Hydrogen will meet future energy needs: experts

Jaipur, Nov 5 (UNI) Experts assert that hydrogen will be the answer to energy crisis and predict in the next ten years it will become the major eco-friendly energy source replacing fossil fuels' once the issue of its cost and transportation are resolved.

In pursuit of alternative energy sources, the scientific community around the world has identified hydrogen as the best alternative energy carrier, they said, at a five-day international workshop on the Technical Challenges in achieving a hydrogen-driven society, including cost effective hydrogen generation, storage, delivery, conversion and applications began here today. The Centre for Non-Conventional Energy Resources at the University of Rajasthan is organising the event.

The Centre's Director Dr IP Jain said while there are many viable schemes being explored for hydrogen generation, transport of hydrogen is still a major issue. Though hydrogen can be stored either in containers as compressed gas/liquid or in solid state in chemically or physically bonded form, the latter approach has been found to be more safe as reflected in the current research.

Experts say hydrogen is three times more energy effcient than fossil fuels but four times costlier. Scientists and engineers have been making breakthroughs that will eventually enable the use of stored hydrogen to achieve energy conservation without upsetting the ecology or the air quality.

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