Hydrogen is used for industrial purposes within the chemical industry and within niche industries such as the NASA space program; hydrogen is the most abundant and ubiquitous elements within the known universe and has the potential to supply the world with a potentially never-ending source of energy; conventional fuel sources are depleting and it has been suggested that the world is looking at a 20-40 year reserve. As such it is vital to find an alternative energy source; but hydrogen does not exist naturally on its own and has to be extracted from other materials such as water, biomass or other organic chemicals; the Hydrogen economy currently has no infrastructure in place and thus is not yet ready to be a widely-used fuel source. The worldwide demand for energy has been predicted to grow at a rate of 1.8% per annum; the requirements for an alternative energy source are the requirement for environmental change. It may be possible for current infrastructure and pipelines to be used for a hydrogen economy. But the pipeline infrastructure will need to be enhanced to cope with the different property elements of hydrogen; its use is already on the way through fuel cell technology, especially in the automotive industries. There is considerable investment by car companies such as Ford and DaimlerChrysler to invest in fuel cell cars; the Catch-22 of the hydrogen economy is that businesses are unwilling to invest in technology and infrastructure if there is no foreseeable demand for the product, while consumers will be unwilling to buy into a hydrogen economy without seeing a significant infrastructure in place. The hydrogen economy has become an attractive and viable option to many countries in the world and both government and company investment has been widely forthcoming. Japan is the only country that has a distinct program within it National Energy Program towards a hydrogen Industry; Iceland announced its intention to convert its energy economy to a Hydrogen economy by 2030; private investment has come mostly from the automotive industries companies such as DaimlerChrysler and Ford have invested significant sums money into the development of new hydrogen-fuelled cars.