CaltechAUTHORS
Published June 13, 2003 | Version public
Journal Article Metadata-only

Potential Environmental Impact of a Hydrogen Economy on the Stratosphere

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 2. ROR icon Jet Propulsion Lab

Abstract

The widespread use of hydrogen fuel cells could have hitherto unknown environmental impacts due to unintended emissions of molecular hydrogen, including an increase in the abundance of water vapor in the stratosphere (plausibly by as much as ∼1 part per million by volume). This would cause stratospheric cooling, enhancement of the heterogeneous chemistry that destroys ozone, an increase in noctilucent clouds, and changes in tropospheric chemistry and atmosphere-biosphere interactions.

Additional Information

© 2003 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Received for publication 1 April 2003; Accepted for publication 15 May 2003. We thank P. de Forster for sending us temperature data from his model, D. C. Noone for valuable discussions, and M. F. Gerstell for a critical reading of the manuscript. Supported in part by NASA grant NAG1-02081 and by a research grant to J.M.E. from General Motors.

Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
35700
DOI
10.1126/science.1085169
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20121128-100102187

Related works

Describes
10.1126/science.1085169 (DOI)

Funding

NASA
NAG1-02081
General Motors

Dates

Created
2012-11-28
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-09
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)