Perspectives on the Development of Technologies for Hydrogen as a Carrier of Sustainable Energy

Venko Beschkov () and Evgeniy Ganev
Additional contact information
Venko Beschkov: Laboratory of Bioengineering, Institute of Chemical Engineering, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria
Evgeniy Ganev: Laboratory of Bioengineering, Institute of Chemical Engineering, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 17, 1-23

Abstract: Hydrogen is a prospective energy carrier because there are practically no gaseous emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere during its use as a fuel. The great benefit of hydrogen being a practically inexhaustible carbon-free fuel makes it an attractive alternative to fossil fuels. I.e., there is a circular process of energy recovery and use. Another big advantage of hydrogen as a fuel is its high energy content per unit mass compared to fossil fuels. Nowadays, hydrogen is broadly used as fuel in transport, including fuel cell applications, as a raw material in industry, and as an energy carrier for energy storage. The mass exploitation of hydrogen in energy production and industry poses some important challenges. First, there is a high price for its production compared to the price of most fossil fuels. Next, the adopted traditional methods for hydrogen production, like water splitting by electrolysis and methane reforming, lead to the additional charging of the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas. This fact prompts the use of renewable energy sources for electrolytic hydrogen production, like solar and wind energy, hydropower, etc. An important step in reducing the price of hydrogen as a fuel is the optimal design of supply chains for its production, distribution, and use. Another group of challenges hindering broad hydrogen utilization are storage and safety. We discuss some of the obstacles to broad hydrogen application and argue that they should be overcome by new production and storage technologies. The present review summarizes the new achievements in hydrogen application, production, and storage. The approach of optimization of supply chains for hydrogen production and distribution is considered, too.

Keywords: hydrogen; production; storage; applications; supply chain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/17/6108/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/17/6108/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:17:p:6108-:d:1222259

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().