by Corina Murafa

The answer is probably, a classic: „it depends”. Hydrogen is the smallest and lightest molecule in the world. It is about eight times lighter than methane. There’s a lot of methane leakage around the world. And by „a lot”, I really mean a lot. Satellite imagery by the European Space Agency collected data that proves there is significantly more leakage in the atmosphere than official estimates. And methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere (Source: Environmental Defense Fund – EDF). Some of this methane leakage is due to sheer industry negligence (oil and gas companies have been proven to do routine gas flaring), but also to bad casings, old pipes, and all sorts of infrastructure mishaps that are bound to happen in any industry. Now imagine how much easier is for hydrogen – a much lighter molecule than methane – to escape and leak, particularly when we blend it with natural gas in existing pipelines, as is the case in the plans of many countries in Europe – including Romania, my home country.t

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