Our Future 'Hydrogen Economy'?

The hydrogen economy is a proposed method of deriving the energy needed for motive power (cars, boats, airplanes), buildings or portable electronics, by reacting hydrogen (H₂) with oxygen, the hydrogen having been generated by a number of possible methods, including the electrolysis of water. If the energy used to split the water were obtained from renewable or Nuclear power sources, and not from burning carbon-based fossil fuels, a hydrogen economy would greatly reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and therefore play a major role in tackling global warming. Countries without oil, but with renewable energy resources, could use a combination of renewable energy and hydrogen instead of fuels derived from petroleum, which are becoming scarcer, to achieve energy independence.

Hydrogen has been feared in the popular press as a relatively more dangerous fuel, and hydrogen in fact has the widest explosive/ignition mix range with air of all the gases except acetylene. However, in actual use, the buoyancy of hydrogen helps it escape from a leak so rapidly that the dangerous situation is often mitigated before any danger can occur.. Some differences with common fuels include the fact that pure hydrogen-oxygen flames burn in the ultraviolet color range and are nearly invisible to the naked eye, thus it requires a flame detector to detect if a hydrogen leak is burning. While many characterisitcs help make hydrogen a safe fuel to handle, it is flammable and the proper following of safety guidelines is essential to ameliorate any risks just like it is for any fuel.

Hydrogen our future?

Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_economy