This is a timeline of the history of

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

technology. Timeline of future development of hydrogen technologies as a key enabler of the energy transition

Timeline

16th century

* c. 1520 – First recorded observation of hydrogen by

Paracelsus Paracelsus (; ; 1493 – 24 September 1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance. H ...

through dissolution of metals (iron, zinc, and tin) in sulfuric acid.

17th century

* 1625 – First description of hydrogen by Johann Baptista van Helmont. First to use the word "gas". * 1650 – Turquet de Mayerne obtains a gas or "inflammable air" by the action of dilute sulphuric acid on iron. * 1662 –

Boyle's law Boyle's law, also referred to as the Boyle–Mariotte law or Mariotte's law (especially in France), is an empirical gas laws, gas law that describes the relationship between pressure and volume of a confined gas. Boyle's law has been stated as: ...

(gas law relating pressure and volume). * 1670 –

Robert Boyle Robert Boyle (; 25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, Alchemy, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the foun ...

produces hydrogen by reacting metals with acid. * 1672 – "New Experiments touching the Relation between Flame and Air" by

. * 1679 –

Denis Papin Denis Papin FRS (; 22 August 1647 – 26 August 1713) was a French physicist, mathematician and inventor, best known for his pioneering invention of the steam digester, the forerunner of the pressure cooker, the steam engine, the centrifug ...

–

safety valve A safety valve is a valve that acts as a fail-safe. An example of safety valve is a pressure relief valve (PRV), which automatically releases a substance from a boiler, pressure vessel, or other system, when the pressure or temperature exceeds ...

. * 1700 –

Nicolas Lemery Nicolas Lémery (or Lemery as his name appeared in his international publications) (17 November 1645 – 19 June 1715), French chemist, was born at Rouen. He was one of the first to develop theories on acid-base chemistry. Life After learning ph ...

shows that the gas produced in the sulfuric acid/iron reaction is explosive in air.

18th century

* 1755 – Joseph Black confirms that different gases exist. /

Latent heat Latent heat (also known as latent energy or heat of transformation) is energy released or absorbed, by a body or a thermodynamic system, during a constant-temperature process—usually a first-order phase transition, like melting or condensation. ...

* 1766 –

Henry Cavendish Henry Cavendish ( ; 10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810) was an English experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist. He is noted for his discovery of hydrogen, which he termed "inflammable air". He described the density of inflammable a ...

publishes in "On Factitious Airs" a description of " dephlogisticated air" by reacting zinc metal with

hydrochloric acid Hydrochloric acid, also known as muriatic acid or spirits of salt, is an aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride (HCl). It is a colorless solution with a distinctive pungency, pungent smell. It is classified as a acid strength, strong acid. It is ...

and isolates a gas 7 to 11 times lighter than air. * 1774 –

Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, Unitarian, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher, English Separatist, separatist theologian, Linguist, grammarian, multi-subject educator and Classical libera ...

isolates and categorizes oxygen. * 1780 – Felice Fontana discovers the water-gas shift reaction. * 1783 –

Jacques Charles Jacques Alexandre César Charles (12 November 1746 – 7 April 1823) was a French people, French inventor, scientist, mathematician, and balloonist. Charles wrote almost nothing about mathematics, and most of what has been credited to him was due ...

makes the first flight with his hydrogen-filled gas balloon or Charlière. * 1783 –

Antoine Lavoisier Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794), When reduced without charcoal, it gave off an air which supported respiration and combustion in an enhanced way. He concluded that this was just a pure form of common air and that i ...

and Pierre Laplace measure the

heat of combustion The heating value (or energy value or calorific value) of a substance, usually a fuel or food (see food energy), is the amount of heat released during the combustion of a specified amount of it. The ''calorific value'' is the total energy relea ...

of hydrogen using an ice calorimeter. * 1784 –

Jean-Pierre Blanchard Jean-Pierre rançoisBlanchard (; 4 July 1753 – 7 March 1809) was a French inventor, best known as a pioneer of gas balloon flight, who distinguished himself in the conquest of the air in a balloon. Notable for his successful hydrogen balloo ...

