The author is Philippa Nuttall.
An artist's depiction of a heating unit.
Petrmalinak/Shutterstock
A review of international studies has found that hydrogen is not likely to play a major role in decarbonising homes.
The UK hopes to use hydrogen as a simple substitute for gas boilers. The UK's newly appointed energy minister told the House of Commons that hydrogen is the silver bullet. It is created from renewable sources and can be used to heat peoples houses during the winter.
The Regulatory Assistance Project reviewed 32 studies from the UK, European Union, California and So Paulo in Brazil. They show that hydrogen is less economic, less efficient, more resource intensive and associated with bigger environmental impacts.
Rosenow says cost and energy efficiency are the biggest problems. Almost all of the hydrogen is produced using fossil fuels. Policymakers agree that green hydrogen, made via electrolysis with renewable electricity, is the better solution for reducing emissions from this production.
If you are going to use renewable electricity to heat your home, you should also use a heat pump. It takes more electricity to heat a home with hydrogen than it does with an efficient heat pump. A recent study shows that hydrogen-dominated heating would be more expensive for UK consumers than district heating and heat pumps.
Rosenow writes that there are significant uncertainties over the viability of converting countries' existing gas networks to hydrogen and that hydrogen infrastructure is more extensive than needed for heat pumps.
David Cebon at the University of Cambridge says that it is hard to think of circumstances in the decarbonised future when it would make sense to use hydrogen for heating. Cebon says that even in cold weather, air source heat pumps still deliver heat with lower carbon emissions than hydrogen boilers.
Cebon says that the US and Australia have huge renewable electricity potential, which they should use in the most efficient way possible, via heat pumps. He says that if they have excess electricity it will be more profitable to sell it directly.
Rosenow estimates that hydrogen could provide 1-2% of domestic heating demand. Green hydrogen power plants will need to decarbonise other sectors, such as heavy industry processes, and for the seasonal storage of electricity.
The UK should continue existing trials to better understand the technical challenges of heating with hydrogen. Don't think you'll get a silver bullet.
The journal was titled "Joule."
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