Fuel Scientists See Drawbacks to Clean Hydrogen

"With hydrogen energy you only have 25 percent efficiency to turn wind power to (car) wheel power," he said. It's much more efficient to transport that electricity directly into a car battery, via the grid, and use 90 percent of its power," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Producing hydrogen, either through electrolysis using nuclear or renewable electricity, or refined from biomass or fossil fuels, requires massive amounts of water. One kilogramme of hydrogen requires nine litres of water.

"To serve all planes at Frankfurt airport with hydrogen, we need 25 power plants of 1 Gigawatt and all of Frankfurt's current water consumption," he said.

http://www.reuters.com/