How to get hydrogen?

Hydrogen in a pure form (and only as such an energy carrier) does not occur in nature but exists only in bond structures.

Hydrogen thus cannot be exploited like crude oil or coal - It has to be generated from other chemical compounds. This is why pros call it a 'secondary energy carrier'.

Of course the best example for a hydrogen-compound is water. Two hydrogen-atoms and one oxygen-atom form water. However, there exist many more substances which contain hydrogen.

Most organic compounds are a combination of carbon and hydrogen. An example for this is natural gas (methane) which consists of one carbon-atom and four hydrogen-atoms (see artists sketch to the right).

Plants consist of organic compounds which are made up of carbon and hydrogen molekules. Biomass in general, consists on the biggest part of carbon and hydrogen: e.g. refuse containing biomass, refuse from plants, refuse wood from forests or dedicated energy plants, such as rape or particular grasses.

Independent from the base material hydrogen is always generated by a process. For this, energy is needed.

It is an advantage of the use of hydrogen that the energy for its generation has not necessarily to be taken from fossil sources: wind power, solar energy and water power are perfect primary energy sources as well.

The production of hydrogen is not really new. Today, world-wide 500 billion cubic metres of hydrogen are annually produced, stored, transported and used. This is mostly taking place in the (petro)chemical industry.

Three basics means of hydrogen production are described in more details: chemical, electrolysis and biological (see left navigation bar to proceed).

Gaseous hydrogen molecules H2

Water: two H , one O (H2O)

Natural gas: one C, four H (CH4 - Methane)

A typical organic combination.
Biomass consists dominantly of variations of this
organic chains (here: glucose).