Page 13 - Best of 2019 English

Water and wind are becoming increasingly important resources: after all, hydrogen produced by means of renewable energy can
enable sustainable industrial production. This also includes low-carbon steel production – making hydrogen a beacon of hope for the dawn of a sus- tainable future.
Hydrogen? The very word reminds us of what might have been the loudest moment of our schooldays – the detonating gas experiment in chemistry class. Remember what it was supposed to teach us? That hydrogen and oxygen are highly explosive when mixed in the right proportions – and the product of the explosion is water!
As a student, this would be enough to set your thoughts in motion: what if you were to fill a tank with hydrogen, mix it with oxygen, fire up a com- bustion engine or furnace – and you would have water dripping out of the exhaust pipe or chimney?
Things are not quite that straightforward, however: hydrogen might be the most common element in the universe and available every- where – after all, it is to be found in most organic compounds, especially water. But you can’t pluck it from trees or dig it out of the ground, because hydrogen virtually never occurs in pure form: it has to be extracted from chemical compounds.
Hydrogen molecules consist of two atoms, which is why its symbol is “H2” (hydrogenium, Greek for “water creator”). The molecules are extremely light and small, and they can penetrate a wide range of materials – even steel in extreme cases. This is why even the Earth’s atmosphere cannot hold the gas:
it escapes constantly into space. In fact, geologists believe that since the Earth came into existence,
it has lost a quarter of its seawater for this reason. Bacteria and solar radiation permanently split wa- ter into its constituent parts – oxygen and hydro- gen – thereby releasing the colorless and odorless gas.
How hydrogen is harnessed
There are various processes by which hydro-
gen can be rendered usable. The most common methods are electrolysis, for one, which uses electricity to split water into oxygen and hydrogen, and secondly, reforming, which relies on heat to release the element from hydrocarbon compounds. Nowadays, the latter process is mostly applied to natural gas, but hydrogen can also be obtained from gasoline, methanol, biogas and biomass. Other methods are currently undergoing testing
or research, but they are not yet ready for practi- cal application. Some universities are working on solar cells that use the sun’s rays to split water, for example – applying technical means to imitate the natural processes at work in the atmosphere, so to speak.
Clearly, getting hold of hydrogen requires highly sophisticated technologies. The element is seen
as a beacon of hope for the energy sector of the
93%
of all atoms in the solar system and 75 % of the total mass is accounted for by hydrogen
This makes hydrogen the most commonly occurring chemical element in the entire universe
1766
Hydrogen was discovered as a combustible gas
1784
The year in which it was given its name
This is the amount of hydrogen that escapes from the Earth's atmosphere into space every second, equivalent to a volume of more than 42 liters
0.03 %
is the share of hydrogen in the Earth's mass
HYDROGEN 13
3 kg
H2