Question

Can we think of hydrogen as a future fuel? Justify your answer.

Answer 1

Petroleum that is extracted from seas and ground as crude oil is a non-renewable source of energy. Over the years we humans have used up most of the crude oil for our purposes and now it is important to find sources that can produce alternatives for crude oil or sources that can be used as an alternative for fuels being used now. This necessity has now pushed us to look at other possible modes of transport like electric and solar vehicles. But can fuel be created from an abundantly available non-renewable source on earth that is easily accessible to people.

Complete Step by Step answer
Our earth is a planet in the solar system that supports life forms. It is covered with water, $\dfrac {3}{4}$ of the available volume on the planet and the rest of the $\dfrac {1}{4}$ part of the earth is covered with land. We can see that we have water in an adequate amount of land. We also know that our earth is itself a source of various minerals found in different forms buried under the surface of the earth. One of such mineral source’s we humans found, refined, used and exploited by overuse over the years is petroleum. Petroleum is primarily used as a fuel to run vehicles; however, it carries out various other purposes including the manufacture of paraffin wax.
If there is a way to make an alternative for fuel used now, that is non-renewable and abundantly available, what would it be? We know that most of the part of earth is covered with water as ocean, lakes, or rivers. Is it possible to use water as a fuel? It is not! But water can be electrolysed to given hydrogen, which is a potential source of fluid that is not used in many places in the form of fuel cells.
Other reasons to consider hydrogen as a future fuel although there are other existing alternatives:
The production is simple and a lot less polluting than that of petroleum.
It is a non-renewable source and can be found or manufactured for a long time.
Fuel cell vehicles that use hydrogen for running their fuel cells do not make noise while working.
These are the reasons to call hydrogen as a future fuel.

Note
Although it is a feasible option, the only drawback is that hydrogen has low ignition and high combustion energy and also has the tendency to leak easily thus making it a hazardous fuel.