Open AWE Magazine menu
Subscribe Login

Home / Articles and Press Releases / Press Release / Are You Ready for the Hydrogen Economy?

CATEGORIES

  • Latest Issue
  • Air Quality
  • Chromatography
  • Construction
  • Climate Change
  • Emissions
  • Environmental & Monitoring Technology
  • Gas Detection
  • Health and Safety Awareness
  • Humidity & Temperature
  • Laboratory Testing
  • Land Remediation
  • Marine Pollution
  • Noise Monitoring
  • Regulations & Legislations
  • Sludge and Biosolids
  • Soil Analysis
  • Spectroscopy
  • Weather Monitoring
  • Water Analysis
  • Water Monitoring

MORE

  • Press Releases
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Magazines

COMPANY

  • About
  • Advertising
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
HSI White logo
Open AWE Magazine menu
Subscribe

Home / Articles and Press Releases / Press Release / Are You Ready for the Hydrogen Economy?

CATEGORIES

  • Latest Issue
  • Air Quality
  • Chromatography
  • Construction
  • Climate Change
  • Emissions
  • Environmental & Monitoring Technology
  • Gas Detection
  • Health and Safety Awareness
  • Humidity & Temperature
  • Laboratory Testing
  • Land Remediation
  • Marine Pollution
  • Noise Monitoring
  • Regulations & Legislations
  • Sludge and Biosolids
  • Soil Analysis
  • Spectroscopy
  • Weather Monitoring
  • Water Analysis
  • Water Monitoring

MORE

  • Press Releases
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Magazines

COMPANY

  • About
  • Advertising
  • Newsletter
  • Contact

CATEGORIES

  • Heat and Flame
  • Press Release|Gas Detection
  • Article
  • Press Release
  • Air Quality
  • Chromatography
  • Construction
  • Climate Change
  • Emissions
  • Environmental & Monitoring Technology
  • Gas Detection
  • Health and Safety Awareness
  • Humidity & Temperature
  • Laboratory Testing
  • Land Remediation
  • Marine Pollution
  • Noise Monitoring
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  • Regulations & Legislations
  • Sludge and Biosolids
  • Soil Analysis
  • Spectroscopy
  • Weather Monitoring
  • Water Analysis
  • Water Monitoring
  • Wellbeing at work

Press Release

Are You Ready for the Hydrogen Economy?

By NevadaNano

| Read Bio

Published: January 19th, 2021

Share this article

The Hydrogen Economy: Origin Story

I have been in various industrial sensing roles with companies such as Honeywell, Tyco, Teledyne e2v, and Rolls Royce for the past 24 years.  I have witnessed continuous improvements in fixed and portable safety instruments, but the focus had been on methane gas detection and various hydrocarbons.

With the passing of the climate action plan, many world governments have set clear, explicit targets. For example, in the European Union, by 2050, the entire transportation sector will produce zero CO2 emissions, and a 40 percent reduction compared to the baseline year of 1990, could be achieved by as early as 2030.

A hydrogen economy is one way to approach this social project. Still, it will require cooperation among all of society’s members – citizens, citizen advocacy groups, associations, businesses, politicians, and researchers – to succeed.    

How are we going to achieve this?        

The solution to finding a cleaner alternative to natural gas, or methane, is quite literally all around us. Hydrogen is the most abundant element, making up 90 percent of all atoms. But while it’s present in nearly all molecules in living things, as a gas, it’s very scarce – less than one part per million by volume. The most significant quantities of hydrogen exist in familiar substances like methane or ‘natural’ gas.

For many years, we have used methane to heat our homes and for power stations to generate electricity; currently, 85% of households and 40% of the UK’s electricity relies on gas. We have continued to use methane because it is a readily available resource. It is cost-effective, and it is a cleaner alternative to the coal that we historically relied on for heating and generating electricity. However, when methane burns, it still gives off carbon, which is a significant contributor to climate change.

Hydrogen Economy

Why Hydrogen? 

Now the focus is on decarbonizing our gas industry, and hydrogen provides the solution as when it combusts, or burns, the only by-product it emits is water. For hydrogen to be realistic viable alternative, we need to be able to produce it in significant scale and adapt our current infrastructure.

