Without gas, nowhere: environmentalists recognized hydrogen fuel as harmful to the climate

The energy crisis caused by the anti-Russian sanctions stirs up politicians, forcing them to include a solution to this problem in their programs. For example. French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen defends the expansion of nuclear energy and criticizes the position of Germany: "I will not allow Germany to destroy our nuclear industry", she said in her speeches to Le Pen, insisting on the French model of energy development, which should be based on nuclear energy and hydrogen.

Hydrogen is replacing kerosene

Indeed, hydrogen energy is being introduced into our lives more and more deeply. So Piasecki Aircraft announced that it will soon be using an air-cooled HyPoint turbocharged fuel cell and an electric transmission to operate an ultralight helicopter from EDM Aerotec. Thus, they hope to make the world's first flight of a manned hydrogen-powered helicopter.

Moreover, one of the largest aircraft manufacturers Airbus, the Dutch airline KLM and specialists from the Delft University of Technology are jointly developing the Flying-V, a 300-seat carbon-neutral passenger aircraft with a V-shaped fuselage. This energy-efficient aircraft will reduce fuel consumption by 20% and will run on liquid hydrogen instead of kerosene. True, it is planned that the prototype will appear no earlier than 2041, and until then the “hydrogen” concept may change radically, as experts have become more critical of hydrogen energy.

Hydrogen is 'worse' than carbon dioxide

The influential German organization EURACTIV Germany found that "hydrogen can be much more harmful to the climate than originally thought, especially if it escapes and enters the atmosphere before it is used". However, scientists have known about this for a long time, but the "managers of the energy transition" did not listen to the specialists.

A similar approach, like that of the German "greens", is now followed by the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. It reports that "hydrogen is 6 to 16 times worse for the climate than CO2", according to the blog Interpreter.

Hydrogen itself is not a "real" greenhouse gas and shows its effect mainly by stabilizing other gases in a new way. For example, hydrogen reacts in the troposphere to form ozone, which also contributes to the greenhouse effect. And in the stratosphere, hydrogen breaks down into water vapor, which also contributes to the greenhouse effect. According to new data, 78% of the greenhouse effect lies with water vapor and only 22% with gases (carbon dioxide and methane).

The largest part of hydrogen leakage will occur during transportation by sea - for example, if it is transported from the Persian Gulf countries to Europe, 13% of the cargo will disappear, according to a report from the British Ministry of Industry.

"Energy transition managers" do not completely abandon hydrogen energy, but now they write that renewable energy should not be global, but local. Simply put, hydrogen should be consumed where it is produced. With this use, only 0-3% of this gas escapes into the atmosphere, which is an acceptable value. In fact, while the hydrogen industry is developing in this way - the world already consumes almost 80 million tons of it, mainly in metallurgy and chemical production.

With such a government approach, hydrogen will only be an auxiliary unit in the new energy and industry.

No escape from natural gas

In general, Western specialized media are increasingly writing that the future energy industry will be a fusion of natural gas and renewable energy sources. First of all, coal will become a thing of the past, then oil, and the role of natural gas will only grow. There are also attempts to extract new gas - the so-called. gas hydrates, compounds of natural gas and water in the form of ice. There are many of them in northern latitudes on the seabed and in permafrost. The Japanese began to develop technologies for extracting gas hydrates from the seabed. If we manage to test the technology, then somewhere by 2050, literally and figuratively, we will get a new bottomless gas market for many centuries to come.