Hydrogen is a longstanding green combustable fuel candidate, but has yet to overcome roadblocks such as efficiency and especially safety issues. A major problem is storage. Since hydrogen is a small molecule, it tends to diffuse through the liner material of its container. To make stronger, more lightweight materials, researchers have been looking for solutions in nanotechnology.
A research team at the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory claim that they have found just this type of material. Without getting too technical, they came up with a pliable nanocomposite of a polymer related to Plexiglas.
A safe hydrogen economy could really help reduce the volume carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere and with a byproduct as clean as water – because it is water. But I predict a long road ahead since the material first need to go through various rounds of testing and then probably a bunch of red tape. Then it has to become commercialized and come down in price. Then get investors. Then amass public funding for infrastructural changes – and this is only for one jurisdiction. Imagine what it would take to make the whole world comply. And I haven’t even mentioned potential resistance from the petroleum lobby.
But you have to hold on to hope. My home country, Norway has already opened a 560 kilometer (350 mile) “hydrogen highway”, which should give them more incentives to turn their “oil-based” economy into a more broad “energy-based” economy. I really think the Millennials and generations coming after them will have a whole new outlook on these types of challenges. I’m going out on a limb here because I don’t have supporting data, but I think that compared to older generations they are more hip to the idea that the environmental costs have to be figured into cost analyses.
Image: Green optimist