attempts a dirigible hydrogen balloon, but it was unable to steer. * 1784 – The invention of the

Lavoisier Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794),
CNRS (

Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier () (30 March 1754 – 15 June 1785) was a French chemistry and physics teacher, and one of the first pioneers of aviation. He made the first manned free balloon flight with François Laurent d'Arlandes on 21 Nov ...

builds the hybrid

Rozière balloon A Rozière balloon (or simply Rozière) is a type of hybrid balloon that has separate chambers for a non-heated lifting gas (such as hydrogen or helium) as well as for a heated lifting gas (as used in a hot air balloon or Montgolfière). The de ...

. * 1787 – Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau and others give hydrogen its name ('' Gk'': ''hydro'' = water, ''-genes'' = born of). * 1787 –

Charles's law Charles's law (also known as the law of volumes) is an experimental gas law that describes how gases tend to expand when heated. A modern statement of Charles's law is: When the pressure on a sample of a dry gas is held constant, the Kelvin ...

(gas law, relating volume and temperature). * 1789 – Jan Rudolph Deiman and Adriaan Paets van Troostwijk use an electrostatic machine and a

Leyden jar A Leyden jar (or Leiden jar, or archaically, Kleistian jar) is an electrical component that stores a high-voltage electric charge (from an external source) between electrical conductors on the inside and outside of a glass jar. It typically co ...

for the first

electrolysis of water Electrolysis of water is using electricity to Water splitting, split water into oxygen () and hydrogen () gas by electrolysis. Hydrogen gas released in this way can be used as hydrogen fuel, but must be kept apart from the oxygen as the mixture ...

. * 1800 – William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle break down

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

into hydrogen and

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

electrolysis In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a technique that uses Direct current, direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Electrolysis is commercially important as a stage in the separation of c ...

with a

voltaic pile upright=1.2, Schematic diagram of a copper–zinc voltaic pile. Each copper–zinc pair had a spacer in the middle, made of cardboard or felt soaked in salt water (the electrolyte). Volta's original piles contained an additional zinc disk at the ...

. * 1800 – Johann Wilhelm Ritter duplicates the experiment with a rearranged set of electrodes to collect the two gases separately.

19th century

* 1801 –

Humphry Davy Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several Chemical element, e ...

discovers the concept of the

fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...

. * 1806 –

François Isaac de Rivaz François Isaac de Rivaz (December 19, 1752, in Paris – July 30, 1828, in Sion) was a French-born Swiss inventor and a politician. He invented a hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine with electric ignition and described it in a French pa ...

builds the

de Rivaz engine The de Rivaz engine was a pioneering reciprocating engine designed and developed from 1804 by the Franco-Swiss inventor Isaac de Rivaz. The engine has a claim to be the world's first internal combustion engine and contained some features of modern ...

, the first

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal comb ...

theodolite A theodolite () is a precision optical instrument for measuring angles between designated visible points in the horizontal and vertical planes. The traditional use has been for land surveying, but it is also used extensively for building and ...

the drift of small free

pilot balloon A ceiling balloon also called a pilot balloon or pibal, is used by meteorologists to determine the height of the base of clouds above ground level during daylight hours. In the past, and sometimes today, a theodolite was used to track the ba ...

s filled with "inflammable gas". * 1809 –

Gay-Lussac's law Gay-Lussac's law usually refers to Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac's law of combining volumes of gases, discovered in 1808 and published in 1809. However, it sometimes refers to the proportionality of the volume of a gas to its Thermodynamic temperature ...

, a gas law relating temperature and pressure. * 1811 –

Avogadro's law Avogadro's law (sometimes referred to as Avogadro's hypothesis or Avogadro's principle) or Avogadro-Ampère's hypothesis is an experimental gas law relating the volume of a gas to the amount of substance of gas present. The law is a specific cas ...

