Nowadays global warming, CO2 emission, climate change, and environment-related topics
are becoming a major part of social and academic debate. And all these topics are seemed to be converging on fossil fuels. With the number of disadvantages of fossil fuels, green energy
is taking both political and business momentum. The most important part of fossil fuel, the
emission of CO2, and the consequence of it as global warming are noticeable and the shifting
point to the green energy. Another important factor of fossil fuel is they are unsustainable and
their uneven geological distribution causing global market conflict increasing difficulty in the
countries development. To minimize the greenhouse effect from various CFCs and to develop
long-lasting energy sources renewable energies are at the top pace of development. But the
high production cost, less efficiency, and storage are problems obstructing their familiarity.
In this scenario, Hydrogen (H2) is emerging as a new energy vector overcoming the limitations
of renewable energies. Ensuring a low-carbon, clean hydrogen supply is essential and could be
an impacting field of the economy for the developing countries like Nepal. Hydrogen energy
produced from the natural gases and its use on the sector of fuel cell technology is one of the
most efficient technologies but the green hydrogen still needs adjustment of the issues and
design variables in production, storage, transportations sectors, and end-use system for the
efficient frontier.
Compared to fossil fuels, hydrogen fuel offers enormous advantages. It has the highest
energy density of 35.7 kWh/kg and can be produced pollutant-free from any RE source.
The development of green hydrogen energy towards uplifting the environmental conditions
reducing pollutants is promising. The ways that hydrogen offers to decarbonize a range of
sectors and its versatility in terms of both supply and use are very impressive. Moreover,
hydrogen is one of the options for storing energy from renewables and it is poised to become
a low-cost for storing large quantities of energy over a range of time. At the same time,
design development, storage systems, production processes, and efficiency and energy loss
are some of the challenges that clean hydrogen energy must tackle for the green economy
and sustainable clean energy.
Currently, hydrogen is being produced from natural gas and coal, and production practices
from the REs are on the way such as solar hydrogen energy systems. Only 2 % of 600 billion
cubic meters of hydrogen is produced from water electrolysis and in this situation hydrogen
production from the surplus water using hydropower is also taking steps and countries like
Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway, Ecuador are taking lead for the production of Hydrogen
and its research.
In the context of Nepal, it is blessed with high hydropower potential. Theoretically, 83280
MW of hydroelectricity can be generated however only 44000 MW of energy is feasible for
economic and technological potential. Out of that, to date, Nepal has only generated 847
MW of energy whereas the demand is more than 1000 MW. At the same time, grand national
hydropower projects are under construction. With the completion of ongoing projects and
some perspective power plants within 2030, Nepal will be generating about 4000 MW of
hydroelectricity. That amount of energy is only 9.25 % of the whole hydropower potential
of Nepal so developing further hydropower, Nepal will have surplus energy to export and
can be utilized for other applications such as the production of fertilizers and other chemical forms. This surplus energy can also be used for the production of hydrogen gas through
electrolysis, which has tremendous benefits both in economic and environmental sectors.
Practices and researches are on the pipeline in this sector also. For example, the 200-kW
facility of hydropower plant of IBAarau at Switzerland established in 1895 produces around
20000 kg H2 sufficient to power 170 fuel cell cars annually. Countries with high hydrogen
potential also have great hydrogen potential, so converging to Nepal, it can take benefit from
its high hydropower potential to hydrogen potential making steps towards the global energy
market.
Toyota has emerged in this field by commercially launching Toyota Mirai in 2017 and BMW has
launched the Hydrogen 7. Similarly, Honda, Nissan, Daihatsu are working in this field. As the
current world is competing towards fuel cell four-wheelers and buses, China has developed
the hydrogen-powered tramcar. With the help of Chinese research institutes, Sifang Co.
developed train with a refiling time of three minutes with the top speed of 70 km/per hour up
to 100 km solving key technological problems within two years. Efficient ways of producing
hydrogen are also on the way of development, recently, scientists have developed a way
in which hydrogen is produced 25 times more than by traditional techniques. It involves
producing hydrogen from the solution of water and methanol and alpha iron oxide with a
light source from a mercury-xenon lamp. Likewise, researches are on the way of developing
cheap and abundant electrodes replacing Iridium electrode solving the problem of electrode
instability at high temperature. Currently, the efficiency of hydrogen production with PEM
electrolysis is also sound with 80 % efficiency whereas steam reforming is 65 % efficient.
Nevertheless, going with the another side of hydrogen fuel, it has some concerns about
storage and safety points. The danger of electrical shock and the flammability of the fuel are
the prime two dangers associated with hydrogen fuel. Molecules of hydrogen are very smaller
than those of steel and other materials, so they even enter the molecular level making them
brittle and liquid hydrogen tanks always emit small quantities of hydrogen if it is not oxidized
or burned off in a controlled manner. State of art, compressed, and liquified storage systems
have leakage and energy loss problems whereas flammability has become a major issue on all
compressed, liquified, and chemical storage systems. Regeneration issue is associated with
chemical storage. Heavyweight and temperature control have become a problem with metal
hydrides storage systems. Storage systems for hydrogen need improvement and the search
for new material to store the desired amount of hydrogen has room for scientific research.
Improving these areas alongside safety issues will be a win for hydrogen energy and the green
economy.