eli5: Why is Hydrogen termed as an energy “carrier” but Petroleum as an energy “source” ?

Question

Don’t we have to burn both to produce energy/electricity?

In: 0

Answer 1

There are no significant sources of elemental hydrogen that we can extract. In order to have hydrogen to “burn”, we have to produce it. One of the easiest ways to produce hydrogen is to send an electrical current through water, which splits it into hydrogen and oxygen. But, this process requires energy.

By contrast, petroleum already exists in the ground. We don’t have to spend any energy to produce it. We do spend some energy to extract and transport it, but it’s much smaller than the inherent energy in the fuel itself.