, a gas law relating volume and amount of substance. * 1819 – Edward Daniel Clarke invents the hydrogen gas blowpipe. * 1820 – W. Cecil writes a letter, "On the application of hydrogen gas to produce a moving power in machinery". * 1823 – Goldsworthy Gurney demonstrates

limelight Limelight (also known as Drummond light or calcium light)James R. Smith (2004). ''San Francisco's Lost Landmarks'', Quill Driver Books. is a non-electric type of stage lighting that was once used in theatres and music halls. An intense illum ...

. * 1823 – Döbereiner's Lamp, a

lighter A lighter is a portable device which uses mechanical or electrical means to create a controlled flame, and can be used to ignite a variety of flammable items, such as cigarettes, butane gas, fireworks, candles, or campfires. A lighter typic ...

invented by Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner. * 1823 – Goldsworthy Gurney devises an oxy-hydrogen blowpipe. * 1824 –

Michael Faraday Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the study of electrochemistry and electromagnetism. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...

invents the rubber

balloon A balloon is a flexible membrane bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. For special purposes, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), ...

. * 1826 –

Thomas Drummond Captain Thomas Drummond (10 October 1797 – 15 April 1840), from Edinburgh was a Scottish British Army officer, civil engineer and senior public official. He used the Drummond light which was employed in the trigonometrical survey of Great Br ...

builds the Drummond Light. * 1826 – Samuel Brown tests his

by using it to propel a vehicle up Shooter's Hill. * 1834 –

publishes Faraday's laws of electrolysis. * 1834 – Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron –

Ideal gas law The ideal gas law, also called the general gas equation, is the equation of state of a hypothetical ideal gas. It is a good approximation of the behavior of many gases under many conditions, although it has several limitations. It was first stat ...

. * 1836 –

John Frederic Daniell John Frederic Daniell (12 March 1790 – 13 March 1845) was an England, English chemist and physicist. Biography Daniell was born in London. In 1831 he became the first professor of chemistry at the newly founded King's College London; and in ...

invents a

primary cell A primary battery or primary cell is a battery (a galvanic cell) that is designed to be used once and discarded, and it is not rechargeable unlike a secondary cell ( rechargeable battery). In general, the electrochemical reaction occurring in ...

in which hydrogen is eliminated in the generation of the electricity. * 1839 –

Christian Friedrich Schönbein Christian Friedrich Schönbein HFRSE (18 October 1799 – 29 August 1868) was a German-Swiss chemist who is best known for inventing the fuel cell (1838) at the same time as William Robert Grove and his discoveries of guncotton and ozone. He a ...

publishes the principle of the

in the "

Philosophical Magazine The ''Philosophical Magazine'' is one of the oldest scientific journals published in English. It was established by Alexander Tilloch in 1798;John Burnett"Tilloch, Alexander (1759–1825)" Dictionary of National Biography#Oxford Dictionary of ...

". * 1839 –

William Robert Grove Sir William Robert Grove, FRS FRSE (11 July 1811 – 1 August 1896) was a Welsh judge and physical scientist. He anticipated the general theory of the conservation of energy, and was a pioneer of fuel cell technology. He invented the Grove vol ...

develops the

Grove cell The Grove cell was an early electric primary cell named after its inventor, Welsh physical scientist William Robert Grove, and consisted of a zinc anode in dilute sulfuric acid and a platinum cathode in concentrated nitric acid, the two separat ...

. * 1842 –

develops the first fuel cell (which he calls the gas voltaic battery). * 1849 – Eugène Bourdon –

Bourdon gauge Pressure measurement is the measurement of an applied force by a fluid (liquid or gas) on a surface. Pressure is typically measured in unit of measurement, units of force per unit of surface area. Many techniques have been developed for the me ...

(

manometer Pressure measurement is the measurement of an applied force by a fluid (liquid or gas) on a surface. Pressure is typically measured in units of force per unit of surface area. Many techniques have been developed for the measurement of pressu ...

). * 1863 – Etienne Lenoir makes a test drive from Paris to Joinville-le-Pont with the 1-cylinder, 2-stroke Hippomobile running on

coal gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...

