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| The Hydrogen News # 9 |
| 06.14.04 (5:48 pm) |
The Hydrogen News # 9
Major oil companies have revised their estimates of the world's total oil supply and how many years that supply will last. Twenty two years. That is what we have left before all of the easily produced oil is gone. What is left will have to be produced from oil bearing sand and shale. It will be a very different world than the one we know today unless other sources of energy are developed and put into use NOW, before the situation gets any worse.
This chain of events makes it almost certain that the growth industry of this decade will be alternative energy companies. As public demand for their products increases so will the competition between the companies and as a result technological development will accelerate expotentially and at the same time prices for the more "standardized" models/systems will decrease. At least that is the way it is supposed to go.
The IT boom of the 90's was an example of such a situation and the financial rewards it can bring to investors. The probable energy boom could be even bigger and longer lasting because it deals more with hard, tangible products and while some might consider computers to be a necessity, in reality they aren't. But energy is and so the potential market for the energy boom is truely worldwide and will encompass people in nearly every economic strata. Almost any alternative energy company could prove to be a good investment because, as the alternative energy economy gains momentum, there will undoubtedly be a lot of consolidation going on as the leaders of that sector emerge and start buying up their competition.
All in all, if handled correctly, these could be the best of times and the worst of times as the true scope of global warming makes itself evident. If it is less than expected then party on, if it is greater then it will be good to be able to keep the lights (and the air conditioner) on.
MJ
Note: The Hydrogen News is now avaiable as an RSS newsfeed every week. Just copy this URL: http://www.tblog.com/rss.php?... into your nrewreader and hit "subscribe".
(1) Clean energy boom
http://www.greenfutures.org.u...%26briefingtypedisplay=5
Obviously a good story to lead with as it puts some numbers behind my speculations on the
alternative energy sector as being the next economic boom.
(2) Air Liquide sees hydrogen sales more than doubling in 5 years
http://www.iii.co.uk/shares/?...
(3) Loan earmarked for hydrogen lab
http://www.augustachronicle.c...
(4) Gentle Treatment of the Environment through Reliance on Sun, Wind, and Hydrogen Energies
http://article.wn.com/link/WN...
(5) State to invest in hydrogen research
http://albany.bizjournals.com...
(6) Hydrogen Car Buyers Out of Their Element?
http://www.latimes.com/busine...,1,6254754.story?coll=la-home-busine ss
(7) Calif. hydrogen cars lack service stations
http://article.wn.com/link/WN...
(8) Biofriendly's Green Plus Fuel Catalyst Achieves Significant Reductions in Emissions While Improving Fuel Economy
http://www.theautochannel.com...
(9) The Hydrogen Car Company Launches the Hydrogen Shelby Cobra
http://www.theautochannel.com...
Finally, a hydrogen muscle car. Not every enviornmentally consious consumer WANTS to drive an electric shoebox (no matter how cute they are).
(10) GM SETS NEW WORLD RECORD IN FUEL CELL MARATHON
http://www.autoworld.com/apps...%26frame
If I am going to spend 20 or 30 grand on a fuel cell car I want more than 10,000 trouble free miles out of it. But they are getting there.
(11) 100% renewable energy society.
http://www.vanuatu.gov.vu/ene...
Fighting for a renewable energy society. Most Americans need to remember that freedom, once won, is not a guarantee without eternal vigilance.
(12) G8 leaders shift focus to environmental and energy commitments
http://pepei.pennnet.com/News...%5fNews%5fStory.cfm?Section=WireNews%26Ca tegory=HOME%26NewsID=1023 16
Finally, alternative energy is politically correct.
(13) In Washington State a neighborhood group of concerned but obviously uninformed citizens is fighting an H2 fueling station in their neighborhood
http://www.thecommondenominat...%5fupdate1.html
Could someone from the area please stop by and educate those folks?
(14) Airship to rise from Hindenburg's ashes
http://news.scotsman.com/inte...
This ought to be interesting.
(15) Hydrogen in the pipeline
http://www.greenfutures.org.u...%26briefingtypedisplay=5
Moving right along in the UK on distribution cenrally produced H2.
(16) Proton Energy hydrogen generator at heart of Malaysia hydrogen house
http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/...,1602,4530,00.html
More on the hydrogen house in Malaysia. Good thing we have a third world to implement all this technology.
(17) Non-oil technologies are vital for economy By James Jordan and James R. Powell Special to The Washington Post
http://www.morningsentinel.co...%5fCent/005.html
Good to see some mainstream recognition of this fact.
(18) Scientist urges Congress to replace petroleum
http://www.ur.msstate.edu/new...
From Mississippi no less.
(19) Feel Good Cars teams to produce hydrogen ICE electric vehicle
http://www.evworld.com/view.c...%26newsid=5858
You gotta like that name; "Feel Good Cars". Kind of like "Free Love", or "Tax Cut", eh?
(20) Clean alternatives to fuel the future
http://enjoyment.independent....%5fand%5ffeatures/story.jsp?story=529470
Yes fuel will run out and here we consider the alternatives. I wish they would change the name of Rape Seed, sounds nasty.
