ALTERNATE ENERGY: Hydrogen, abundant clean fuel, but there are issues

… Breaking the chains around you
Nobody else can bind you
Take a good look around you
Now you’re breaking the chains
— Dokken, 1985

A good friend and engineer buddy, a part-time optimist, always said when things were going well: “For every silver lining there’s a dark cloud.”

With hydrogen, this is so true.
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All the naturally occurring elements were derived from hydrogen, so says Prout’s hypothesis. It is the most abundant element in the universe and on earth. When I say on earth, I mean on the surface of the earth, because most of the earth is made of iron, aluminum, and silicon by weight. The sun and all other celestial nuclear reactors all run on hydrogen.
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Its properties make it the cleanest fuel as the result of its combustion, which is almost 100% water. It is highly efficient, 45% as compared to gasoline which is only 35% efficient. Hydrogen can be derived from water. Virtually no pollution is produced in its combustion.
Who could ask for anything more?

Hydrogen can be produced from many sources such as biomass and natural gas, both of which are abundant. Fuel cells do wonders in converting hydrogen into electricity. Two percent of all CO2 emissions occur from flight; with hydrogen this could be eliminated entirely.

Well, here is a the dark lining.
Hydrogen’s Faustian energy bargainIt takes energy to make energy. To reap the benefits of hydrogen it is necessary to break the chains of hydrogen from its adherents such as carbon and oxygen. Here’s the bargain: How much energy are we willing to give up to make hydrogen available? Then,once we make that bargain, how are we going to distribute this highly volatile fuel?

Hydrogen has no odor which means it must be scented even though it is not toxic, but it requires only a 4% mixture with air to be explosive. Another problem is how do you store hydrogen? It requires special tanks that can hold great pressures, because it is it so atomically thin it can easy seek its way through structures that are impervious to natural gas.

Right now approximately 95% of all hydrogen fuels are derived from biogas, in particular natural gas or methane. This is because hydrogen extraction requires less energy from these substances. However, the CO2 emissions from the manufacture of hydrogen are higher than the CO2 outputs of Indonesia and England combined. Hydrogen also has many uses, especially in the manufacture of other chemicals not just for energy.

Water can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis. This method is counterproductive. It takes more energy to extract hydrogen from electrolysis than the energy value of the hydrogen produced. However, if renewable sources are available and are not feasible for other energy use then these renewable sources — i.e. solar or wind — could be used.

Currently the U.S. Department of Energy is looking into the thermal separation from the heat generated by nuclear power under the influences of various precious metal catalysts. This technology is concerning. Nuclear power process involved in processing one of the most explosive and volatile substances doesn’t sound like a good mix. Couple this with the fact that there is the omnipresent threat of terrorism.

Airplanes would greatly benefit from hydrogen but what kind of “gas” tanks would have to be made to hold it during flight? This would be a monumental engineering feat, considering the stresses of heat and cold, moving at 600 mph, atmospheric pressure changes and lightning.
Fuel cells that convert hydrogen into electricity are very expensive, use rare earth metals, and are difficult to manufacture. Pumps are needed to fill the storage tanks which also requires energy. Then there will need to be filling stations.

Hope is on the way
We simply can’t dismiss hydrogen as it surely can be the fuel of the future. Research is being conducted on a global scale to remedy the above problems.

Currently the need to totally revamp the infrastructure for this energy distribution is just not cost effective. This will have to occur when it is time to replace or restore the existing natural gas lines. However, improvements to products such as the Bloom Box may stem the need for this as it can take methane and convert it to hydrogen which is then converted to electricity.


​Fuel cells hopefully will bring about cheaper membranes to reduce operating pressures and the use of rare earth elements like platinum, which is the catalyst of most fuel cells. As solar cells improve in efficiency it may make sense to use electrolysis as there is no need to convert the DC energy to AC which can bring losses to over 10%. Maybe there will be a system that can deliver hydrogen in real time making storage unnecessary.

In conclusion
Hydrogen seems to be a great fuel. It is clean, it’s abundant, and renewable, but ... it has a ways to go.

In order to produce hydrogen, a lot of energy is required. That energy, for the most part, is not clean, not renewable, and is limited. I believe that energy will take on many new forms as our knowledge of physics advances. Our deeper study into the essence of energy will reveal whether hydrogen or any substance will be our future source of energy.

After all if E=MC² is true, then our electric motor apprentice turned Swiss patent clerk, turned professor at Princeton, from Ulm, Germany, never limited what “M” had to be, just how fast it had to go.

Post scriptThe IEA is the International Energy Agency. In my humble opinion, it has the best data on the future of energy as a whole. Noe Van Hulst is the former chair of the IEA, and is chair of its hydrogen study. This study is thorough and was presented at the G20 meeting in Japan last year. It makes good reading for the future of hydrogen, a subject of which I could barely scratch the surface.

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