what are the challenges of producing hydrogen in large amouts?
2007-01-01 07:48:09 · 4 answers · asked by Hollister7 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
It takes a lot of energy to liberate hydrogen from water molecules.
The released oxygen creates a hazardously flammable environment.
Storing hydrogen gas requires very low temperatures or very high pressure.
Hydrogen is so small it leaks through just about anything.
2007-01-01 07:55:14 · answer #1 · answered by speakeasy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hydrogen has but one electron, which makes it strongly desire to form bonds (I believe covalent ones) with other atoms.
Since hydrogen is so friendly with everybody, the difficulty is in filtering out every other atom to which hydrogen has attached itself. Separating them could be a pain, because then the hydrogen must be kept only with other hydrogen... and if hydrogen meets oxygen, water begins to form. That can be a pain, too. Do you wanna get hydrogen, or have air to breathe? Decisions, decisions.
So we have to build an airtight compartment for the purified hydrogen, and a chemical process to separate it from each and every other atom with which it might have combined.
2007-01-01 07:55:42 · answer #2 · answered by wood_vulture 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Matter cannot be created or destroyed... it only changes forms.
So, more accurately, you extract & refine it.
One big challenge is that hydrogen is highly volatile -it doesn't like to stay as just hydrogen. It likes to turn into other things, by exploding.
2007-01-01 07:57:57 · answer #3 · answered by Petey 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Electrically or biologically, it's very expensive.
Chemically, it produces a lot of excess greenhouse gases.
2007-01-01 07:55:28 · answer #4 · answered by TimmyD 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