For people who live in the United Kingdom the idea of a world where it is always raining is not such a foreign concept, but when Ridley Scotts dystopian vision of 2019 Los Angeles was depicted in the movie “Blade Runner” this seemed a very strange idea indeed, and just added to the dark brooding nature of the movie. This may however turn out to be a very enlightened prediction.
Hydrogen is the smallest and lightest chemical element in the periodic table and the most abundant element in the universe. At standard temperature and pressure, it is a colourless, odourless, tasteless, non-toxic, highly combustible gas, with the highest specific energy content of all conventional fuels. It burns very easily and releases a lot of energy in a clean way which produces only water. These qualities make it an attractive fuel option for transportation and electricity generation applications and much research is being carried out into how it can be effectively used to reduce the issues of greenhouse gas emissions from carbon based fuels.
Hydrogen offers several key benefits that increase its potential to replace fossil fuels. Stored hydrogen, for example, can be used directly as a fuel or to generate electricity. The combustion product of hydrogen is clean, consisting of water and possibly small amounts of nitrogen oxides
Hydrogen can be produced from a variety of domestic resources, such as natural gas, nuclear power, biomass, and renewable power like solar and wind. The electrolysis of water (H2O) is a simple method of producing hydrogen.
The terms blue hydrogen and green hydrogen are often used to describe hydrogen which is generated in different ways;
Blue hydrogen is hydrogen produced using natural gas and refinery fuel gas, and where the CO2 that is released during production is captured and stored.
Green hydrogen is defined as hydrogen produced via electrolysis using power sourced from renewable sources such as offshore wind farms or solar power
Once produced it can be used in cars, in houses, for portable power, and in many more applications.
Hydrogen will be a key contribution to sustainable development, because in the future it may be produced in virtually unlimited quantities using renewable energy sources, however its increased use could possibly increase the amount of water in the atmosphere. This would potentially mean a lot more rain!
So when you watch movies about the future like “Blade Runner” and it is always raining this could be the reason why.