. * 1866 –

August Wilhelm von Hofmann August Wilhelm von Hofmann (8 April 18185 May 1892) was a German chemist who made considerable contributions to organic chemistry. His research on aniline helped lay the basis of the aniline-dye industry, and his research on coal tar laid the g ...

invents the Hofmann voltameter for the

. * 1873 – Thaddeus S. C. Lowe –

water gas Water gas is a kind of fuel gas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. It is produced by "alternately hot blowing a fuel layer okewith air and gasifying it with steam". The caloric yield of the fuel produced by this method is about 10% o ...

; the process uses the water gas shift reaction. * 1874 –

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

– '' The Mysterious Island'': "Yes, my friends, I believe that water will one day be employed as fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it, used singly or together, will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light, of an intensity of which coal is not capable." * 1884 – Charles Renard and Arthur Constantin Krebs launch the

airship An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying powered aircraft, under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the ...

'' La France''. * 1885 – Zygmunt Florenty Wróblewski publishes hydrogen's critical temperature as 33 K; critical pressure, 13.3 atmospheres; and boiling point, 23 K. * 1889 – Ludwig Mond and Carl Langer coin the name ''

'' and try to build one running on air and Mond gas. * 1893 – Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald experimentally determines the interconnected roles of the various components of the fuel cell. * 1895 –

Hydrolysis Hydrolysis (; ) is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution reaction, substitution, elimination reaction, elimination, and solvation reactions in which water ...

. * 1896 – Jackson D.D. and Ellms J.W.,

hydrogen production Hydrogen gas is produced by several industrial methods. Nearly all of the world's current supply of hydrogen is created from fossil fuels. Article in press. Most hydrogen is ''gray hydrogen'' made through steam methane reforming. In this process, ...

microalgae Microalgae or microphytes are microscopic scale, microscopic algae invisible to the naked eye. They are phytoplankton typically found in freshwater and marine life, marine systems, living in both the water column and sediment. They are unicellul ...

('' Anabaena''). * 1896 – Leon Teisserenc de Bort carries out experiments with high flying instrumental

weather balloon A weather balloon, also known as a sounding balloon, is a balloon (specifically a type of high-altitude balloon) that carries instruments to the stratosphere to send back information on atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity and wind spe ...

s. * 1897 – Paul Sabatier facilitates the use of

hydrogenation Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen (H2) and another compound or element, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as nickel, palladium or platinum. The process is commonly employed to redox, reduce or Saturated ...

with the discovery of the Sabatier reaction. * 1898 – James Dewar liquefies hydrogen by using

regenerative cooling Regenerative cooling is a method of cooling gases in which compressed gas is cooled by allowing it to expand and thereby take heat from the surroundings. The cooled expanded gas then passes through a heat exchanger where it cools the incoming com ...

and his invention, the

vacuum flask A vacuum flask (also known as a Dewar flask, Dewar bottle or thermos) is an insulating storage vessel that slows the speed at which its contents change in temperature. It greatly lengthens the time over which its contents remain hotter or coo ...

at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London. * 1899 – James Dewar collects

solid hydrogen Solid hydrogen is the solid state of the element hydrogen. At standard pressure, this is achieved by decreasing the temperature below hydrogen's melting point of . It was collected for the first time by James Dewar in 1899 and published with the ...

for the first time. * 1900 –

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

Ferdinand von Zeppelin Graf, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (; 8 July 1838 – 8 March 1917) was a General (Germany), German general and later inventor of the Zeppelin rigid airships. His name became synonymous with airships and dominated long-distance flight until the ...

launches the first hydrogen-filled Zeppelin LZ1

20th century

* 1901 – Wilhelm Normann introduces the

of fats. * 1903 – Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky publishes "The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices". * 1907 – Lane hydrogen producer. * 1909 – Count Ferdinand Adolf August von Zeppelin make the first long distance flight with the Zeppelin LZ5. * 1909 – Linde–Frank–Caro process. * 1910 – The first Zeppelin passenger flight with the Zeppelin LZ7. * 1910 –

Fritz Haber Fritz Jakob Haber (; 9 December 1868 – 29 January 1934) was a German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber process, a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydrog ...

patents the

Haber process The Haber process, also called the Haber–Bosch process, is the main industrial procedure for the ammonia production, production of ammonia. It converts atmospheric nitrogen (N2) to ammonia (NH3) by a reaction with hydrogen (H2) using finely di ...

