Renewable energies are readily available, but not always at the right time or place. Hydrogen is an energy carrier that can be used to efficiently store regenerative energy. Its reconversion in fuel cells is no problem because their efficiency is much greater than that of modern combustion engines. Hydrogen also fulfils a number of other requirements that prove it to be the most environmentally friendly fuel there has ever been. When it is used, its only emission is water steam.

As an energy carrier, hydrogen has the potential to fundamentally secure our future energy supply and make it more environmentally friendly. The Linde Group supplies solutions ranging from the generation and liquefaction of hydrogen to its transport and the fuelling of hydrogen-powered vehicles. 

The environmentally friendly fuel

Hydrogen has been deployed as an industrial gas for over one hundred years and large volumes are used across the widest range of applications every day. Hydrogen is also set to play a defining role in the much-publicised third, 'green' industrial revolution. It is the most commonly occurring element in nature and – unlike fossil fuels such as crude oil or natural gas – will never run out. Like electricity, hydrogen is an energy carrier – not a source of energy. It must therefore be produced. Yet hydrogen offers several key benefits that increase its potential to replace fossil fuels. Stored hydrogen, for example, can be used directly as a fuel or to generate electricity.
Hydrogen will enable regenerative, sustainable mobility choices in our everyday lives. Such vehicles have a long-distance range and can be rapidly fuelled. Decades of research, development and testing have shown that hydrogen technology is a workable, economically viable alternative suited to mass deployment. There is still a long way to go before broadscale commercialisation. Nevertheless, today’s conventional method of using steam reforming to generate hydrogen from natural gas already reduces carbon dioxide emissions along the entire value chain, from well to wheel. Hydrogen-powered vehicles emit up to thirty percent less CO₂ than modern diesel cars.