The fifteen laws of Hydrogen
A lot of people are jumping on the Hydrogen bandwagon looking to it as an alternative to Gasoline for our vehicles. It just ain't gonna happen and
Don Lancaster gives us fifteen "talking points" to consider:
1. Terrestrial hydrogen is ONLY an energy carrier or transfer media and NOT a substance capable of delivering net NEW BTU's to the on-the-books economy.
2. Terrestrial hydrogen creation is inefficient as considerably more energy of usually much higher quality has to be input than is eventually returnable.
3. No large terrestrial source of hydrogen gas is known. Water, of course, is a hydrogen sink and, by fundamental chemical energitics, is the worst possible feedstock.
4. The CONTAINED energy density of terrestrial hydrogen by weight is a lot LESS than gasoline. And drops dramatically as the tank is emptied. The energy density of hydrogen gas by volume is a ludicrous joke.
5. Virtually all bulk hydrogen is produced by methane reformation. And thus is EXTREMELY hydrocarbon dependent.
6. Hydrogen has one of the widest explosive ranges known, the least spark energy required for ignition, and has no known colorants or odorants. Its flame is often invisible or nearly so.
7. There is more hydrogen in a gallon of gasoline than there is in a gallon of liquid hydrogen.
8. No effective vehicle compatible means of hydrogen storage is known that is remotely as cheap, safe, dense, and convenient as carbon bonded hydrides.
9. No infrastructure exists for gaseous hydrogen distribution. Pipelines in particular raise major density and embrittlement issues.
10. Electrolysis from high value sources such as grid, wind, or pv is totally useless as a hydrogen source because of the staggering loss of exergy. There ALWAYS will be more intelligent things to do with the electricity.
11. Improper burning of hydrogen produces highly polluting nitrous oxides.
12. Terrestrial hydrogen is basically a POLLUTION AMPLIFIER that INCREASES the pollution of its underlying sources. It is utterly ludicrous to claim that hydrogen is in any manner, way, shape, or form "nonpolluting".
13. Hydrogen rots most metals through embrittlement.
14. "Carbon Neutral" solutions would appear better than "Carbon Free" because (A) A significant measure of the energy of most fuels is in its carbon fraction, (B) Carbon appears to be essential for convenient and safe room temperature liquids, and (C) Reformation is not required or else is simpler, cheaper, and wastes less energy.
15. An optimal hydrogen storage solution exists by carbon bonding as in heptane or iso-octane. Both of these room temperature liquids ain't broke.
At the same page (linked to above) Don also links to some of his articles that cover the same information but go into much greater detail. I recommend starting with
Energy Fundamentals and
More Energy Fundamentals.
A lot of people are running on little but wishful thinking. I also include those people who are trying to economies on fuel costs by running an electrolytic cell off their cars electrical system.
It does not take that much effort ( a month or two of studying five hours/week) to grasp the very fundamental scientific principals behind power production and the efficiency of processes and once you do, you can see for yourself how fallacious most of the alt.energy claims are.
I can see a more viable market for Unicorn Farts.
Posted by DaveH at September 6, 2009 5:20 PM