Renewable energy

The use of hydrogen as an energy carrier is certainly a viable solution to overcome pollution in urban areas, but we must not forget that in order to produce hydrogen it is necessary to use electricity or fossil fuels, inevitably producing carbon dioxide.

When using non-renewable sources, such as oil or coal, the production of CO₂ is always present and must add up to the existing carbon dioxide. The case of biomass is of particular importance because it is not going to alter the concentration of CO₂ already in the atmosphere. The burning, however, releases nitrogen and sulfur oxides and, depending on the type of biomass, also fine dust.

One way to produce hydrogen without any carbon dioxide emissions is to use renewable sources that enable the production of electricity and, electrolytically from this, hydrogen. The term "zero emissions" indicates precisely that producing energy the reaction is not accompanied by polluting (NO_x) or climate-altering (CO₂) emissions. Renewable sources such as solar, wind and hydro power (shown in the figure) are those that allow nowadays the production of useful quantities of hydrogen through really zero-emission processes. Today we are working hard just to make this production economically viable on a large scale.