. * 1912 – The first scheduled international Zeppelin passenger flights with the Zeppelin LZ13. * 1913 –

Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...

explains the

Rydberg formula In atomic physics, the Rydberg formula calculates the wavelengths of a spectral line in many chemical elements. The formula was primarily presented as a generalization of the Balmer series for all atomic electron transitions of hydrogen. It was ...

for the spectrum of hydrogen by imposing a quantization condition on classical orbits of the electron in hydrogen. * 1919 – The first Atlantic crossing by airship with the Beardmore HMA R34. * 1920 – Hydrocracking, a plant for the commercial hydrogenation of brown coal is commissioned at

Leuna Leuna () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, eastern Germany, south of Merseburg and Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Halle, on the river Saale. The town is known for the ''Leuna works, Leunawerke'', at 13 km2 one of the biggest chemical industrial complexes i ...

in Germany. * 1923 –

Steam reforming Steam reforming or steam methane reforming (SMR) is a method for producing syngas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide) by reaction of hydrocarbons with water. Commonly, natural gas is the feedstock. The main purpose of this technology is often hydrogen ...

, the first synthetic methanol is produced by BASF in

. * 1923 – J. B. S. Haldane envisions in Daedalus; or, Science and the Future "great power stations where during windy weather the surplus power will be used for the electrolytic decomposition of water into oxygen and hydrogen". * 1926 –

Wolfgang Pauli Wolfgang Ernst Pauli ( ; ; 25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958) was an Austrian theoretical physicist and a pioneer of quantum mechanics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the ...

and

Erwin Schrödinger Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger ( ; ; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as or , was an Austrian-Irish theoretical physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum field theory, quantum theory. In particul ...

show that the Rydberg formula for the spectrum of hydrogen follows from the new

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

. * 1926 –

Partial oxidation Partial oxidation (POX) is a type of chemical reaction. It occurs when a substoichiometric fuel-air mixture is partially combusted in a reformer, creating a hydrogen-rich syngas which can then be put to further use, for example in a fuel cell. A d ...

, Vandeveer and Parr at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

use oxygen in the place of air for the production of

syngas Syngas, or synthesis gas, is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide in various ratios. The gas often contains some carbon dioxide and methane. It is principally used for producing ammonia or methanol. Syngas is combustible and can be used as ...

. * 1926 – Cyril Norman Hinshelwood describes the phenomenon of

chain reaction A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events. Chain reactions are one way that sys ...

. * 1926 –

Umberto Nobile Umberto Nobile (; 21 January 1885 – 30 July 1978) was an Italian aviator, aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer. Nobile was a developer and promoter of semi-rigid airships in the Aviation between the World Wars, years between the two Worl ...

makes the first flight over the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

with the hydrogen airship '' Norge''. * 1929 – Paul Harteck and Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer achieve the first synthesis of pure parahydrogen. * 1929 – The hydrogen-filled

LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin LZ 127 ''Graf Zeppelin'' () was a German passenger-carrying hydrogen-filled rigid airship that flew from 1928 to 1937. It offered the first commercial transatlantic flight, transatlantic passenger flight service. The ship was named after th ...

makes a 33,234 km (20,651 mi; 17,945 nmi) circumnavigation of the world. It is the first and only airship to do so, and the second circumnavigation of the globe by air. The voyage took a total of 21 days, 5 hours, and 31 minutes. * 1930 – Rudolf Erren – Erren engine – patent CH148238A – Improvements in and relating to internal combustion engines using a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen as fuel. * 1935 –

Eugene Wigner Eugene Paul Wigner (, ; November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who also contributed to mathematical physics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his contributions to the theory of th ...

and H.B. Huntington predict metallic hydrogen. * 1937 – The Zeppelin

LZ 129 Hindenburg LZ 129 ''Hindenburg'' (; Aircraft registration, Registration: D-LZ 129) was a German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of Hindenburg class airship, its class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship ...

