Modelling Some of the Environmental Impacts of a Hydrogen Economy

Speaker: Prof John Pyle, University of Cambridge

Hydrogen is being actively explored as a carbon-free source of energy. While hydrogen is not a greenhouse gas, it can exert an influence on greenhouse gases. Leakage of hydrogen into the atmosphere could lead to a reduction in the concentration of OH, the major tropospheric oxidant, with impacts for both climate and air quality. A global atmospheric model is used to explore the sensitivity of these changes both to hydrogen leakage and to the extent to which other emissions might be reduced following a switch to hydrogen.