TY - JOUR
T1 - A multi-model assessment of the Global Warming Potential of hydrogen
AU - Sand, Maria
AU - Skeie, Ragnhild bieltvedt
AU - Sandstad, Marit
AU - Krishnan, Srinath
AU - Myhre, Gunnar
AU - Bryant, Hannah
AU - Derwent, Richard
AU - Hauglustaine, Didier
AU - Paulot, Fabien
AU - Prather, Michael
AU - Stevenson, David
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Jean-François Lamarque for providing the WACCM results and for his valuable input to the study. This study was supported by the HYDROGEN project grants no. 320240 funded by Energix and the Norwegian Research Council. Parts of the simulations were performed on resources provided by Sigma2 - the National Infrastructure for High-Performance Computing and Data Storage in Norway, and the data was also uploaded and shared through their services through the project accounts NN9188K and NS9188K.
PY - 2023/6/7
Y1 - 2023/6/7
N2 - With increasing global interest in molecular hydrogen to replace fossil fuels, more attention is being paid to potential leakages of hydrogen into the atmosphere and its environmental consequences. Hydrogen is not directly a greenhouse gas, but its chemical reactions change the abundances of the greenhouse gases methane, ozone, and stratospheric water vapor, as well as aerosols. Here, we use a model ensemble of five global atmospheric chemistry models to estimate the 100-year time-horizon Global Warming Potential (GWP100) of hydrogen. We estimate a hydrogen GWP100 of 11.6 ± 2.8 (one standard deviation). The uncertainty range covers soil uptake, photochemical production of hydrogen, the lifetimes of hydrogen and methane, and the hydroxyl radical feedback on methane and hydrogen. The hydrogen-induced changes are robust across the different models. It will be important to keep hydrogen leakages at a minimum to accomplish the benefits of switching to a hydrogen economy.
AB - With increasing global interest in molecular hydrogen to replace fossil fuels, more attention is being paid to potential leakages of hydrogen into the atmosphere and its environmental consequences. Hydrogen is not directly a greenhouse gas, but its chemical reactions change the abundances of the greenhouse gases methane, ozone, and stratospheric water vapor, as well as aerosols. Here, we use a model ensemble of five global atmospheric chemistry models to estimate the 100-year time-horizon Global Warming Potential (GWP100) of hydrogen. We estimate a hydrogen GWP100 of 11.6 ± 2.8 (one standard deviation). The uncertainty range covers soil uptake, photochemical production of hydrogen, the lifetimes of hydrogen and methane, and the hydroxyl radical feedback on methane and hydrogen. The hydrogen-induced changes are robust across the different models. It will be important to keep hydrogen leakages at a minimum to accomplish the benefits of switching to a hydrogen economy.
U2 - 10.1038/s43247-023-00857-8
DO - 10.1038/s43247-023-00857-8
M3 - Article
SN - 2662-4435
VL - 4
JO - Communications Earth & Environment
JF - Communications Earth & Environment
IS - 1
M1 - 203
ER -