Fundamentals of Renewable Energy Processes, 3rd Edition

Chapter 10

Hydrogen Production

10.1 Generalities

In the end of 2011, if you looked up “Hydrogen use” in Google (English), you would find about 3,730,000 entries. Better than any other statistics, this attests to the enormous interest in this gas. For the production of ammonia alone, about 50 million tons of hydrogen were used in 2011. Nearly the same quantity of the gas was used that year in oil refineries where hydrogen was used for removal of sulfur from fuels such as diesel, and for improving low quality ‘heavy’ crude oil. These were the main hydrogen consumers, but if the hydrogen car ever becomes practical, the growth in consumption will increase substantially compared with the current growth rate of more than 10% per year.

Techniques for both ...