• Question: Is burning hydrogen fuel cleaner than burning fossil fuels?

    Asked by ellz13 to Angus, Christian, Hannah, Laura, Simon on 17 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Angus Ferraro

      Angus Ferraro answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Burning hydrogen produces water as pretty much the only byproduct. Fossil fuels produce carbon dioxide, which is responsible for global warming, as well as a whole host of unpleasant pollutants which aren’t good for human health. So yes, hydrogen fuel is cleaner. The problem is we haven’t quite figured out a good way of mass-producing the fuel or the engines that run on it.

    • Photo: Christian Maerz

      Christian Maerz answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Is it cleaner: Yes? Is it more environmentally friendly: No yet! Right now, it simply takes too much energy to produce hydrogen.

    • Photo: Simon Holyoake

      Simon Holyoake answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      The others hit the nail on the head, burning hydrogen (or combining it with water in a fuel cell to generate electricity) is a very clean way to generate energy, however the process by which we obtain hydrogen (splitting it from water molecules) is quite energy intensive

      there are pilot schemes dotted around using large arrays of photovoltaic cells (or solar panels if you prefer) to generate electricity from sunlight which is then used to generate hydrogen, the only carbon cost in that is the cost to produce the solar panels, which is offset after 5-10 years of their operation

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