Oops: Climate Rescuer Hydrogen 12 Times Worse For The Climate, Researchers Find

Warming effect of leaked hydrogen is almost 12 times stronger than CO2

Hat-tip: Klimaschau

We’ve been told that hydrogen is now the savior of the energy transition. At some point, the green energy planners realized that the power grid cannot serve as a storage system. So a storage material without carbon had to be found: hydrogen, H2.

Source here.

However, that might not work out either, as a team of researchers from the Center for International Climate Research in Oslo (CICERO) published an article in the Nature Communications Earth & Environment” in June 2023. The title: “A multi-model assessment of the global warming potential of hydrogen.”

Here’s the press release (emphasis added:

The global warming effect of leaked hydrogen is almost 12 times stronger than CO2, shows a new study by CICERO, a climate research center, published in Communications Earth & Environment.

The study fills a gap in our knowledge about the climate effects of hydrogen, a central technology in the energy transition.

Unlike exhaust from burning coal and gas that contains CO2, burning hydrogen emits only water vapor and oxygen. Rather, it is the leaking of hydrogen from production, transportation and usage that adds to .

Hydrogen is not a , but its  in the atmosphere affect greenhouse gases like methane, ozone, and stratospheric water vapor. In this way, emissions of hydrogen can cause global warming, despite its lack of direct radiative properties.

The study was led by Dr. Maria Sand, a senior scientist at CICERO, and her colleagues with collaborators from the U.K., France and the U.S.

‘The climate effects of hydrogen have been an under-researched topic. However, a few papers based on single model studies confirm our estimated global warming potential (GWP100) of 11.6,’ said Sand.

‘We used five different atmospheric chemistry models and investigated changes in atmospheric methane, ozone and stratospheric water vapor,’ said Sand.

‘Hydrogen interacts with various biogeochemical processes. In our , we have included soil uptake, photochemical production of hydrogen, the lifetimes of hydrogen and methane, and the interactions between hydrogen and methane,’ said Sand.

The study is the most comprehensive assessment of the climate effect of hydrogen to date, thanks to the advanced and novel use of existing .

‘We have assessed the uncertainties, and our study forms a robust foundation for political decision-making on hydrogen,’ said Sand.

‘A global warming potential of 11.6 is significant, and our study clearly shows the importance of reducing hydrogen leaks. We lack the technology to monitor and detect hydrogen leaks at the scale needed, but new technology is being developed as the industry adapts,’ said Sand.

The potential benefit of switching to a hydrogen economy will depend on the magnitude of hydrogen leakages and to what extent  replaces fossil fuels.

‘There are still many open questions, and our group will continue to expand our knowledge to ensure timely and accurate decision-making on a key mitigation technology,’ said Sand.”





14 responses to “Oops: Climate Rescuer Hydrogen 12 Times Worse For The Climate, Researchers Find”

  1. oebele bruinsma

    “The potential benefit of switching to a hydrogen economy will depend on the magnitude of hydrogen leakages and to what extent hydrogen replaces fossil fuels.” As leaking will occur with current technologies the chance of replacement in a significant way is very likely zero.

  2. pochas94

    The half life of CO2 in the atmosphere is 120 years.
    The half life of H2 in the atmosphere is 1 year

    1. GregorioEnriqueSandoval

      But CO2 feeds plants and generate oxygen. H2 won’t feed anything but H2 producers, will oxidize with O2, increasing water vapor, the principal “greenhouse gas” both in effect and quantity.

    2. Ralph Gardner

      I read that the half-life of CO2 in the atmosphere is around 4 years in different articles.

  3. cementafriend

    The so-called hydrogen economy will never happen because of costs and that there is no need to use hydrogen for combustion purposes.
    However, the article above mentions models which are always wrong if the variables in formulae are wrong.
    In all measurements of the atmosphere I have seen there is no hydrogen. It is very likely that all hydrogen from any leakage will be lost to space because the gravity is not sufficient to hold it. Even the sun loses hydrogen.
    @pochas do not know where got the half life for hydrogen. If the hydrogen is lost to space that is not a half life.
    There have been thousand of measurements of the cyclical time CO2 stays in the atmosphere. The average residence time has been measured as a maximum of 5 years. Your 120 years is not a measurement but likely a modelled figure based on wrong assumptions. The article http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/2010/03/co2-lifetime-which-do-you-believe.html looked at measurements.

  4. Climate Rescuer Hydrogen 12 Times Worse for The Climate, Researchers Find – Climate- Science.press

    […] From No Trick Zone […]

  5. pochas94

    Thanks, Cementafriend, for your comment. Arguments against hydrogen (leaky, flammable, expensive, Hindenburg, etc.) are valid but will fail when fossil fuels are for any reason no longer abundant. Proper pressure vessel design can easily contain hydrogen without a leakage problem, so that your home will be just as safe as it was with piped in methane. And I warrant there will be fewer hydrogen fires then than there are gasoline fires now. Hydrogen disburses rapidly when leaked. Gasoline doesn’t. But yes, we’ll need new expensive infrastructure, but we’ll be able to afford it. That said, mandates from ignorant politicians will only cause chaos. When fossil fuels become prohibitive, we’ve got options, and hydrogen is one of them.

  6. David Hamilton Russell

    This study is silly. But then the CO2 GHE is silly as well. A 400ppm concentration of CO2 in the air (1/2500th) produces at most 0.003W/m2 of back radiation due to thermalization of CO2-aborbed IR due to 13,300,000 collisions in the 1 millisecond time it takes to re-emit. Only 1/2500th of IR absorbed by CO2 is available to re-emit after thermalizaton.

  7. John F. Hultquist

    12 X a tiny amount is still a tiny amount. Regardless, I don’t want to live in or near a place of confined Hydrogen.
    I attended a presentation by a local fire & rescue person on smoke alarms and fire extinguishers on Friday. Putting out a Hydrogen fire was not part of the meeting!

  8. drumphish

    95 percent of the Universe is composed of hydrogen. Hydrogen forms solar vortices, very hot heat sources, something called stars, one called the sun, those stellar vortices fuel places like the earth.

    Not a bad existence here on this earth.

    Still is an existential threat for those who are currently extant.

    California Burning
    On such a winter’s day

    Hey, blame it on the Mommas and the Pappas!

  9. tita

    Beautiful article, .

    GTU

  10. tita

    Beautiful article, .

    GTU

  11. Senex

    More to the point, what would be the effect of the increase in water vapour in the atmosphere from burning large quantities of hydrogen? Ignoring any global effect, imagine the increased humidity in large urban areas. And aren’t the AGW “experts” always going on about how the one of the big risks from CO2 is the supposed positive feedback effect from increased water vapour, which is claimed to be a much more powerful “greenhouse gas”?

  12. pochas94

    The water cycle (you know, evaporation, condensation, rainfall) is how water behaves in the atmosphere. Any hydrogen released either by combustion or leakage will simply join the vastness of the water cycle with negligible effect on anything.

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