The challenge of Hydrogen production for the transition to a CO2-free economy

The energy demand of the world is foreseen to be increased due to the improvements on the living standard of the developing countries and the development of the global economy. The increase in sustainability of the energy supply must be considered as a must to avoid spoiling natural resources for the next human generations and more dramatic effects such as the so-called global atmospheric warming. The utilization of CO2-free energy sources, as in the case of renewables, is one of the most promising ways to attain such objectives. Nevertheless, the massive energy production with such energy sources are far from being practically feasible in the short-medium term and an innovative solution should be put into practice for the CO2-free exploitation of the huge fossil fuel resources already available. This general assumption is also applicable to any energy carrier such as Hydrogen or electricity. In this case, an analysis is done of the Hydrogen production processes and the discussion of the need to develop a CO2-free production scheme like methane cracking is shown.