Hydrogen Economy, Don't Hold Your Breath

Bush Watch

Hydrogen Economy, Don't Hold Your Breath

Hydrogen Economy

By Matthew L. wald, Scientific American, May 2004, pp 66-73.

Abstract by JK

An accumulation of very compelling facts entail that hydrogen is not suitable source of energy for transportation—though other uses, where its byproduct heat is used, are feasible.

Advantage: they produce no pollution at point of use and there are numerous cheaper than gasoline sources.

Electrolysis is not suitable because it takes from the energy grid. Thus even if electricity is generated from wind or hydroelectric, that environmentally friendly source is removed from the energy grid, and thus entails more burning of fossil fuels to replace the electricity usage for electrolysis.

Use of hydrocarbons to generate hydrogen entails the production of carbon dioxide.

A coal plant converts 33% of energy into electricity;

A combined-cycle natural gas plant 60%

Natural gas produces 117 pounds of carbon dioxide per million Btu; coal 212 pounds.

Oil consumption 20,000,000 gallons/day of which ~two-thirds is consumed by 200,000,000 automobiles in the US.

Coal accounts for a little more than half the kiowatt hours produced in the U.S.; about 20 percent is from natural gas. The rest comes from mostly carbon-free sources.

Coverting oil to gasoline including extraction, transportation, and cracking consumes about 21% of the energy potential.

Hydrogen fuel cell costs nearly 100 times as much per unit of power produced as an internal-combustion engine—(different article went into problem of contamination and replacement of platinum catalyst). To be price competitive you have to be at a nickel per watt, and we’re at $4 a watt.

Gasoline costs $2.75/gal; fuel cell about $15.40

A truck that could deliver 2,400 kilos of natural gas would hold only 288 kilos of hydrogen. Liquid hydrogen would be about 800 kilos.

Tanks that hold pressurized gas or liquefied hydrogen are too big for an automobile. The use of metal hydrides or other soid-state technologies might be able to release hydrogen on demand and be recharged later, but they carry a weight penalty and a energy penalty for chemical transformation.

Hydrogen is about five times as expensive per unit of usable energy, as gasoline.

Fuel cell gets about twice as much work out of a gallon of gas.

A better use of hydrogen is in hydrocracking and hydrotreating of the portion of crude oil unsuitable for gasoline. This process, though expensive, allows for low value products, such as asphalt and boiler fuel. About 40% of the original energy potential is lost in the transfer, as compared to 21% for gasoline from ground to cracking to service station.

There are serious safety issues with hydrogen as demonstrated with the Hindenberg, which includes low temperature of combustion and from a concentration of 2 to 75%--natural gas’ range is from 5-15%. Hydrogen burns invisibly.

If we need to find substitutes for oil for transportation, we may look to several places before hydrogen. Natural gas has very few details to be worked out and there is a significant supply available. Another is electricity, though battery technology has hit some very significant hurdles, but they are probably easier to solve than those of fuel cells. And we can run vehicles on methanol from coal—the Germans did it in the 1940s.

Don‘t Hold Your Breath for Hydrogen

If hydrogen is the fuel of the future, the future may be a long time coming. An American Physical Society panel reports that vast improvements in hydrogen production, storage, and use are needed to meet President Bush’s goal of having commercially viable hydrogen cars on the road by 2020. The key challenges:

Production: Hydrogen produced by converting coal or by splitting water with electricity costs four times as much as gasoline. The coal process will require better catalysts to

purity the hydrogen and technologies to capture the carbon dioxide released during processing. Electrolysis will require cheaper electricity and a more efficient way to separate hydrogen from water.

Storage: A practical hydrogen tank should power a vehicle for 300 miles and take less than 5 minutes to fill; current technology does not come close. Pressurized gas tanks do not hold enough fuel. Liquid tanks must be cooled to —450 degrees Fahrenheit, which eats

up energy; after a few days the hydrogen begins to evaporate. Solid tanks are still in the early stages of development.

Use: The cost of fuel cells must drop to at least one-fourth of their current price ($3,000 per kilowatt generated) to compete with gasoline internal-combustion engines. Cost reductions depend on finding an improved electricity generating membrane, one that runs efficiently and reliably and does not need the expensive platinum now used.

—Zach Zorich

Another major problem is that of the catalyst which is a major recurring expense. Tiny amounts of impurities will poison the catalyst; i.e., bond to the platinum and thus prevent stopping the reaction which liberates hydrogen.--jk

To Bush page on ADULT cartoon site

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