is destroyed by fire. * 1937 – The Heinkel HeS 1 experimental gaseous hydrogen-fueled centrifugal jet engine is tested at Hirth in March – the first working jet engine. * 1937 – The first hydrogen-cooled turbogenerator goes into service at

Dayton Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

, Ohio. * 1938 – The first 240 km hydrogen pipeline

Rhine-Ruhr The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region () is the Metropolitan regions in Germany, largest metropolitan region in Germany, with over ten million inhabitants. A wikt:polycentric, polycentric conurbation with several major urban concentrations, the reg ...

. * 1938 –

Igor Sikorsky Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky, (25 May 1889 – 26 October 1972) was a Russian-American aviation pioneer in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. His first success came with the Sikorsky S-2, the second aircraft of his design and construc ...

from

Sikorsky Aircraft Sikorsky Aircraft is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. It was established by the Russian-American aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky in 1923, and was among the first companies to manufacture helicopters for civilian ...

proposes

liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen () is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecule, molecular H2 form. To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point (thermodynamics), critical point of 33 Kelvins, ...

as a fuel. * 1939 – Rudolf Erren – Erren engine – US patent 2,183,674 – Internal combustion engine using hydrogen as fuel. * 1939 – Hans Gaffron discovers that

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

can switch between producing oxygen and hydrogen. * 1941 – The first mass application of hydrogen in

s: Russian lieutenant Boris Shelishch in the besieged Leningrad converts some hundreds cars "

GAZ-AA The GAZ-AA is a truck produced at the GAZ, Gorky Auto Plant in the Soviet Union from 1932 to 1938, and was the factory's first truck produced under the ''GAZ'' brand. Russian-speakers often refer to it as a ''polutorka'' () - meaning "one-and-a ha ...

" which serve posts of

barrage balloon A barrage balloon is a type of airborne barrage, a large uncrewed tethered balloon used to defend ground targets against aircraft attack, by raising aloft steel cables which pose a severe risk of collision with hostile aircraft, making the atta ...

s of

air defense Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface (Submarine#Armament, submarine-lau ...

. * 1943 –

Liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen () is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecule, molecular H2 form. To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point (thermodynamics), critical point of 33 Kelvins, ...

is tested as

rocket fuel Rocket propellant is used as reaction mass ejected from a rocket engine to produce thrust. The energy required can either come from the propellants themselves, as with a chemical rocket, or from an external source, as with ion engines. Overvi ...

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

. * 1943 – Arne Zetterström describes hydrox. * 1947 –

Willis Lamb Willis Eugene Lamb Jr. (; July 12, 1913 – May 15, 2008) was an American physicist who shared the 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics with Polykarp Kusch "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum". Lamb was able to p ...

and Robert Retherford measure the small energy shift (the

Lamb shift In physics, the Lamb shift, named after Willis Lamb, is an anomalous difference in energy between two electron orbitals in a hydrogen atom. The difference was not predicted by theory and it cannot be derived from the Dirac equation, which pre ...

) between the ²''S''_1/2 and ²''P''_1/2 orbitals of hydrogen, providing a great stimulus to the development of

quantum electrodynamics In particle physics, quantum electrodynamics (QED) is the Theory of relativity, relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quant ...

. * 1949 –

Hydrodesulfurization Hydrodesulfurization (HDS), also called hydrotreatment or hydrotreating, is a catalytic chemical process widely used to desulfurization, remove sulfur (S) from natural gas and from oil refinery, refined petroleum products, such as gasoline, g ...

(

catalytic reforming Catalytic reforming is a chemical process used to convert petroleum naphtha, naphthas from crude oil into liquid products called reformates, which are premium "blending stocks" for high-octane gasoline. The process converts low-octane linear hydr ...

) is commercialized under the name "platforming process". * 1951 – Underground hydrogen storage. * 1952 –

Ivy Mike Ivy Mike was the code name, codename given to the first full-scale test of a Thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear device, in which a significant fraction of the explosive nuclear weapon yield, yield comes from nuclear fusion. Ivy Mike was detona ...

