|
Hydrogen is a
fine fuel, but tough to get
Publication Date:13-May-2006 |
| Any
politician who talks about cars running on hydrogen, without mentioning that
we don't happen to have any hydrogen, should be beaten with sticks.
Any reporter that lets one get away with it should be assigned to cover Anna Nichole Smith. Yes, making hydrogen gas is a wonderful way to store energy, and it is indeed the most promising transportation fuel, but no one should be allowed to hold out the promise of a "hydrogen economy" without suggesting how we might actually get some. Today, the world uses about 50 million tons of hydrogen – mainly to make fertilizers and to "lighten" and "sweeten" (remove sulfur from) oil. Virtually all of it comes from breaking natural gas, which releases carbon dioxide. Unfortunately, big-brained man has yet to figure out how to efficiently obtain hydrogen by using light to break water, something pond scum does with ease. Breaking water with electricity is currently way too expensive and breaking it apart using heat alone requires impractically high temperatures. Fortunately, a series of simple chemical reactions, carried out at 1000 degrees centigrade, can produce hydrogen inexpensively and with outstanding efficiency. The other chemicals, such as sulfuric acid and iodine, are recycled. There are no effluents. If we only had a source of that 1000 degree heat – preferably as a byproduct of some useful process like electricity production – without burning fossil fuels or otherwise poisoning our environment. The hydrogen could be burned directly, producing only water, or burned with much higher efficiency in fuel cells. Boy, would that be swell! Of course, whatever we used to produce that heat would have to be safe. It couldn't rely on pressurized containment vessels that might rupture or circulating pumps that might fail. It couldn't be allowed to produce more waste than we could comfortably store or recycle. It would be especially nice if it could produce more fuel than it consumes. Then we could go back to learning, creating, healing and exploring. Our coastlines wouldn't flood or be ravaged by storms so often. Our farms and grasslands wouldn't desiccate. Our reefs wouldn't bleach, and we wouldn't have to mourn the passing of all the creatures God left in our care. Actually, a source of the heat and electricity we need has occurred to me, but people with dreamy smiles said it was unacceptable. I'm not sure why they said so; maybe they aren't either. Well, if you readers think of something,
let me know. In fact, if you've still got the guts that built this country,
let everybody know. |