Hydrogen is the Future of Energy Security and Sustainability: A Review

Abstract

Human society is highly dependent on energy sources to fulfill its everyday needs. As the human population grows energy consumption increases; but energy sources that fulfill their needs are limited, polluting, and exhausting in nature, so renewable energy sources are the only option to tackle the human population and industrial energy needs. Hydrogen as a renewable energy source is the best option. Solar and wind energy are intermittent in nature so they cannot provide continuous energy, so we need some other intermediate source to store this energy for a long time and use this energy when needed. Hydrogen has a high gravimetric density. It is highly flammable in nature and burns with blue flame with oxygen. Hydrogen can be used as an energy carrier for intermittent energy sources and their excess electricity production during low demand can be converted into green hydrogen using electrolysis and other processes. This hydrogen can be used to produce electricity when solar and wind can’t produce electricity because of bad weather/monsoon season or any other reason, that way it can help in continuous power supply. Produced hydrogen can also be used for secondary hydrogen-based applications like FCEVs, industrial applications, and other need-based applications. In this article, hydrogen is presented as the fuel of the future and its properties, production techniques, and applications are discussed. Literature review has been done in the field of renewable energy sources, hydrogen technologies, and hydrogen as a future fuel. This paper is intended to present hydrogen’s capability as a future fuel and its applications in different fields currently and in the near future.