The Future of Energy: Hydrogen – Energy Storage, Not Energy Production

We often mistake hydrogen as an energy production method. It is not. It is an energy storage method, an aspect of the energy industry that is also important as we move towards cleaner energy.

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The History

In ancient times, the theories of fundamental substances on Earth drove us to the classical elements: earth, wind, air, and fire. It wasn’t until the 16th century when we looked deeper.

Hydrogen was observed in the 16th and 17th centuries but wasn’t discovered as an element until 1766 when it was discovered by Henry Cavendish, an English scientist. He uncovered hydrogen through a reaction of metals with acids and observed its unique properties, of which one was flammability.

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Hydrogen was first used for flight as far back as 1783 when two French brothers launched a hydrogen-filled balloon. After this, balloons and airships continued to develop through the 19th and 20th centuries.

Antoine Lavoisier, another Frenchman, was the first to show how the process of electrolysis could occur by passing an electric current through water so it would decompose into hydrogen and oxygen. Electrolysis, as we’ll see in today’s piece, is a vital process in the production of hydrogen and its related technology.

Hydrogen has been utilized as an energy storage method for over 200 years as it powered the first internal combustion engines. The storage method of the gasometer has also existed since the 19th century.

The usefulness of hydrogen as an energy storage method is similar to that of other fuels, such as synthetic fuels we’ve recently analysed. It can be stored as a liquid, or a gas and the energy utilized elsewhere. The conditions for either are difficult. Gas storage requires high-pressure tanks, and liquid storage requires cryogenic temperatures to avoid hitting hydrogen’s boiling point at -252.8C.

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Since these century-old discoveries and inventions, we’ve used hydrogen as rocket fuel propellant in the form of liquid hydrogen, and the advent of fuel cells gained attention in the 1950s.

We now consider hydrogen as a potential solution as a clean energy carrier with a variety of utilities. Its potential to power vehicles through fuel cells, or store excess renewable energy would provide further diversification in the clean energy transition away from fossil fuels.