Climate Change Hope for Hydrogen Fuel
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for chromas:
Climate change hope for hydrogen fuel:
A tiny spark in the UK's hydrogen revolution has been lit - at a university campus near Stoke-on-Trent. Hydrogen fuel is a relatively green alternative to alternatives that produce greenhouse gases. The natural gas supply at Keele University is being blended with 20% hydrogen in a trial that's of national significance. Adding the hydrogen will reduce the amount of CO2 that's being produced through heating and cooking. Critics fear hydrogen will prove too expensive for mass usage, but supporters of the technology have high hopes.
But the only product of burning hydrogen is water.
As a fuel, hydrogen functions in much the same way as natural gas. So staff in the university canteen say cooking on the 20% hydrogen blend has made no difference to their cooking regime. The project - known as HyDeploy - is the UK's first live trial of hydrogen in a modern gas network. Keele was chosen because it has a private gas system. Its hydrogen is produced in an electrolyser - a device that splits water (H2O) into its constituents: hydrogen and oxygen. The machine is located in a glossy green shipping container in the corner of the university's sports field.
The gas distribution firm Cadent, which is leading the project, says that if a 20% blend were to be rolled out across Britain, it would reduce emissions of CO2 by six million tonnes - equivalent to taking 2.5 million cars off the road.
The hydrogen could be generated pollution-free by using surplus wind power at night to split water molecules using electrolysis.
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