Disadvantages of hydrogen energy

Answer 1

Burning Hydrogen as a fuel is a good thing for the environment as when it combusts it only produces water as a waste product - no harmful fumes or carbon dioxide! Now you need to consider where you get that hydrogen from. Largely it is obtained from electrolysis of brine or sea water. The problem arises from the amount of energy needed to do this. You need significant amounts of electricity. If this electricity is supplied by fossil fuel power plants, then you need to consider the carbon dioxide released from combustion and it's effect on the environment. However if the electricity used is generated by renewable resources such as wind turbines, then the use of Hydrogen is completely 'green' and carbon neutral.

Answer 2

Hydrogen is a relatively efficient, clean-burning fuel. However, using it as a motor fuel has some serious drawbacks :

• To contain enough hydrogen to power a vehicle, it must be highly compressed or even liquefied. Either of these states is inherently dangerous, and requires additional energy to maintain. (This is not likely to be a self-serve motor fuel!)
• Safety concerns in operation are about the same as with gasoline, but require additional vehicle weight and/or safety features.
• To create the hydrogen can produce nearly as much pollution as it prevents. It must be created from chemical feedstocks (leaving waste products) or by electrolysis (a mechanically-inefficient method that requires additional electricity to be generated).
• The cost of replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen would entail a massive expenditure to almost completely replace the existing energy infrastructure.

With these in mind, it is unlikely that hydrogen will replace a substantial percentage of other fuels in the near future. It is more likely to gradually grow where it is a viable alternative.

Answer 3

Economically hydrogen is fine for power generation. Environmentally it is a nightmare. Commercial hydrogen is created by stripping natural gas and keeping only the hydrogen atom. It is a very non green fuel source in the manner in which we use it today.

Answer 4

Hydrogen gas is not energy dense, so it must be pressurized to compact it into a small enough volume to be a viable fuel for cars. Having a highly pressurized can of explosive gas in your vehicle is kind of dangerous, and it makes fueling at the pump more dangerous as well. Solid hydrogen would be great, but at room temperature solid hydrogen is not feasible yet with current technology, and solid fuel is difficult to use in traditional engines. So solid hydrogen fuel might only work in an electric car, for example. Lastly, producing hydrogen gas takes more energy than you get by burning it, so unless you have solar, nuclear, or other cheap sources of electric power, producing hydrogen gas from fossil fuels can be a losing game when you crunch the numbers.

Answer 5

Extraction of high energy consumption, safety is not strong

Answer 6

The use of fossil fuels is required to create pure hydrogen.

Answer 7

Currently.... infrastructure.