New study estimates global warming potential of hydrogen – 12 times CO2

Earth’s atmosphere [image credit: BBC]

That’s if we believe results from the climate models, anyway. Add this to the growing list of real and imagined hydrogen problems.
– – –
The global warming effect of leaked hydrogen is almost 12 times stronger than CO2, shows a new study by CICERO, a climate research center, published in Communications Earth & Environment.

The study fills a gap in our knowledge about the climate effects of hydrogen, a central technology in the energy transition, says Phys.org.

Unlike exhaust from burning coal and gas that contains CO2, burning hydrogen emits only water vapor and oxygen. Rather, it is the leaking of hydrogen from production, transportation and usage that adds to global warming. [Talkshop comment – so the theory goes].

Hydrogen is not a greenhouse gas, but its chemical reactions in the atmosphere affect greenhouse gases like methane, ozone, and stratospheric water vapor. In this way, emissions of hydrogen can cause global warming, despite its lack of direct radiative properties.

The study was led by Dr. Maria Sand, a senior scientist at CICERO, and her colleagues with collaborators from the U.K., France and the U.S.

“The climate effects of hydrogen have been an under-researched topic. However, a few papers based on single model studies confirm our estimated global warming potential (GWP100) of 11.6,” said Sand.

“We used five different atmospheric chemistry models and investigated changes in atmospheric methane, ozone and stratospheric water vapor,” said Sand.

“Hydrogen interacts with various biogeochemical processes. In our estimates, we have included soil uptake, photochemical production of hydrogen, the lifetimes of hydrogen and methane, and the interactions between hydrogen and methane,” said Sand.

Full article here.