"Hydrogen Economy" can be defined as an entire system of
producing, storing, and utilizing hydrogen
as the chief energy source
for industries, transportations, and our convenient lives.
Hydrogen energy has been attracting a great deal of attention globally
since it is expected to give us effective solutions to a lot of global issues
such as energy shortages and environmental problems that we will
encounter soon.
Furthermore, many celebrated scholars who have
researched human energy consumption trends claim
that people will
have to depend on hydrogen energy more and more and eventually
"the Hydrogen Age" will come in the futureWhy do they claim like this
The answer to the question can be found by considering the history of
human energy consumption.
The primary energy source of human beings has been replaced by
another type of energy source:
wood to coal, coal to petroleum, and
petroleum to natural gas.
When we look at the phase of these sources,
we can recognize that the change is roughly from solid and liquid to
gas state.
These fuels are mainly composed of
carbon (C) and
hydrogen (H) and the higher-grade a fuel becomes,
the more
hydrogen
than carbon the fuel contains in itself.
Therefore, we can deduce that
a fuel which only consists of pure hydrogen would be the foremost energy
source
for human beings in the near future.
Since there is no carbon atom in hydrogen, only water is emitted
after burning,
and again this emitted water can be split into hydrogen
and oxygen molecules.
Therefore, we can construct a clean and
sustainable hydrogen energy cycle
because energy will be obtained
not from fossil fuel sources but from water and sunlight, the ultimate
and infinite energy sources.
In order to contribute to realizing the "Hydrogen Economy",
our research group has studied about:
1) Photo-catalytic hydrogen production
as a means to produce hydrogen,
2) Nano materials which are capable of storing hydrogen
as a means to deliver and store hydrogen, and
3) Fuel cells as a means to effectively utilize hydrogen produced
from the above processes.
Our group has reported a lot of influential results of the above research
fields and been performing various experiments ceaselessly and having
thorough discussions to make these research results put to practical use.
