Hydrogen storage gets real
As production costs fall and demand is poised to rocket, James Mitchell Crow finds the hydrogen economy is finally ready for take-off – as long as we can find ways to store it
Japan has an ambitious plan to transform its energy system. But to pull it off, it is going to need a lot of hydrogen.
Japan wants to quit fossil fuels and import clean hydrogen to meet its energy needs instead. In December 2017, its Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry published a roadmap laying out how it intends to gradually drive up demand, and so drive down costs, until clean hydrogen becomes cost-competitive with natural gas.
For the plan to succeed – and similar plans in hydrogen hotspots such as California – chemistry is going to be key.