Hydrogen research
Hydrogen is the most abundant gas in the universe, however you can’t just go and dig it up or mine it.
Hydrogen is always mixed with other substances in our natural environment.
Water, methane, petroleum or coal all contain hydrogen as part of their chemical structure.
It requires energy however, to separate hydrogen from these substances.
One of the cleanest ways of producing hydrogen (with current technologies) is to split water ( H2O ) using a device called an electrolyser.
An electrolyser requires an electric current to operate and the source of that electric current could come from non-polluting renewable energy sources such as wind, hydro, solar or geothermal.
Producing enough clean renewable energy to produce sufficient quantities of hydrogen for the world’s transport needs (without emitting more greenhouse gases in the process) is one of the great challenges facing scientists and engineers around the world.
Hydro Tasmania has been working with renewable energy developments for nearly 100 years.
It now plays a leading role internationally in the sustainable development and operation of renewable energy.
One of Hydro Tasmania’s core values is creating a sustainable future.
Hydro Tasmania provides funding for a laboratory at the University Of Tasmania that is investigating hydrogen use for automotive, electrical engineering and remote area power systems.
This is Australia’s first laboratory dedicated to applied hydrogen research.
The University research team has developed a prototype diesel / hydrogen engine which significantly reduces the consumption of diesel for remote area power supplies.
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