(21) Alternative energy courses offered at WSU
http://southend.wayne.edu/day...
Training for the next generation technology.
(22) Virent shows off its hydrogen-fuel plans
http://www.wistechnology.com/...
Another "new and improved" way to produce and store hydrogen fuel.
(23) A summer of energy fairs and politics
http://www.backwoodshome.com/...
Nice "get away from it all" activities.
(24) The dangers of turning off the power for too long
http://www.evworld.com/view.c...%26storyid=704
(25) There is plenty of evidence to suggest that oil supplies will begin to decline far sooner than we are led to believe.
http://www.expressandstar.com...%5f59828.php
(26) INTELLIGENT Energy, the British fuel cell manufacturer, became the latest European firm to suffer from weakening demand for new share issues yesterday
http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/...,1602,4537,00.html
(27) 'Hydrogen Now One Step Closer to the Fueling Pump'
http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/...,1602,4549,00.html
(28) Gentle Treatment of the Environment through Reliance on Sun, Wind, and Hydrogen Energies
http://www.japancorp.net/Arti...%5fID=7506
(29) Today's Trucking: News
http://www.todaystrucking.com...
(30) Actor Dennis Weaver planted a kiss on Jane Wyman's cheek
http://www.joplinglobe.com/st...%5fid=116117
Some guys have all the fun department.
(31) While scanning the NY Times Book Review, I came across a reference to a new book about energy.
http://www.energypulse.net/ce...%5fprint.cfm?a%5fid=748
(32) Fuel cell on dairy farm showing clear benefits
http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/...,1602,4524,00.html
Just like Paris Hilton in that reality show. Clear benefits.
(33) General Hydrogen to use Maxwell ultracapacitors in its fuel cell systems for electric lift trucks and other applications
http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/...,1602,4520,00.html
(34) Can solar power work? Pioneering community answers yes and no
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-...%5f24634.asp
(35) Bengal Ropes In The Sun For Housing Project
http://www.financialexpress.c...%5ffull%5fstory.php?content%5fid=56383
Amazing how fast those third world countries implement alternative energy isn't it?
(36) The End of Oil, by Paul Roberts
http://enjoyment.independent....
How sad. Not!
(37) A source for some hydrogen fuel related books
http://www.altfuels.com/books...
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| Improving the EXISTING Hydrogen Economy |
| 06.05.04 (5:15 pm) |
I was thinking today about hydrocarbon fuels and I would like to share a slightly different perspective on hydrocarbons and the "new" hydrogen economy. You see, when viewed from the correct perspective, we have HAD a hydrogen economy for the last hundred and some odd years. We just haven't called it that or realized it's true potential and because of that we certainly haven't made the best and most efficient use of it.
That statement may sound strange to many people as we tend to think of hydrocarbons such as fossil fuels as something totally different from hydrogen fuel. In reality though both are similar in many ways. For a better understanding let's look at what happens inside an internal combustion engine. Gasoline (C6H14) is fed into the cylinders along with air (primarily O2, N2 and H2O vapor). Then this mixture is compressed. This causes the mixture to become hotter. Once we have the mixture in this hot, compressed state the spark plug fires and combustion occurs.
Combustion is a chemical reaction and produces by-products which consist of water vapor, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and nitric oxides as well as sulfur dioxide (which turns to sulfuric acid when it encounters water vapor in the atmosphere). Since we know what goes into this reaction and what comes out of it we can understand the reactions which occur inside the cylinder at combustion. The first reaction is the combining of oxygen from the air with carbon from the hydrocarbon ( C + O2 = CO2 or CO). This reaction is not a very rapid one and releases only 14,000 BTU per pound of Carbon. However, this reaction sets free the hydrogen atoms which were up till now bound to the carbon atom in the hydrocarbon. These free hydrogen atoms bond with other oxygen atoms for a secondary reaction ( 2H2 + O2 = 2H2O). This reaction proceeds with explosive force and releases significantly more energy (62,000 BTU per pound of H2). And this secondary reaction is the one which actually powers your car. If that were not the case we could just as easily run our cars on charcoal.
So you see that the real purpose of the Carbon atoms in the hydrocarbon fuel source are simply to act as a sort of storage system for the hydrogen which is the true fuel. The advantages of using this storage system are that it allows the hydrogen to be stored in a liquid form at room temperature (as gasoline). This makes the transportation and storage of the hydrogen much easier and cheaper than it would be as a gas. It also allows oil companies to exist. You see this liquid hydrogen storage system is a natural one but it must be obtained from sources which are not generally easy to access and it must be refined from it's natural state (crude oil) into lighter more combustible forms in order to be used with our machinery. It is this and only this which prevents people from producing their own hydrogen fuel and ending their lifelong indebtedness to energy corporations.
