Source:   The American Hydrogen Association

• Hydrogen can be produced from water, sewage, garbage, landfill accumulations, agricultural biomass, paper product wastes and many other waste streams that contain hydrogen-bearing compounds.
• Hydrogen can be used as a clean burning, non-polluting fuel in virtually every application where other fuels are used today.
• All fuels need air (oxygen) for combustion. Hydrogen is the only common fuel that is not chemically bound to carbon; therefore when hydrogen burns in air it produces and/or exhausts heat energy, water, oxygen, and possibly trace amounts of oxides of nitrogen. Water and oxides of nitrogen produced by thunderstorms are natural in our atmosphere.
• When hydrocarbon fuels (coal, oil, natural gas, propane, wood) burn they may create serious pollutants like carbon monoxide (a poisonous gas which is produced by incomplete combustion) carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas), an extensive list of complex hydrocarbon chemicals and quantities of particulate matter including carcinogens.
• Hydrogen is the only fuel, whose production and end use can both contribute directly to eliminating many of our most insufferable environmental, economic, and health problems.
• As a gas or a liquid, hydrogen can easily be transported, stored and ultimately it can be used in every application where fossil fuels are used today. This makes hydrogen an ideal, non-polluting energy carrier.
• Unlike electricity, whose production as a secondary energy medium must be juggled among expensive central power plants to accommodate peak usage periods, hydrogen can be transported and stored for industrial, commercial, and domestic needs and to quickly make electricity at virtually any time.
• Burning hydrogen does not contribute to the Greenhouse Effect, stratospheric ozone depletion, or acid rain. Transition to a hydrogen energy distribution system could restore the atmosphere to natural conditions.
• Hydrogen is naturally produced by plants and animals.
• Hydrogen is not toxic.
• Any Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) can be economically manufactured to burn hydrogen fuel efficiently.
• To improve air quality, some states have set zero emission standards for cars. A vehicle manufactured to operate on hydrogen easily meets this standard and can actually improve upon it by cleaning the air through which it travels by reducing atmospheric concentrations of carbon monoxide, diesel soot, tire particles and unburned hydrocarbons by converting these pollutants into carbon dioxide and water. This air cleaning capability provides a Minus Emissions Vehicle (MEV).
• A special class of “MEV” is a vehicle that uses hydrogen made from renewable resources. It is called Renewable Energy Vehicle – Minus Emissions or “REV-ME.”
• MEV engines using hydrogen will last much longer and start faster in any weather.
• The lubricating oil in a MEV engine will remain clean for extended periods of time. There are no sulfur or carbon compounds or particulates to degrade the engine oil.
• Hydrogen is the best way to power automobiles that have internal combustion engines.
• One kilogram of hydrogen when combined with oxygen will make nine kilograms of water. Therefore a hydrogen power plant could make valuable quantities of high quality water in addition to producing electricity.
• The world uses 86 million barrels of oil a day.   By 2015 that number is expected to be 98.5 million barrels daily.
• The United States alone uses 21 million barrels of oil a day, roughly 25% of all oil produced in the world.   By 2020 that number is expected to reach 27 million barrels per day.
• The United States consumes over 43% of the world’s motor gasoline.   There have been no new gasoline refineries built in the U.S. since 1976.
• The estimated total petroleum reserves in the earth’s crust are estimated to be about one trillion barrels. Oil consumption is at 25 billion barrels per year and increasing at 1-1/2% per year. At current rates of consumption, measured against known reserves, there is only a 30-year supply of oil in the Earth’s crust. Even if the reserve estimate were doubled it is a moral imperative that we take immediate action to develop a sustainable Hydrogen economy.
• Our current energy system is seriously inadequate in terms of its ability to meet increasing demand far into the future.  Rolling blackouts and power outages are becoming the norm in cities across the country.
• Hydrogen can be the safest of all fuels. Gaseous hydrogen is 14-times lighter than air, therefore it rapidly disperses into the atmosphere in the event of an accidental release. This is not true of most other fuels. Other fuels have a much greater “dangerous time” until they are dispersed from the location of accidental release.
• Hydrogen is already used to produce countless products and to enhance many industrial processes.
• The largest user of hydrogen is the petroleum industry for converting crude oil into gasoline, fertilizers, and hundreds of chemicals.
• If liquid hydrogen is spilled it will very rapidly evaporate, leaving no pollution or toxic residue.
• Hydrogen can be stored at room temperatures as a hydride (hydrogen chemically combined with a metallic element) under little or no pressure and in a volume that is less than if it were a super-cold liquid.
• Hydrogen packs more chemical energy in a pound for pound comparison than with any other fuel.  About 3 gallons of water can supply enough hydrogen to replace one gallon of gasoline.   Hydrogen is measured by the kilogram.  One (1) kilogram of hydrogen is equal to one (1) gallon of gasoline equivalent (gge).
• The United States could significantly transition to renewable hydrogen fuel in small ICE markets such as portable generators, lawn tractors, etc. immediately.
• Development of hydrogen energy systems would protect us from a possible national security disaster precipitated by a geopolitical upheaval beyond our control.
• Hydrogen could represent a lucrative cash crop for farmers in areas where there is abundant wind, solar radiation, geothermal, or biomass resources. Many farmers could profit financially by converting biomass and animal wastes into hydrogen through a process of bio-remediation (utilizing micro-organisms to break down unwanted or excess materials).
• A substantial part of the expense in building and operating a fossil fuel power plant is finding an acceptable location (usually far removed from energy users), obtaining the environmental permits and disposing of heat from wasted energy. Most conventional power plants throw away 60% to 80% of the energy that the customer pays for in addition to the high cost of building and operating “condensors” to inject very large amounts of heat into the environment.
• A conventional nuclear or fossil-fueled central power plant can deliver only about one-third of the energy in the fuel in the form of electricity.  The remaining energy is wasted by heating the environment. A hydrogen-fuel plant can deliver 70% or more of the energy as a combination of “cogenerated” heat and electricity products in a pollution free application.
• Hydrogen is the simplest, lightest and most abundant element in the universe.
• Hydrogen is abundant but it is usually combined with other elements. When combined with oxygen it is called water; when combined with carbon it is called a hydrocarbon.
• Hydrogen is colorless, odorless, tasteless and non-toxic.
• Most developing nations are endowed with sufficient wind, water or sun power to make hydrogen for villages and where appropriate on a large scale for urban areas.
• Vast quantities of hydrocarbon seepage from tank farms, pipelines and 200,000 gasoline service station tanks that now pollute our soil and aquifers would be virtually eliminated by a transition to hydrogen fuel.
• Proven technologies are available to make, store, and use hydrogen.
• If done to optimize economies of scale, many methods of producing hydrogen will be less costly than fossil fuels or nuclear energy.
• Importing crude oil costs the United States two billion dollars every week. Using hydrogen in place of oil could reduce our trade deficit by billions of dollars. Even larger savings are available by eliminating the large military expenditures required to provide deliveries of foreign oil to the U.S.