Hydrogen can be produced from methane in large volumes, by two different process methods:

  • Steam methane reformation is the most common method for producing bulk hydrogen and accounts for most of the world’s production. This process uses a reformer, which reacts steam at a high temperature and pressure with methane and a nickel catalyst to form hydrogen and carbon monoxide. 
  • Auto thermal reforming uses oxygen and carbon dioxide or steam to react with methane to form hydrogen. The downside of these two methods is that they produce carbon as a by-product, so we need to explore carbon capture solutions to trap and store this carbon.

A greener alternative is to use electrolysis, which is currently available on a small scale but offers the most significant opportunity. This process uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen – the benefit is that it produces pure hydrogen with no harmful by-products. Because it uses electricity, it also offers the potential to divert any excess electricity – which is hard to store (like surplus power from wind turbines) – to electrolysis, using it to create hydrogen gas that you can store.

How can you measure hydrogen accurately?   

Traditional sensors such as non-dispersive infrared (NDIR sensor) are blind to hydrogen.  NevadaNano developed MEMS based hydrogen gas detection with excellent performance in detecting hydrogen down to 0.2% of concentration by volume. 

For more information, please contact us at [email protected] or visit our website www.nevadanano.com.

Share this article

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

NevadaNano

NevadaNano (NevadaNanotech Systems, Inc.) develops and manufactures microelectro mechanical systems (MEMS)-based sensor modules and subsystems for a diverse array of commercial and government applications. Our products are used by system integrator partners and by system manufacturers because they benefit from the unique characteristics of our sensors — namely small size, low cost, unattended operation, and the ability to detect a broad range of threats with a single, standard sensor configuration.
The unique sensor technology developed at the University of Nevada, Reno. Early R&D was supported by DARPA, the DOD, and the Department of Homeland Security. As a result, NevadaNano was founded in 2004. The company has now turned its focus to commercial applications, specifically, Internet of Things (IOT) enabled distributed gas sensing.

Visit Website

POPULAR POSTS BY NevadaNano

Press Release

NevadaNano Adds European Sales Director

Press Release

PemTech Offers a Fixed Gas Transmitter Using NevadaNano’s Technology

Press Release

Universal Site Monitoring Picks NevadaNano’s Molecular Property Spectrometer™

Press Release

NevadaNano Adds Three New European Distributors

Press Release

Are You Ready for the Hydrogen Economy?

Press Release

NevadaNano Systems, Inc. Brings Innovative Molecular Property Spectrometer™ Sensor Technology for Gas Leak Detection to EMEA

Get email updates

Sign up for the AWE newsletter

Keep up-to-date through the power of email and receive the latest environmental monitoring product information and newsletter emails from AWE - Monitoring and Analysing the Impact of Industry on the Environment

"*" indicates required fields

Country
*
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

FEATURED ARTICLES

Press Release

Blackline Safety and NevadaNano Reach Milestone in Deployment of Industry-First Sensors

Press Release

The Benefits of Using Refurbished Parts in Your Lab

Advertisement

SOCIAL MEDIA

AWE on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/AWEIMagazine/

Advertisement

SOCIAL MEDIA

AWE on Twitter

Advertisement

SUBSCRIBE

Stay up to date with our newsletter

    • Keep up-to-date with Europe’s largest audited environmental monitoring magazine

 

    • Delivering the latest information on new products and emerging technologies related to industrial environmental monitoring.

 

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Subscribe

SUBSCRIBE TO AWE MAGAZINE

5 reasons to subscribe to our digital and print package

  • Stay up to date from anywhere in the world, with instant access to the latest issue straight from your phone, tablet or laptop.
  • Trust that you’re getting the best content from our range of internationally accredited authors.
  • Get full access to our archives and see how the environmental monitoring landscape has evolved with us over the years.
  • Enjoy our monthly newsletter curated with up-to-the-minute news and a selection of editor’s top picks.
  • Hot off the press and straight to your door – look forward to your own glossy copy of AWE, delivered five times a year
Subscribe View Subscription levels

STAY SAFE & INFORMED

Subscribe to the latest environmental monitoring articles, news, products and regulations

Find out more

Stay up to date with our newsletter

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

ABOUT

  • About AWE
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us

YOUR ACCOUNT

Sign In Register Account Subscribe to AWE

RESOURCES

Request Media Pack

CONNECT

ACCREDITATIONS

Copyright Bay Publishing 2023. All Rights reserved.

Designed & Built by:
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT