Converting hydrogen back into energy
Hydrogen as an energy carrier is very versatile and can be converted to useful forms of energy, such as kinetic energy, heat, electricity, etc., in several ways, namely:
- Combustion in internal combustion engines and jet engines usually resulting in higher efficiency than in comparable engines running on fossil fuels;
- Combustion with pure oxygen to generate high quality steam on demand with very high efficiency;
- Catalytic combustion to generate heat without any emissions;
- Electrochemical conversion in fuel cells to generate electricity directly, with no moving parts with high efficiency, and in some cases with useful heat as by-product;
- Metal hydrides conversions for heat storage, electricity storage, heating/cooling, pumping/compression, purification, etc.
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