, the first successful test of a nuclear explosive based on hydrogen (actually, deuterium) fusion. * 1952 – Non- refrigerated transport Dewar. * 1955 – W. Thomas Grubb modifies the fuel cell design by using a sulphonated polystyrene ion-exchange membrane as the electrolyte. * 1957 – Pratt & Whitney's model 304 jet engine using liquid hydrogen as fuel tested for the first time as part of the Lockheed CL-400 Suntan project. * 1957 – The specifications for the U-2 a double axle liquid hydrogen semi-trailer are issued. * 1958 – Leonard Niedrach devises a way of depositing platinum onto the membrane, known as the Grubb-Niedrach fuel cell. * 1958 –

Allis-Chalmers Allis-Chalmers was a United States, U.S. manufacturer of machinery for various Industry (economics), industries. Its business lines included list of agricultural machinery, agricultural equipment, heavy equipment, construction equipment, electric ...

demonstrates the D 12, the first 15 kW fuel cell

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

. * 1959 –

Francis Thomas Bacon Francis Thomas "Tom" Bacon OBE FREng FRS (21 December 1904 – 24 May 1992) was an English engineer who in 1932 developed the first practical hydrogen–oxygen fuel cell. It is used to generate power for space capsules and satellites. Bacon ...

builds the Bacon Cell, the first practical 5 kW hydrogen-air fuel cell to power a welding machine. * 1960 –

builds the first fuel cell forklift. * 1961 – RL-10 liquid hydrogen-fuelled

rocket engine A rocket engine is a reaction engine, producing thrust in accordance with Newton's third law by ejecting reaction mass rearward, usually a high-speed Jet (fluid), jet of high-temperature gas produced by the combustion of rocket propellants stor ...

first flight. * 1964 –

builds a 750-watt fuel cell to power a one-man underwater research vessel. * 1965 – The first commercial use of a fuel cell in

Project Gemini Project Gemini () was the second United States human spaceflight program to fly. Conducted after the first American crewed space program, Project Mercury, while the Apollo program was still in early development, Gemini was conceived in 1961 and ...

. * 1965 –

builds the first fuel cell golf carts. * 1966 –

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

presents Electrovan, the world's first fuel cell automobile. * 1966 – Slush hydrogen. * 1966 – J-2 (rocket engine) liquid hydrogen rocket engine flies.. * 1967 – Akira Fujishima discovers the Honda-Fujishima effect, used for

photocatalysis In chemistry, photocatalysis is the acceleration of a photoreaction in the presence of a photocatalyst, the excited state of which "repeatedly interacts with the reaction partners forming reaction intermediates and regenerates itself after each ...

in the

photoelectrochemical cell A "photoelectrochemical cell" is one of two distinct classes of device. The first produces electrical energy similarly to a dye-sensitized photovoltaic cell, which meets the standard definition of a photovoltaic cell. The second is a photoelect ...

. * 1967 – Hydride compressor. * 1970 – Nickel hydrogen battery. * 1970 –

John Bockris Bernhardt Patrick John O’Mara Bockris (5 January 1923 – 7 July 2013) was a South African professor of chemistry, latterly at Texas A&M University. During his long and prolific career he published some 700 papers and two dozen books. His ...

or Lawrence W. Jones coins the term ''

hydrogen economy The hydrogen economy is an umbrella term for the roles hydrogen can play alongside low-carbon electricity to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The aim is to reduce emissions where cheaper and more energy-efficient clean solutions are not ava ...

''. * 1973 – The 30 km hydrogen pipeline in Isbergues. * 1973 –

Linear compressor A linear compressor is a gas compressor where the piston moves along a linear track to minimize friction and reduce energy loss during conversion of motion. This technology has been successfully used in cryogenic applications which must be oil-les ...

