Guest Commentary: David Strahan is a trustee of ODAC, and the author of The Last Oil Shock: A Survival Guide to the Imminent Extinction of Petroleum Man

The debate about hydrogen normally focuses on short term obstacles such as the cost of fuel cells or the lack of a fuel distribution infrastructure. But the real issue is how to produce enough of the fuel itself.

Most hydrogen today is stripped out of natural gas, a process which emits carbon dioxide – rather defeating the climate claims of the proponents of the so-called hydrogen economy. To produce the gas cleanly and in bulk you must electrolyze water, which requires huge amounts of power. (To give an idea of scale, two chlorine plants operated in Cheshire by Ineos Chlor, which produce the chemical by electrolyzing salt water, consume more electricity than the entire city of Liverpool).

Then, to reduce the hydrogen gas to a manageable volume, it must either be chilled to -160C to become liquid, or must be compressed, both of which processes require more energy.
Because of all this, to run Britain’s road transport on cleanly generated hydrogen would require a massive expansion of electricity generating capacity: 42 Sizewell B nuclear power stations (we currently have the equivalent of 10); solar panels covering every inch of Lincolnshire; or a wind farm covering the either northwest region of England. You would be much better off developing electric vehicles, where the energy losses between wind turbine and tarmac are massively smaller. It is mystifying therefore that so many apparently intelligent people remain transfixed by the hydrogen mirage.

David Strahan is a trustee of ODAC, and the author of The Last Oil Shock: A Survival Guide to the Imminent Extinction of Petroleum Man, John Murray, 2007 - now also available in mass market paperback