Climate Impacts of Hydrogen and Methane Emissions Can Considerably Reduce the Climate Benefits across Key Hydrogen Use Cases and Time Scales

Recent investments in "clean" hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels are driven by anticipated climate benefits. However, most climate benefit calculations do not adequately account for all climate warming emissions and impacts over time. This study reanalyzes a previously published life cycle assessment as an illustrative example to show how the climate impacts of hydrogen deployment can be far greater than expected when including the warming effects of hydrogen emissions, observed methane emission intensities, and near-term time scales; this reduces the perceived climate benefits upon replacement of fossil fuel technologies. For example, for blue (natural gas with carbon capture) hydrogen pathways, the inclusion of upper-end hydrogen and methane emissions can yield an increase in warming in the near term by up to 50%, whereas lower-end emissions decrease warming impacts by at least 70%. For green (renewable-based electrolysis) hydrogen pathways, upper-end hydrogen emissions can reduce climate benefits in the near term by up to 25%. We also consider renewable electricity availability for green hydrogen and show that if it is not additional to what is needed to decarbonize the electric grid, there may be more warming than that seen with fossil fuel alternatives over all time scales. Assessments of hydrogen's climate impacts should include the aforementioned factors if hydrogen is to be an effective decarbonization tool.

Carbon amendments in soil microcosms induce uneven response on H2 oxidation activity and microbial community composition

High-affinity H2-oxidizing bacteria (HA-HOB) thriving in soil are responsible for the most important sink of atmospheric H2. Their activity increases with soil organic carbon content, but the incidence of different carbohydrate fractions on the process has received little attention. Here we tested the hypothesis that carbon amendments impact HA-HOB activity and diversity differentially depending on their recalcitrance and their concentration. Carbon sources (sucrose, starch, cellulose) and application doses (0, 0.1, 1, 3, 5% Ceq soildw-1) were manipulated in soil microcosms. Only 0.1% Ceq soildw-1 cellulose treatment stimulated the HA-HOB activity. Sucrose amendments induced the most significant changes, with an abatement of 50% activity at 1% Ceq soildw-1. This was accompanied with a loss of bacterial and fungal alpha diversity and a reduction of high-affinity group 1 h/5 [NiFe]-hydrogenase gene (hhyL) abundance. A quantitative classification framework was elaborated to assign carbon preference traits to 16S rRNA gene, ITS and hhyL genotypes. The response was uneven at the taxonomic level, making carbon preference a difficult trait to predict. Overall, the results suggest that HA-HOB activity is more susceptible to be stimulated by low doses of recalcitrant carbon, while labile carbon-rich environment is an unfavorable niche for HA-HOB, inducing catabolic repression of hydrogenase.

Monitoring of tritium concentration in Hanoi's precipitation from 2011 to 2016

Tritium is a radioisotope of hydrogen and a component of the water molecule. It is a marker for reservoirs such as the stratosphere, troposphere, and oceans involved in the hydrological cycle. Tritium monitoring is an essential research tool in hydro-climate, dating for water and recharge groundwater. The Isotope Hydrology Laboratory has collected monthly precipitation samples in Hanoi for tritium concentration analysis. This paper reports the tritium concentrations in precipitation in the city from 2011 to 2016. The results show that monthly tritium concentration reached a maximum of 7.07 Tritium Units (TU) in August 2011. The mean annual tritium concentration stabilized from 2.03 to 3.36 TU. It suggests that tritium in monitoring station precipitation is predominantly natural. The seasonal variation trend of ³H in precipitation at the Hanoi station is similar to those monitored at the Hong Kong station. The correlation of tritium and rainfall was also estimated.

