Hydrogen |
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Hydrogen is considered to be an ideal energy carrier in the foreseeable future. It can be produced from water by using a variety of energy sources, such as solar, nuclear and fossils, and it can be converted into useful energy forms efficiently and without detrimental environmental effects. The only by-product is water or water vapor (if air is used for flame combustion of hydrogen, small amounts of NOx are produced). When solar energy - in its direct and/or indirect forms - is used to produce hydrogen from water, both the primary and secondary forms of energy become renewable and environmentally compatible, resulting with an ideal, clean and permanent energy system - the Solar Hydrogen Energy System. Hydrogen can be used in any application in which fossil fuels are being used today, with sole exception of cases in which carbon is specifically needed. Hydrogen can be used as a fuel in furnaces, internal combustion engines, turbines and jet engines, even more efficiently than fossil fuels, i.e., coal, petroleum and natural gas. Automobiles, buses, trains, ships, submarines, airplanes and rockets can run on hydrogen. Hydrogen can also be converted directly to electricity by the fuel cells, with a variety of applications in transportation and stationary power generation. Metal hydride technologies offer a variety of applications in refrigeration, air conditioning, hydrogen storage and purification. Combustion of hydrogen with oxygen results in pure steam, which has many applications in industrial processes and space heating. Moreover, hydrogen is an important industrial gas and raw material in numerous industries, such as computer, metallurgical, chemical, pharmaceutical, fertilizer and food industries.
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