Clean, cheap and efficient — energy sources normally don’t boast all three. But a team of researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey have developed technology to produce clean-burning, hydrogen fuel that could change the entire industry.

The hydrogen used in energy today is produced with methane, a greenhouse gas that accounts for 9 percent of all U.S. emissions, second only to carbon dioxide in warming the atmosphere and changing the Earth’s climate. In short, hydrogen as an energy source today is not fully sustainable. It’s not cheap either — catalysts for electrolysis, the process that splits water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, are most efficient when made with costly platinum.

The Rutgers catalysts employ nanotubes, sheets of carbon just an atom-thick that are rolled into tubes. The tubes are so small that you would have to bundle 10,000 together to equal the width of a human hair. The carbon is much cheaper than platinum and nearly as efficient, able to function in a variety of settings, whether acidic or basic.

With nanotubes as catalysts, renewable energy sources, whether nuclear, wind, solar or hydroelectric, can be employed to split water molecules and create clean, hydrogen energy.

Rutgers professor Tewodros Asefa said that the team filed for a patent and hopes to find an industry partner to help develop the new technology.