Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies for Sustainable Future

This paper discusses some crucial energetic, environmental and sustainability issues and the role of hydrogen and fuel celltechnologies as one of the potential solutions to these issues. The commercialization plans in various industrialized countries (USA, Canada, Japan, etc.) for these technologies have started by identifying the most likely early markets for hydrogen as an energy carrier and fuel cells as power producing devices from micro- to macro-applications, and set realistic near-term and mid-term goals for selected market penetration. The plans outline the major barriers to achieving those goals and recommends activities to capitalize on the incentives and overcome the market barriers. The paper also presents possible future hydrogen energy-utilization patterns for better environment and sustainable development, and shows how the principles of thermodynamics via energy can be beneficially used to evaluate hydrogen and fuel cell systems and their role in sustainability. Throughout the paper, current and future perspectives regarding thermodynamics and sustainable development are considered.