worldd-nuclear.org

(Updated November 2021)

• Hydrogen is increasingly seen as a key component of future energy systems if it can be made without carbon dioxide emissions. 
• It is starting to be used as a transport fuel, despite the need for high-pressure containment.   
• The use of hydrogen in the production of liquid transport fuels from crude oil is increasing rapidly, and is vital where tar sands are the oil source. 
• Hydrogen can be combined with carbon dioxide to make methanol or dimethyl ether (DME) which are important transport fuels. 
• Hydrogen also has future application as industrial-scale replacement for coke in steelmaking and other metallurgical processes. 
• Nuclear energy can be used to make hydrogen electrolytically, and in the future high-temperature reactors are likely to be used to make it thermochemically. 
• The energy demand for hydrogen production could exceed that for electricity production today. 

Hydrogen is not found in free form (H₂) but must be liberated from molecules such as water or methane. It is therefore not an energy source and must be made, using energy. It is already a significant chemical product, about half of annual pure hydrogen production being used in making nitrogen fertilisers via the Haber process and about one-quarter to convert low-grade crude oils (especially those from tar sands) into liquid transport fuels. There is a lot of experience handling hydrogen on a large scale, though it is not as straightforward as natural gas.  

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