This new book is more than just a text describing hydrogen energy, it is also a wide ranging analysis of the twin issues facing the global energy industry: security of supply and climate change.

When I was asked to do this review I had a preconceived idea about what sort of book this might turn out to be. The cover notes state that the target audience consists of undergraduates, postgraduates and academics, with an interest in hydrogen energy and government agencies and energy professionals who will find it a useful reference source. Given this wide target audience and the highly interdisciplinary nature of the subject I could have been forgiven for thinking this would turn out to be a book that leaves much to be desired. In addition, many articles written on the hydrogen economy are written by hydrogen enthusiasts and tend to turn a blind eye to the downside of the use of hydrogen as an energy vector, leaving an overoptimistic imbalanced view.

I am more than happy to report that I was entirely wrong. This is an excellent text, which gives a comprehensive description of the technologies associated with the introduction of the hydrogen economy and more importantly a similarly comprehensive and balanced coverage of the complex and often contradictory issues surrounding hydrogen energy. It is also written at a level that has something for everyone. A genuine attempt has been made to achieve clarity with explanatory notes for some of the more difficult concepts and a clear definition is given of all the technical terms used.

The book is more than just a text describing hydrogen energy, it is also a wide ranging analysis of the twin issues facing the global energy industry: security of supply and climate change. These issues are well described in the opening chapter which ends with a cautionary note, essentially that the hydrogen economy is a complex concept and that, at present, our understanding of the important technical issues is too poor to be able to discern the role of hydrogen in any future energy scenario.

There are chapters that cover the production of hydrogen from electrolysis, biomass, and fossil fuels. The point is stressed that, certainly in the near term future, the only viable way of producing large amounts of hydrogen is from hydrocarbon sources. Some very interesting statistics are quoted in relation to future projections for the widescale adoption of hydrogen. “The US Department of Energy considers that by 2040, the USA alone will have 300 million light duty vehicles and these would require 65MTons of hydrogen annually if powered by fuel cells……To meet the US annual target of 65 MTons would necessitate the construction of 600-700 large steam reformer plants. The capital investment and time needed to construct facilities on this scale are daunting prospects and the target date of 2040 seems unrealistic.”

The continued use of hydrocarbons for central power generation and the production of hydrogen from hydrocarbon sources will still produce large quantities of CO2 and in order to mitigate the effects that this will produce on the global climate this CO2 needs to be sequestered. Thus, surprisingly for a book on hydrogen energy, there is a very informative chapter on CO2 sequestration covering all the important aspects of the capture and storage.

The main point of interest for materials scientists are the chapters covering hydrogen storage and distribution and a separate chapter on fuel cells. These are good, up-to-date overviews covering the strengths and weaknesses of each technology. The penultimate chapter deals with hydrogen-fuelled transportation, one of the main drivers for the early introduction of the hydrogen economy.

The final chapter is worth reading as a stand alone essay on the global challenges for a sustainable energy future and the role of the hydrogen economy.

My only major criticism is that the figure reproduction is rather poor. I don't think that this detracts from the value of the book, however if, as I hope will be the case, a second edition is printed, this minor criticism will be addressed.

I urge everyone who has an interest in energy or hydrogen, from student to policymakers to read this book. I certainly learned a great deal from reading it, in fact I wish that I had written it!