Hydrogen and Its Uses Hydrogen is a colorless, odorless gas that accounts for 75 percent of the universe's mass. Hydrogen is found on Earth only in combination with other elements such as oxygen, carbon and nitrogen. To use hydrogen, it must be separated from these other elements. Today, hydrogen is used primarily in ammonia manufacturing, petroleum refining and synthesis of methanol. It's also used in NASA's space program as fuel for the space shuttles, and in fuel cells that provide heat, electricity and drinking water for astronauts.
Fuel cells are devices that directly convert hydrogen into electricity.
In the future, hydrogen could be used to fuel vehicles and aircraft, and provide power for our homes and offices. Hydrogen Program, NREL conducts research on advanced technologies to produce, store and safely use hydrogen made from renewable resources. The goal is to help industry develop technologies to produce, store, transport and use hydrogen in quantities large enough, and at costs cheap enough, to compete with traditional energy sources such as coal, oil and natural gas. Production Research NREL researchers are exploring using renewable resources such as sunlight, biomass and biological organisms to produce hydrogen economically. NREL researchers have developed a device that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen with greater efficiency than most other methods using sunlight.