. * 1975 –

– ''Energy, The Solar-Hydrogen Alternative'' – . * 1979 – HM7B rocket engine. * 1981 –

Space Shuttle Main Engine The RS-25, also known as the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), is a liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine that was used on NASA's Space Shuttle and is used on the Space Launch System. Designed and manufactured in the United States by Rocketd ...

first flight. * 1988 – First flight of Tupolev Tu-155, a variant of the Tu-154 airliner designed to run on hydrogen. * 1990 – The first solar-powered hydrogen production plant Solar-Wasserstoff-Bayern becomes operational. * 1996 – Vulcain rocket engine. * 1997 – Anastasios Melis discovers that the deprivation of

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

will cause

to switch from producing oxygen to producing hydrogen. * 1998 – Type 212 submarine. * 1999 – Hydrogen pinch. * 2000 – Peter Toennies demonstrates

superfluidity Superfluidity is the characteristic property of a fluid with zero viscosity which therefore flows without any loss of kinetic energy. When stirred, a superfluid forms vortices that continue to rotate indefinitely. Superfluidity occurs in two ...

of hydrogen at 0.15 K.

21st century

* 2001 – The first type IV hydrogen tanks for compressed hydrogen at 700 bar (10000 PSI) are demonstrated. * 2002 –

Type 214 submarine The Type 214 is a class of diesel–electric powertrain, diesel–electric submarines developed exclusively for export by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft, Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH (HDW). It features diesel propulsion with an air-independen ...

. * 2002 – The first hydrail locomotive is demonstrated in Val-d'Or,

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. * 2004 – DeepC, an autonomous underwater vehicle propelled by an electric motor powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. * 2005 – Ionic liquid piston compressor. * 2013 – The first commercial 2 megawatt power to gas installation in Falkenhagen comes online for 360 cubic meters of hydrogen per hour

hydrogen storage Several methods exist for storing hydrogen. These include mechanical approaches such as using high pressures and low temperatures, or employing chemical compounds that release H2 upon demand. While large amounts of hydrogen are produced by variou ...

into the natural gas grid. * 2014 – The Japanese fuel cell micro combined heat and power (mCHP) ENE FARM project passes 100,000 sold systems. * 2014 –

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

releases its first hydrogen fuel cell car, the Mirai. * 2017 – Hydrogen Council is formed to expedite development and commercialization of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. EMEC produce
world's first tidal-powered hydrogen
in Orkney, Scotland. * 2019 – Researchers at the

KU Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its mai ...

university,

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, develop a

solar hydrogen panel A solar hydrogen panel is a device for artificial photosynthesis that produces photohydrogen from sunlight and water. The panel uses electrochemical water splitting, where energy captured from Solar panel, solar panels powers Electrolysis of wat ...

that is able to

produce In American English, produce generally refers to wikt:fresh, fresh List of culinary fruits, fruits and Vegetable, vegetables intended to be Eating, eaten by humans, although other food products such as Dairy product, dairy products or Nut (foo ...

250l of H₂ per day directly from

sunlight Sunlight is the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible spectrum, visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrare ...

and

water vapor Water vapor, water vapour, or aqueous vapor is the gaseous phase of Properties of water, water. It is one Phase (matter), state of water within the hydrosphere. Water vapor can be produced from the evaporation or boiling of liquid water or from th ...

utilizing phytocatalytic water splitting, reporting a conversion efficiency of 15% – about a 150-fold improvement of the efficiency figure ten years back (0.1%). * 2021 – Enapter, co-founded by Vaitea Cowan, is awarded the 2021 Earthshot Prize for the ‘Fix our Climate’ category for its AEM Electrolyser technology, which turns renewable electricity into emission-free hydrogen gas
RAF gains Guinness World Record
for the first successful flight powered by synthetic fuel produced from green hydrogen generated by EMEC in Orkney. * 2022 – Researchers in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

develop floating artificial leaves for light-driven hydrogen production. The lightweight, flexible devices are scalable and can float on water similar to lotus leaves. * 2023 –

's liquid hydrogen powered Corolla participates in the Super Taikyu Fuji 24 Hours Race where it beats gaseous hydrogen powered Corolla's previous record by completing 358 laps (1,634 km).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Timeline Of Hydrogen Technologies Hydrogen technologies *

Hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...