If we keep the level of emission of greenhouse gas by the late 21 century, the temperature of our atmosphere will increase by 4.7 degrees Celsius. To solve this problem, many countries in the world conformed to reduce the amount of emission of greenhouse gas step by step on the UN Climate Change Agreement in Paris. By predictable future temperature, many countries tried to find out the eco-friendly energy to replace carbon energy. One of the highlighted energies is hydrogen energy, which only has pure water as a byproduct and is abundant anywhere in the world.

▲ 2050 World Energy Consumption

The world has given attention to not only regenerative energy like solar energy and wind energy but also to hydrogen energy whose energy resource is unlimited in the world and can be transported easily by liquid or gas in high pressure. The outstanding profit of this energy is that it can complement retention which regenerative energy cannot have. By the hydrogen committee, in 2050, the world hydrogen consumption will be increased by half of billion-ton, which can substitute thirteen billion barrels of oil. With this prediction, 18 percent of the world's energy supply is charged with hydrogen energy, and it means that the core of energy will be charged with hydrogen energy instead of carbon energy.

▲ Hydrogen Society

The representative method of producing hydrogen energy is water electrolysis by using regenerative energy. For example, Australia put solar panels on the western desert and use energy from the solar panels in water electrolysis which detaches the oxygen and hydrogen by using electricity. America has made the facility recycling plastic to produce hydrogen. By heating the plastic in 38 to 70 degrees Celsius, it takes the hydrogen from biomass. To do that, the disposal of waste matter will be also clear. Above this, there are researches about producing hydrogen by using microorganisms.

▲ Paris Agreement

The problem of producing hydrogen energy will be the extracting method and the reduction in transport costs. Without solving the problem, the hydrogen industry will be paralyzed by high cost and low interest. Today, the reduction of transport costs is less problematic than the extracting method. Still, the cost is not ignorable.

2020, August 21st

by 곽경민