Application of gas chromatography with a pulsed discharge helium ionization detector for measurements of molecular hydrogen in the atmosphere

The Earth's troposphere contains approximately 160 Tg H2 with an average surface mixing ratio approximately 530 nmole mole(-1) (ppb) and lifetime of 2 years. Atmospheric H2 is typically measured using gas chromatography (GC) followed by hot mercuric oxide reduction detection (GC-HgO). Here we describe an alternate method using GC with a pulsed-discharge helium ionization detector (HePPD). HePPD is a universal detector; when applied to H2, the GC-HePDD provides a wide linear range (0.3% over a range of 2000 ppb), a detection limit of approximately 0.03 pg, high precision (0.12%) and a stable response (+/-1.6% over nearly one year). HePPD is compared to HgO reduction using a suite of gravimetrically prepared reference gases spanning remote to urban concentrations. The method is excellent for atmospheric measurements as it provides a wide linear range with high precision, stability and reproducibility. We suggest these characteristics will improve the ability to maintain reference gases and improve measurements of atmospheric H2, thus providing better constraints on potential future changes in its sources and sinks.

Tropospheric H(2) budget and the response of its soil uptake under the changing environment

Molecular hydrogen (H(2)) is an indirect greenhouse gas present at the trace level in the atmosphere. So far, the sum of its sources and sinks is close to equilibrium, but its large-scale utilization as an alternative energy carrier would alter its atmospheric burden. The magnitude of the emissions associated with a future H(2)-based economy is difficult to predict and remains a matter of debate. Previous attempts to predict the impact that a future H(2)-based economy would exert on tropospheric chemistry were realized by considering a steady rate of microbial-mediated soil uptake, which is currently responsible of ~80% of the tropospheric H(2) losses. Although soil uptake, also known as dry deposition is the most important sink for tropospheric H(2), microorganisms involved in the activity remain elusive. Given that microbial-mediated H(2) soil uptake is influenced by several environmental factors, global change should exert a significant effect on the activity and then, assuming a steady H(2) soil uptake rate for the future may be mistaken. Here, we present an overview of tropospheric H(2) sources and sinks with an emphasis on microbial-mediated soil uptake process. Future researches are proposed to investigate the influence that global change would exert on H(2) dry deposition and to identify microorganisms involved H(2) soil uptake activity.

Relative Tropospheric Photolysis Rates of HCHO and HCDO Measured at the European Photoreactor Facility

The relative photolysis rates of HCHO and HCDO have been studied in May 2004 at the European Photoreactor Facility (EUPHORE) in Valencia, Spain. The photolytic loss of HCDO was measured relative to HCHO by long path FT-IR and DOAS detection during the course of the experiment. The isotopic composition of the reaction product H(2) was determined by isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) on air samples taken during the photolysis experiments. The relative photolysis rate obtained by FTIR is j(HCHO)/j(HCDO) = 1.58 +/- 0.03. The ratios of the photolysis rates for the molecular and the radical channels obtained from the IRMS data, in combination with the quantum yield of the molecular channel in the photolysis of HCHO, Phi(HCHO-->H(2)+CO) (JPL Publication 06-2), are j(HCHO-->H(2)+CO/jHCDO-->HD+CO) = 1.82 +/- 0.07 and j(HCHO-->H+HCO/(jHCDO-->H+DCO + jHCDO-->D+HCO)) = 1.10 +/- 0.06. The atmospheric implications of the large isotope effect in the relative rate of photolysis and quantum yield of the formaldehyde isotopologues are discussed in relation to the global hydrogen budget.

Extreme deuterium enrichment in stratospheric hydrogen and the global atmospheric budget of H2

Molecular hydrogen (H2) is the second most abundant trace gas in the atmosphere after methane (CH4). In the troposphere, the D/H ratio of H2 is enriched by 120 per thousand relative to the world's oceans. This cannot be explained by the sources of H2 for which the D/H ratio has been measured to date (for example, fossil fuels and biomass burning). But the isotopic composition of H2 from its single largest source--the photochemical oxidation of methane--has yet to be determined. Here we show that the D/H ratio of stratospheric H2 develops enrichments greater than 440 per thousand, the most extreme D/H enrichment observed in a terrestrial material. We estimate the D/H ratio of H2 produced from CH4 in the stratosphere, where production is isolated from the influences of non-photochemical sources and sinks, showing that the chain of reactions producing H2 from CH4 concentrates D in the product H2. This enrichment, which we estimate is similar on a global average in the troposphere, contributes substantially to the D/H ratio of tropospheric H2.