Paragraph on Hydrogen Energy!
Hydrogen as a non-conventional energy resource has a tremendous potential as it can be produced from water which is available in abundance in nature.
It has very high energy content and its burning is non polluting.
However, there are some technical problems which need to be overcome before hydrogen is exploited as an important energy resource. These problems include production, storage, transportation, safety and economy.
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Hydrogen can be produced from fossil fuels but it is usually obtained from water by means of electrical energy which in turn may be generated from geothermal energy, wind energy, solar energy etc. Storage of hydrogen is possible but is very difficult as compared to other storage fuels like gasoline or oil.
Storage as a compressed gas or as a liquid are expensive as well as risky. Hydrogen is usually stored underground. Hydrogen transmission is carried out through pipelines and this is a very specialized job needing its conversion into compressed gas or liquid or solid metal form.
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Hydrogen can be used for generating electricity for operating domestic appliances in domestic cooking, as radiant space heaters, as a fuel in industrial processes, as a fuel in automobiles, in a jet aircraft (liquid hydrogen) etc.
In spite of the many applications of hydrogen energy there are many drawbacks, the chief being the fact that Hydrogen gas is highly inflammable and even a weak spark is sufficient to ignite it and an enormous capital investment is required for its production, transportation and storage.