Debunking The Myth: Hydrogen Is Not A Zero Emissions Fuel

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Final Up to date on: nineteenth March 2025, 05:58 pm

The concept hydrogen is a “zero-emissions” power supply is a kind of claims that sounds nice in a press launch however crumbles below scrutiny. Positive, if you burn hydrogen or use it in a gas cell, there’s no CO₂ spewing out the tailpipe. That a lot is true. However this declare is a traditional instance of a cherry-picking fallacy — specializing in essentially the most flattering element whereas sweeping inconvenient realities below the rug.

It is a companion article to the Cranky Stepdad vs Hydrogen for Energy materials. In an identical method to John Prepare dinner’s Skeptical Sciencethe intent is a speedy and catchy debunk, a second degree of element within the Companion to Cranky Stepdad vs Hydrogen for Energyafter which a fuller article because the third degree of element.

Hydrogen’s zero-emissions declare is like calling a sieve full — emissions nonetheless leak via at each stage.

Over 95% of hydrogen in the present day is produced utilizing fossil fuels, primarily via steam methane reforming (SMR). This course of includes reacting pure fuel (methane) with steam to provide hydrogen — and, inconveniently, a complete lot of carbon dioxide (Howarth & Jacobson, 2021). Even so-called “blue hydrogen,” which makes an attempt to seize a few of these emissions, nonetheless ends in substantial CO₂ leakage throughout its lifecycle (Ocko & Hamburg, 2022). The one really low-carbon possibility — electrolysis powered by renewable power — stays a tiny fraction of world hydrogen manufacturing as a result of it’s costly and energy-intensive.

Even when we magically swap to 100% “green” hydrogen tomorrow, there’s nonetheless a elementary downside: hydrogen leaks. And when it leaks, it doesn’t simply vanish into the ether — it messes with the local weather. Hydrogen has a world warming potential (GWP) of 37 over 20 years and 12 over 100 years (UK Division for Atmosphere, Meals & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), 2022). That implies that even small leaks — whether or not from manufacturing, storage, or transportation — act as oblique local weather forcers, prolonging the atmospheric lifetime of methane and growing ozone ranges (Derwent et al., 2020). The trade acknowledges leakage charges over 1% per stage, which provides up rapidly in real-world purposes (Worldwide Vitality Company (IEA), 2023). The extra hydrogen we transfer round, the larger this downside turns into.

Let’s not neglect that when hydrogen is combusted — whether or not in a turbine, a boiler, or an inside combustion engine — it produces nitrogen oxides (NOx), potent air pollution linked to respiratory illnesses and smog formation (U.S. Division of Vitality (DOE), 2023). That’s why burning hydrogen in an influence plant or automobile doesn’t magically make it “clean.” In case your local weather plan includes swapping out pure fuel for hydrogen after which burning it, congratulations — you’ve simply invented an costly solution to maintain making air air pollution.

So, the place does that depart us? Hydrogen is just not a zero-emissions power supply, regardless of the way you spin it. The manufacturing course of is carbon-intensive, the leakage accelerates world warming, and combustion nonetheless pollutes. That doesn’t imply hydrogen has no function to play because it’s important as an industrial feedstock for ammonia, amongst different vital chemical substances—however it does imply we should always cease pretending it’s a silver bullet for decarbonization (Bloomberg New Vitality Finance (BNEF), 2023). If we’re critical about internet zero, we have to give attention to actual zero-carbon options, not advertising gimmicks dressed up as local weather technique.

References:

Bloomberg New Vitality Finance (BNEF). (2023). Hydrogen’s hidden emissions: Leakage, NOx, and upstream carbon prices.

Derwent, R. G., Simmonds, P. G., Manning, A. J., & Spain, T. G. (2020). World environmental impacts of hydrogen leakage. Worldwide Journal of Hydrogen Vitality, 45(7), 3875–3893.

Howarth, R. W., & Jacobson, M. Z. (2021). How inexperienced is blue hydrogen? Vitality Science & Engineering, 9(10), 1676–1687.

Worldwide Vitality Company (IEA). (2023). The function of hydrogen in decarbonization: Addressing local weather and emissions challenges. Paris: IEA.

Ocko, I. B., & Hamburg, S. P. (2022). Local weather penalties of hydrogen emissions. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 22(12), 9349–9368.

UK Division for Atmosphere, Meals & Rural Affairs (DEFRA). (2022). Atmospheric impacts of hydrogen: Oblique greenhouse fuel results.

U.S. Division of Vitality (DOE). (2023). Hydrogen emissions and lifecycle carbon footprint evaluation. Washington, DC: DOE.