Question

Hydrogen gas has the highest calorific value i.e., \[150{\text{KJ}}/{\text{Kg}}\] , yet it is not used as a fuel. The reasons are:
A.It is explosive in nature
B.It causes storage problem
C.It causes transportation problem
D.All of the above

Answer 1

Hint: A good fuel not only has high calorific value but they also are eco friendly, easily transportable, no storage problem, etc.

Complete answer:
A good source of energy or fuel would be one which would do a large amount of work per unit volume or mass, be easily available, and be easy to store and transport and perhaps be economical. It should be environment friendly, should have ignition temperature not to be much high or low. Some conventional sources of energy are fossil fuels, thermal power plants, hydropower plants, and wind energy farms. Some non conventional sources of energy are solar energy, geothermal energy, nuclear energy, ocean thermal energy.
At room temperature and pressure, hydrogen gas is an extremely lightweight fuel which makes it very difficult for the compression of hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas comes in contact with air, it reacts explosively. Also it does not burn at a slow rate which means it is highly risky and complex to control undergoing combustion of hydrogen gas. Unlike other gases, hydrogen gas is not readily available in the atmosphere. Hydrogen needs to be compressed at higher pressure which corresponds to problems in storage of hydrogen gas. As hydrogen is combustible and has storage problems, transportation of hydrogen gas is also a non efficient way. Therefore, though hydrogen gas has the highest calorific value, it cannot be used as a fuel.

Thus, the correct option is D.

Note:
Calorific value is defined as the amount of energy produced by the complete combustion of a material or fuel. It is represented in terms of kilojoule per kilogram.