Hydrogen Availability

Rafael -   Currently, the main uses of hydrogen are within the chemical industry.

Meera -   Rafael Orozco.

Rafael -   For ammonia, or hydrogenation processes in the oil industry or as a fuel in rockets.  Its current amount is about 50 million tons per year.  If we use hydrogen as a fuel for transportation, this amount will increase significantly.  So, we need to find methods, environmentally friendly methods to produce hydrogen to cover that potential demand because actually, hydrogen is mainly produced from fossil fuels from methane, the steam reforming of methane and eventually, methane is also a fossil fuel that is depleting and we need other sources for hydrogen production.

Meera -   This is where the work of the biosciences and chemical engineering departments at the University of Birmingham comes in.  Researcher Mark Redwood is working on obtaining hydrogen gas from a natural and widely available source: biomass, obtained from organic waste.