April 27th, 2006
Industrialists, politicians, and environmentalists and many of us alike would like to envision a modern day Utopia where Hydrogen derived from water is the basis for our transportation fuel system. A world without man-made green house gas… as water vapor is the byproduct of directly burning hydrogen in an offtake of a standard engine and/or as water vapor is the byproduct of an electricity producing fuel cell…
Sounds good to me but, this is where the first catch comes in: to produce H2 in any sufficient quantity we would have to use a high-temperature thermochemical electrolysis process powered by either a conventional power plant or a nuclear reactor. This is fine by me as long as we can get a net energy savings and a net emission savings and consider me demanding but at a cost that my pocket book can afford.
But other obstacles exsist as well:
Storage Costs: Hydrogen is a light weight gas, and storage and or transmission through pipe lines would require compression – another added energy loss on the way to our new world.
Cost of Fuel Cells: hydrogen powered fuel cells are going to have to substantially come down in price.
Efficiency of Fuel Cells: we will have to make net gains in fuel cell efficiency but even when we do will we want to even use them hence -
Acceptance of Fuel Cell Costs: I haven't looked into this yet but can an electric engine car powered by a fuel cell give the same thrill as driving a car with a turbo V-8?
Restructuring Costs: New distribution, production facilities: this might not quite be an obstacle as some people tend to think but it has to be considered. This cost is probably more of an offset cost; similar to laying other supporting infrastructures, fiber optics, electrical grids, roadways… etc.
More Costs: there always are.
Despite these blocks there seems to be a lot of interest in this area:
- Governments from all over the world are funding research initiatives.
- Multi-national groups have formed to promote the idea one such group is the "International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy."
- Researchers are actively researching all aspects of this idea.
- Books Such as Jerry Rifkin's, "The Hydrogen Economy" inspire us think about how a new hydrogen world would fundamentally change our overall social institution …