Debunking Hydrogen Myths: Separating #hopium From Reality

While Hydrogen is being touted as a major component of a fossil fuel-free future, the economic and scientific realities of its role in transportation and energy paint a different picture.

​For this Halt the Harm webinar, we’ll joined by Paul Martin, a Toronto-based chemical engineer, who has extensive experience debunking false claims about the promise of hydrogen in the clean energy transition.

​In his presentation, Paul will explore the challenges of using hydrogen as a fuel in vehicles and other applications. Vast sums of money, mostly tax dollars, are being provided to fund hydrogen projects. Hydrogen is itself a massive GHG emission problem today that we have made little progress solving, and yet future hydrogen is being pitched as if it is a practical energy solution, largely by interested parties. In reality, costs and inefficiencies surrounding hydrogen and hydrogen-derived fuels, and the intrinsic properties of hydrogen itself, are among the reasons hydrogen is unlikely to play any significant role in sustainable transportation and energy applications. The energy transition away from fossil fuels will take considerable time and effort and won’t be easy, but the primary energy fallacy has been used to convince us that the transition is much more challenging than it will be in fact.

​About Paul:

​Paul Martin is a Toronto-based chemical engineer with extensive experience in consulting engineering. He has about three decades worth of experience with a wide variety of chemical, energy, and materials processes, particularly with hydrogen and synthesis gas production and use. He offers consulting services in relation to process development and decarbonization to an international clientele via his company Spitfire Research. He is co-founder of the Hydrogen Science Coalition, a non-profit group of academics and retired engineers & scientists who, from a position free of financial interest, offer a science-based perspective about the role of hydrogen in the energy transition.