Hydrogen gas has the potential to be one of the planet’s most flexible fuels, because there are so many different ways in which to generate it. In a regular plant production setting, producing hydrogen gas can be started with raw materials like coal, natural gas, algae or biological wastes such as natural organic waste material.

Gasification is the technique used for producing hydrogen gas from coal, biomass, or other solid material. It involves subjecting the material or feedstock to extreme heat, cooling it, separating the hydrogen gas, and purifying it for use as automotive or electrical fuel. Production plants that gasify coal to distill hydrogen gas as a fuel for electricity generation will produce much less pollution that regular coal-fired power stations.

The least polluting and environmentally clean way to produce hydrogen gas involves extracting it from water. Several different methods are used to accomplish this, but electrolysis is the best method. Electrolysis produces hydrogen gas from water by using electric current to separate out the hydrogen from oxygen. The by-products of such a process are hydrogen and oxygen gas. The electricity used to power the method can be derived from renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind generators. Geothermal or hydro power can also provide the initial energy source. Nuclear-generated power may also be used for the electrolysis method.

Thermochemical Water Splitting involves producing hydrogen gas from water through a chemical reaction between water and certain chemicals at a high degree of temperature. This is basically available at nuclear plants. The difference between High-temperature Electrolysis to produce hydrogen gas and that extracted by electricity is only that in the former, the water is brought to the required temperature by heat that is generated by nuclear power production whereas in the latter, the same is done by using electric current.

Producing hydrogen gas using natural gas as the raw material is achieved through a process called Steam Methane Reformation. This is a two-step method, which burns the natural gas to create steam, which results in a synthesis gas from which the hydrogen can be separated. This method, though not as environmentally friendly as electrolysis is currently used to produce roughly ninety-five percent of all hydrogen in the United States.

By employing Photo-Biological Production, hydrogen can be obtained from algae or bacteria recovered from wastewater. Under this method, when deprived of sulfur, algae produce hydrogen instead of oxygen. The greenest of all possible methods, this method’s feedstock is created from waste by-products and renewable wastes, and is heralded by environmentalists.

When compared to fossil fuel production, producing hydrogen gas clearly provides numerous benefits going forward. The apparent abundance of hydrogen gives it a real future whereas fossil fuels have a very limited time line. No matter the exact production method used, plentiful sources of hydrogen make it clearly the fuel of the future. And it seems only a matter of time that new appliances and applications start to be produced to take advantage of this new fuel.

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