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Science 13 June 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5626, pp. 1740 - 1742
DOI: 10.1126/science.1085169
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Reports

Potential Environmental Impact of a Hydrogen Economy on the Stratosphere

Tracey K. Tromp,1 Run-Lie Shia,1 Mark Allen,2 John M. Eiler,1 Y. L. Yung1*

The widespread use of hydrogen fuel cells could have hitherto unknown environmental impacts due to unintended emissions of molecular hydrogen, including an increase in the abundance of water vapor in the stratosphere (plausibly by as much as ~1 part per million by volume). This would cause stratospheric cooling, enhancement of the heterogeneous chemistry that destroys ozone, an increase in noctilucent clouds, and changes in tropospheric chemistry and atmosphere-biosphere interactions.

1 California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
2 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: yly{at}gps.caltech.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Air Pollution and Climate-Forcing Impacts of a Global Hydrogen Economy.
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