I’ve heard of hydrogen being used as an alternative energy source, and solar energy is another alternative, however has anyone considered using carbon? The main issue with climate change is carbon emission, so is it possible for carbon to be used as fuel?
In: Earth Science
Hydrogen is not an energy source because there is not a natural source of hydrogen gas on earth that were can use.
Hydrogen is manufactured either by breaking down water with electricity.
You can also produce natural gas where you use its energy and water to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
So hydrogen is a way to transport or just store energy that comes from somewhere else eight fossil fuels or electricity. It is fundamentally no different that our electrical grid is not an energy source but a way of transporting energy.
There might be applications where hydrogen is the best solution but for electrical cars, the problem is that the energy efficiency in the system is less than using batteries. Hydrogen has the advantage that you can refuel quickly instead of charging batteries and that might in some vehicle applications be worth the energy inefficiency.
Carbon is also used today a lot. Coal is solid carbon, oil is carbon and hydrogen. Plants are carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. So carbon as an energy source in combination with other elements has been using by humans as long as we have used fire.
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