The impact of hydrogen emissions on global climate change is overlooked and underestimated
The impact of hydrogen emissions on climate change is greater than it was previously thought, according to the US EDF. The new information may have an influence on the development of hydrogen energy, which is also expected by the European Union.
The American institution EDF warns of the “underestimated” effects of hydrogen emissions on global warming. The most recent results were reported by the S&P Global server.
According to EDF, hydrogen molecules impact the climate in a negative way, almost as much as methane, one of the most dangerous greenhouse gases (GHGs).
Until present, there wasn’t much information about hydrogen’s interaction with the atmosphere. As climate scientists have become increasingly concerned about that, it has been found that the potential warming effects of hydrogen emissions are once again much higher than expected. EDF states that this information may be an obstacle for the hydrogen industry.
Recent information on hydrogen interaction
Unlike other greenhouse gases, such as methane or CO2, hydrogen has no warming effect on the atmosphere. While leaking into the environment, it is absorbed by bacteria and microbes in the soil at about 70 to 80 percent. The rest of hydrogen escapes into the atmosphere and then reacts with the hydroxyl radical, a highly reactive molecule.
Hydrogen reacts with the OH, leaving a smaller amount of OH in the atmosphere. Then it has a smaller potential of absorbing the escaped methane. Methane has about 80 times greater greenhouse effect in the atmosphere than CO2, the most common greenhouse gas of the last 20 years.
The more hydrogen in the atmosphere, the longer the viability of methane. And that accounts for about half of the total hydrogen’s warming effect.
Hydrogen emissions react in the troposphere, the lowest region of the atmosphere, where they create ground-level ozone, also considered a greenhouse gas. IUn addition, hydrogen molecules create another greenhouse gas in the form of water vapour in the stratosphere.