Hydrogen

Hydrogen, well-known as the first element of the periodic table, and the lightest, most plentiful of all elements is also a cornerstone and commodity of global industry. While the element exhibits various chemical characteristics and features in compounds, hydrogen in various industries refers to its common gaseous elemental form of H2. Hydrogen has been considered as an alternative transportation fuel due to its clean-burning nature, producing water when combusted with oxygen and facilitated through a fuel cell design.

Hydrogenation is an established food industry method to increase product shelf lives by converting unsaturated to saturated (hydrogenated) fats and oils. Hydrogen is a major feedstock for the refining of crude oil (petroleum), natural gas and other hydrocarbons in processes such as hydrocracking, hydrotreating, and hydroprocesing when hydrocarbons are “purified” of sulfur and nitrogen and to create different saturated hydrocarbon chains characteristic of olefins, paraffin, LPG, jet fuel and diesel. Hydrogen is also used in the production of semiconductors as an electron donor for amorphous and oxide materials. Hydrogen isotopes are rarer and find specialty applications in nuclear fission control and the nuclear weapons.

While solidly established in applications for various industrial processes, hydrogen’s promise as a bridge to the carbon-neutral, environmental harmonious hydrogen economy has not been established yet in various industry R&D laboratories. The overwhelming majority of hydrogen is produced globally from refining (steam reforming), with electrolysis, biological hydrogen production, and renewable methods such as solar thermal energy and electricity. Hydrogen is also disadvantaged by its low energy density.