Dihydrogen releases large quantities of heat on combustion. The date on energy reased by combustion. The data on energy released by combustion of fuels like dihydrogen, methane, LPG etc., are compared in terms of the same amounts in mole, mass and volume.
From this table it is clear that on a mass for mass basic dihydrogen can release more energy them petrol (about three times). Moreover, pollutants in combustion of dihydrogen will less than petrol.
The only pollutants will be the oxides of dinitrogen (due to the presence of dinitrogen as impurity with dihydrogen).
This, of course, can be minimised by injecting a small amount of water into the cylinder to lower the temperature so that the reaction between dinitrogen and dioxygen may not take place.
However the mass of the must be taken into consideration. A cylindrical of compressed dihydrogen weights about 30 times as much as a tank of petrol containing the same amount of energy.
Also dihydrogen gas is converted into luquid state by cooling to 20K. This would require expensive insulated tanks. Tanks of metals alloy like NaNi5, Ti- TiH2 etc, are are in for storage of dihydrogen in small quantities.
These limitations have propted researchers to search 🔍🔎 for alternative techniques to use dihydrogen in an efficient way.
In this view Hydrogen Economy is an alternative. Thi basic principle of hydrogen economy is the transportation and storage of energy in the form of dihydrogen and not vas electric power. It is for the first time in the history of India that a pilot project using dihydrogen as fuel was launched in October 2005 for running automobile Initially 5% dihydrogen has been mixed in CNG for use in four - wheeler vehicles.
The percentage of dihydrogen would be gradually increased to reach the optimum level.
Nowadays, it is also used in fuel cells for generation of electric power. It is expected that economically viable and identified in the years to come, for its usage as a common source of energy.
