Global Push for Hydrogen Sidesteps Knowledge Gaps on Climate Impacts | The Energy Mix:
How Hydrogen Can Warm the Atmosphere
But economic losses are
by no means the only concern with hydrogen leakage. While hydrogen
molecules themselves do not trap heat, they exert an indirect warming
effect when they’re released into the atmosphere, primarily because they
tend to react with atmospheric hydroxyl, a substance that also reacts
with methane. As more hydrogen leaks into the atmosphere, less hydroxyl
will be available to neutralize the devastating short-term effects of
methane, a greenhouse gas that is about 85 times more powerful a warming
agent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year span.
Hydrogen is also
part of the chemical chain reaction that leads to the formation of
ground-level ozone, another potent climate pollutant.
And any leaked hydrogen that makes it into the stratosphere produces water vapour, itself a significant heat trapping agent.
All of which adds up to hydrogen having very considerable potential to warm the atmosphere. A UK government report in April found
that over a 100-year time period, a tonne of hydrogen in the atmosphere
will warm the Earth roughly 11 times more than a tonne of CO2 (with a
fairly wide margin for error), making its impact about twice as bad as
previously understood.
Over a 20-year span, Bloomberg writes, hydrogen has 33 times the global warming potential of an equivalent amount of CO2.
There’s
one more wrinkle to the still unfolding saga of how leaked hydrogen
might make the climate crisis worse. The latest soil science indicates
that some 80% of leaked hydrogen is absorbed by hydrogen-eating bacteria
in soils, but the authors of the UK report warn that “a lack of
detailed understanding of the [hydrogen soil] sink is a major source of
uncertainty in calculations of hydrogen change and its impact on
climate.”
Global Push for Hydrogen Sidesteps Knowledge Gaps on Climate Impacts | The Energy Mix: How Hydrogen Can Warm the AtmosphereBut economic losses are
by no means the only concern with hydrogen leakage. While hydrogen
molecules themselves do not trap heat, they exert an indirect warming
effect when they’re released into the atmosphere, primarily because they
tend to react with atmospheric hydroxyl, a substance that also reacts
with methane. As more hydrogen leaks into the atmosphere, less hydroxyl
will be available to neutralize the devastating short-term effects of
methane, a greenhouse gas that is about 85 times more powerful a warming
agent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year span.Hydrogen is also
part of the chemical chain reaction that leads to the formation of
ground-level ozone, another potent climate pollutant.And any leaked hydrogen that makes it into the stratosphere produces water vapour, itself a significant heat trapping agent.All of which adds up to hydrogen having very considerable potential to warm the atmosphere. A UK government report in April found
that over a 100-year time period, a tonne of hydrogen in the atmosphere
will warm the Earth roughly 11 times more than a tonne of CO2 (with a
fairly wide margin for error), making its impact about twice as bad as
previously understood.Over a 20-year span, Bloomberg writes, hydrogen has 33 times the global warming potential of an equivalent amount of CO2.There’s
one more wrinkle to the still unfolding saga of how leaked hydrogen
might make the climate crisis worse. The latest soil science indicates
that some 80% of leaked hydrogen is absorbed by hydrogen-eating bacteria
in soils, but the authors of the UK report warn that “a lack of
detailed understanding of the [hydrogen soil] sink is a major source of
uncertainty in calculations of hydrogen change and its impact on
climate.”Read More