Hydrogen is a future world energy source which since the last decade has become the main focus of energy development in various developed countries. Hydrogen easily bonds with other chemical elements such as water, hydrocarbons, or alcohol. Hydrogen is also contained in natural biomass. The lightest and most abundant element in the universe, and one of the main components of stars and interstellar gas. Astronomical analyzes carried out on the light transmitted by the nearest star, the sun, show that about 75% of its mass is composed of hydrogen.
Hydrogen as energy has many advantages compared to conventional and other renewable energy including batteries. One of the main advantages is that hydrogen has a high energy density, of ± 140 MJ/kg, almost three times higher than gasoline and six times higher than coal. The abundant potential of hydrogen energy and its environmentally friendly existence are believed to be able to reduce the current global emission level to zero emission only in the next few decades.
Based on the production process, hydrogen is categorized into several types: green hydrogen, conventional or gray hydrogen, blue hydrogen, and brown hydrogen. Green hydrogen is hydrogen produced through electrolysis, namely the event or process of separating hydrogen and oxygen molecules from water, while conventional or gray hydrogen is hydrogen produced from natural gas (without carbon capture) which emits carbon dioxide in the synthesis process. While blue hydrogen is hydrogen produced from natural gas using carbon capture, and brown hydrogen is coal-based hydrogen production. In addition to the hydrogen above, hydrogen emits negative emissions which are produced from unused materials or waste that still has organic (carbon) content.
One of the energy that is needed in the future is electricity, moreover we know that in the future everything is electronic and sophisticated and automatically requires a very large amount of electrical energy, therefore Hydrogen can be used to become electricity that can be used in the future. In general, hydrogen usually refers to molecular hydrogen (H2) that binds together two or more atoms. Producing hydrogen is quite simple. Remember studying the electrolysis of water in science class? That’s how this substance is produced, using electricity to split H2O into its components, hydro and oxygen. Generating electricity from hydrogen is also simple, with the reverse electrolysis of water. In other words, electricity, and hot water can also be produced by chemical reactions between hydrogen and oxygen.
Hydrogen also plays many important roles in our daily life which we can find as follows; Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical companies or factories are industries that are very sensitive to chemical reactions because the production process uses many substances that will be made into drug products for human consumption. Therefore, the sanitation level of pharmaceutical industry factory facilities must be high so that the materials and tools used are not easily contaminated by substances that can damage product quality. In the pharmaceutical industry, there are written rules governing sanitation in factory facilities, namely GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) 2012 chapter 5 which discusses Sanitation and Hygiene. One of the recommended sanitation methods is fogging, also known as fumigation, disinfection decontamination, or also known as sterilization. Each pharmaceutical factory must have a standard procedure for sterilization which includes procedures, cleaning period, tools and materials used for sterilization, and so on. Sterilization is usually carried out at the end of the production period and also annual sterilization depending on the number of microorganisms that appear in the factory. The liquid that is generally used for sterilization is hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in aerosol form. The pharmaceutical or drug industry really needs hydrogen for certain purposes. For example in the process of making vitamins and other pharmaceutical products. So, hydrogen is very beneficial for the pharmaceutical industry.
Hydrogen in the automotive industry also plays a very important role. As mentioned above, hydrogen can be used as a fuel for vehicles, for example the electric fuel used by the Tesla company. Therefore, this benefit is needed by the automotive industry in the manufacture of fuel. Hydrogen itself can produce fuel without toxic gases like carbon monoxide.
And also the textile industry. The next benefit of hydrogen is in the textile industry, not only textiles, actually, companies that produce paper and pulp also need hydrogen to make their products. This gas is the main ingredient in the manufacture of hydrogen peroxide or H202.
Meanwhile, in the culinary industry, the food industry apparently also uses hydrogen for the sake of business continuity. This compound is widely used by large restaurants as a component in the process of making cooking oil. In cooking oil, the role of hydrogen is to increase the saturation level of the oil, especially in vegetable oils. With the presence of hydrogen, it is suspected that cooking oil will last longer and not be easily destroyed. Those are some of the many benefits of hydrogen on an industrial scale that are really needed in the future.
By: Azizah Fitriani
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