and fertilizer production. Building an entire network of pipelines, storage facilities, and fueling stations for widespread hydrogen availability would require massive capital investments (Hydrogen infrastructure).
Without major infrastructure development, it will be difficult for hydrogen vehicles to have the convenient fueling access that consumers expect. The lack of hydrogen infrastructure remains a key obstacle to unlocking hydrogen’s potential as a clean transportation fuel.
Conclusion
While the potential benefits of hydrogen power are clear, its widespread adoption faces several challenges. Concerns around efficiency losses during production, storage, and transportation have not yet been fully solved. Storing and transporting hydrogen safely and cost-effectively also remains difficult. Additionally, hydrogen’s use at scale would require major infrastructure investments for production, distribution and refueling across industries like transportation, electricity generation, and more.
However, hydrogen does offer a versatile energy carrier that could facilitate the transition to renewable energy. With continued research and development, as well as policy support, hydrogen may still emerge as an impactful part of a clean energy future.
