Hydrogen as a fuel is not pie in the sky, it is a known technology, reported New Scientist (24 June 2006, p.26). BMW and other German car makers have already made prototypes that run on hydrogen They are involved in constructing a net of filling stations and expect to see the start of the hydrogen economy within 10 years.
CO2 not an essential by-product: The common and cheapest method of production is a process called steam reformation. This also produces CO2, but if electricity produced by renewables were used to split water, hydrogen could be produced without any CO2.
Versatile: You can use hydrogen on-site to produce heat and power or you can send the gas down a pipeline (there is already one in the UK). You can cool it and store it as a liquid in caverns similar to those used for liquid petroleum gas, or you can adsorb it onto solid metal hydrides – this is still an expensive option, but improving, the article says.
New Scientist, 24/6/2006, p. 26
Source: Erisk Net