Storage of Electricity in the Form of Energy Using Hydrogen

There are many sources of energy used today to generate power in the form of electricity. The ideal vision for the future is to find a way to store energy in its purest form for extended periods of time. Today, industry has chemical and electrolytic means to store electricity, but only for a short duration, and its transportation is mostly grid-based. Hydrogen (H<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf>), in the stable form of water (H<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf>O), is present in large quantities and is well-suited for the energy supply chain as an energy storage mechanism and secondary energy source. 1 kg of H<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> contains as much energy as 2.1 kg of natural gas or 2.8 kg of gasoline [1]. H<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> is produced by electrolysis, which can be modeled by: Electricity + Water = Hydrogen + O<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf>. The challenge is to make this process more efficient by using less expensive renewable electrical energy.