The Potential Of Hydrogen Based Energy
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
James Nash
This article illustrates the potential of hydrogen based energy systems. We want to show you that if the world chooses to follow the hydrogen road then all the basic technology is available now, we are not waiting for research breakthroughs.
The cost of changing to a hydrogen-powered world will not be excessive, especially if the external costs of pollution and ill health associated with fossil fuels are taken into account as credits towards the cost of using hydrogen as a clean fuel with no external costs. Only when hydrogen enters a market at small volumes is there going to be a cost problem and we will just have to find ways around these temporary obstacles.
The following sections will show you how to calculate the cost of changing to hydrogen. See for yourself, if you think our input figures are wrong then you can substitute your own and see if a hydrogen powered world is feasible. We would be very pleased to have some feedback on this because it is difficult to get well documented information on costs.
If global warming is partly or wholly due to atmospheric CO2 produced by the use of fossil fuels, then the hydrogen energy system described here is one way of producing more energy for the world without adding more CO2 to the atmosphere that would make global warming worse.
Global warming will have adverse effects on climate and will lead to rising sea levels flooding towns, cities and farmland.
We cannot realistically expect to reduce the total world use of energy because only a quarter of the world’s population are using approximately three quarters of the world’s current energy production. This a quarter of the world’s population are unlikely to make the reductions in use required to accommodate increases in energy use by the three quarters of the world’s population currently needing more energy supplies.
Some people advocate cutting back the consumption of resources and energy generally as the way to a sustainable future. But the dynamics (i.e. increasingly capitalist ) and realities of the world’s population and economies are such that a peaceful global reduction in consumption is not possible. What is needed is environmentally sustainable growth of world production to meet human needs. This will require an increasing supply of clean pollution-free energy and the recycling of the Earth’s material resources which will also involve using more energy.
A hydrogen based system offers totally clean energy supplies with no pollution. The system is based on renewable sources of electricity and uses hydrogen as an energy carrier/fuel that is able to replace all existing uses of fossil fuels. The hydrogen energy system could meet all the world’s energy needs forever.
It is more likely that the argument over what to do about global warming is going to be won by people who say what can be done and not by people who say what cannot be done. The hydrogen energy system offers a way out of our energy supply impasse.
The hydrogen energy system is a simple concept, it is based on current technology and would not be particularly expensive. Water, which comes from the atmosphere as rain, is converted into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis using clean renewable electricity. The hydrogen, which is an energy carrier and fuel, is then transported to where energy is needed and at the point of use the hydrogen combines with atmospheric oxygen to form water which returns to the atmosphere as water vapour. The exchange of water and oxygen via the atmosphere is always in balance and there is no pollution.
This article illustrates the potential of hydrogen based energy systems. We want to show you that if the world chooses to follow the hydrogen road then all the basic technology is available now, we are not waiting for research breakthroughs.
The cost of changing to a hydrogen-powered world will not be excessive, especially if the external costs of pollution and ill health associated with fossil fuels are taken into account as credits towards the cost of using hydrogen as a clean fuel with no external costs. Only when hydrogen enters a market at small volumes is there going to be a cost problem and we will just have to find ways around these temporary obstacles.
The following sections will show you how to calculate the cost of changing to hydrogen. See for yourself, if you think our input figures are wrong then you can substitute your own and see if a hydrogen powered world is feasible. We would be very pleased to have some feedback on this because it is difficult to get well documented information on costs.
If global warming is partly or wholly due to atmospheric CO2 produced by the use of fossil fuels, then the hydrogen energy system described here is one way of producing more energy for the world without adding more CO2 to the atmosphere that would make global warming worse.
Global warming will have adverse effects on climate and will lead to rising sea levels flooding towns, cities and farmland.
We cannot realistically expect to reduce the total world use of energy because only a quarter of the world’s population are using approximately three quarters of the world’s current energy production. This a quarter of the world’s population are unlikely to make the reductions in use required to accommodate increases in energy use by the three quarters of the world’s population currently needing more energy supplies.
Some people advocate cutting back the consumption of resources and energy generally as the way to a sustainable future. But the dynamics (i.e. increasingly capitalist ) and realities of the world’s population and economies are such that a peaceful global reduction in consumption is not possible. What is needed is environmentally sustainable growth of world production to meet human needs. This will require an increasing supply of clean pollution-free energy and the recycling of the Earth’s material resources which will also involve using more energy.
A hydrogen based system offers totally clean energy supplies with no pollution. The system is based on renewable sources of electricity and uses hydrogen as an energy carrier/fuel that is able to replace all existing uses of fossil fuels. The hydrogen energy system could meet all the world’s energy needs forever.
It is more likely that the argument over what to do about global warming is going to be won by people who say what can be done and not by people who say what cannot be done. The hydrogen energy system offers a way out of our energy supply impasse.
The hydrogen energy system is a simple concept, it is based on current technology and would not be particularly expensive. Water, which comes from the atmosphere as rain, is converted into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis using clean renewable electricity. The hydrogen, which is an energy carrier and fuel, is then transported to where energy is needed and at the point of use the hydrogen combines with atmospheric oxygen to form water which returns to the atmosphere as water vapour. The exchange of water and oxygen via the atmosphere is always in balance and there is no pollution.
