4.1 Technical Principles and Status Quo
This chapter discusses the applications of hydrogen, focusing on its energetic and material uses. Material use involves utilizing hydrogen's chemical properties for reactions with other elements, while energetic use converts hydrogen's energy into electricity and heat. The production of e-fuels is mentioned briefly. Hydrogen is mainly used as a material in the chemical industry and crude oil refining. Future applications in industries like steelmaking and plastics production are also explored.
Fields of application
In the upcoming sections, you will get to know specific fields of application for the use of hydrogen. You will see that in some of these application fields, technologies that use hydrogen are already available today. In other fields of application, however, hydrogen technologies are still under development. The possible fields of application are generally divided into the following three sectors:
- Mobility
- Industry
- Power and heat