A Holistic Approach to Promote the Safe Development of Hydrogen As an Energy Vector

Abstract

If generated using clean technologies (non CO2 emitting technologies), hydrogen may constitute a clean sustainable energy vector usable in the power sector, in the transportation sector, in various industrial sectors and in households. However, the physical and chemical properties of the hydrogen (its leakage, flammability and explosion propensities) call for extreme care for its generalized use, especially at the level of the general public. To make the general public use of hydrogen as safe as electricity will certainly take a long time and will necessitate huge investments. To open the way to the so-called hydrogen society may necessitate a different approach, that we call a holistic approach, meaning that the advent of hydrogen as a generalized energy vector should solve world energy and environmental problems without adding new ones. Among such approaches, the paper discusses the following ones: (i) in situ & on site hydrogen generation to avoid hydrogen transport and storage; (ii) use of renewable hydrogen for captured CO2 hydrogenation and (iii) hydrogen generation from organic waste streams to contribute to the achievement of circular economy.