You see, it is the oil companies intention to become the hydrogen companies and keep right on doing business as usual selling you H2 hydrogen fuel instead of gasoline and that is normal business I suppose. It is their plan to produce hydrogen from fossil fuels. The most common way to do this is by steam-reformation. This process is very similar to the first combustion reaction that I described above. In this case the source of oxygen is steam ( H2O + CH4 = CO + 3H2). This sets free the hydrogen atoms which are bound to both the water molecules and the hydrocarbons and also creates Carbon Monoxide which is a combustible material itself. The hydrogen is then separated and stored. So you see all they will be doing is performing something that your motor already does anyway and calling it a "new" fuel source.
But what if we could find another source of hydrogen which is similar to hydrocarbons but is freely available to everyone? We have one. It is called water. Like hydrocarbons water is the result of an oxidation-reduction reaction. Water is 2H2 + O2 = 2H2O and hydrocarbons are 2H2 + C = CH4. Both are liquid at room temperature and easy to store. Water has the added advantage of being non-combustible as well and so infinitely more safe than fossil fuels as well as totally non-polluting.
It is my opinion that water is the hydrogen source of the future and it is possible to start using it NOW, not 20 years from now when the oil runs out and the oil companies are ready for us to use it. Hydrogen can be liberated from water in many ways such as solar or wind power and refinements to the technology are happening constantly. Imagine having a machine in your garage which produces all your automobile fuel, heats your house and produces electricity for you. And it's fuel is free and totally safe to store! This is what awaits us if we, as individuals, want it bad enough to make it happen. Oil companies aren't going to give it to us and neither are most of the Politicians (insert appropriate name) that the oil companies employ...er...contribute to.
So this Independence Day perhaps America can look toward a new sort of independence. Freedom from the energy conglomerates which control so much of our lives, freedom from the unnecessary pollution that is produced by using our current carbon based hydrogen storage system and the freedom to make choices as individuals as to our sources of energy and how we spend our energy dollars.
Regards,
enki
Hydrogen information is available here:
http://dmoz.org./Science/Technology/Energ y/Hydrogen/" title="http://dmoz.org./Science/Technology/Energ y/Hydrogen/" target="_blank"http://dmoz.org./Science/Tech...
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| Thoughts on Black Hydrogen (the Bush plan) |
| 06.05.04 (5:00 pm) |
Recently there was a news story that caught my attention. It was about the Pacific Northwest Lab (a government lab) having developed a device that can produce hydrogen fuel from gasoline to power a fuel cell car. This device produces the H2 on board, while the vehicle is running. It does this by a process referred to as "steam reforming or partial oxidation". It is touted as being a major breakthrough.
Link: http://www.tri-cityherald.com...
It is definitely going to allow for fuel cell cars to be introduced to the market much faster than had previously been anticipated as the infrastructure to transport, store and distribute gasoline is already in place. Whereas such a system for hydrogen gas is totally nonexistent. In fact, it could be used anywhere fuel cells would be employed to generate electricity (such as homes and businesses).
If such a unit was built to the right size it could just as easily produce H2 fuel for internal combustion cars and diesel trucks as well. This would allow consumers to retrofit their existing vehicle to run on clean non-polluting hydrogen fuel.
There are additional benefits too whether you would use such a device to produce fuel for a fuel cell or an internal combustion vehicle. One benefit would be to enormously increase your fuel mileage. How could it do this, you ask?
Well, to explain this we have to understand how the steam reformation process works. It involves passing the gasoline and steam over or through a catalyst. The reaction that ensues looks like this:
C6H14 (gasoline) + 12H2O (water, as steam) = 6CO2 and 19H2
The oxygen atom in the water/steam molecule releases it's hydrogen atoms as do the carbon atoms in the gasoline molecule. The oxygen and carbon atoms bond with each other. It takes two oxygen atoms to oxidize one carbon atom into CO2. So the products of the reforming reaction are CO2 and H2. The H2 is used to fuel the vehicle and the CO2 is sequestered.
But notice that the gasoline molecule only had 14 hydrogen atoms (7 if you look at them as H2) and the end product of the reaction was 19 H2 atoms. How is this possible? Because the water molecules also released their hydrogen atoms during the reforming process. So 12 of the resulting H2 atoms came from the water molecules and only 7 from the gasoline molecule. That is nearly 2/3 of the Hydrogen produced coming from the water molecules! So you car would be running mostly on H2 from water NOT H2 from hydrogen. That would reduce your car's consumption of gasoline by a similar percentage. Too bad no one thought of this sooner, especially since it is a hundred year old technology.
I believe that hydrogen from water is the solution to the future of the world's energy production needs. Steam reformation of hydrocarbons is a first step in that direction. By blending the tried and true fossil fuel energy sources with the cutting edge hydrogen from water technology we form a bridge between the two. Especially since most of the energy derived is from the water hydrogen.
I am surprised that the oil companies and the Bush administration aren't publicizing this exciting facet of their hydrogen energy plan.
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| Hydrogen from water |
| 06.05.04 (4:19 pm) |
The news is full of descriptions of the coming hydrogen economy. George Bush and company have decided that the hydrogen future is going to be a future based on hydrogen from oil. I think that this is fine for the present but hydrocarbons are not the ONLY source of hydrogen on this planet. In fact, they are not even the most abundant source of hydrogen. Water is.
For the past 5 years I have been researching the electrolysis reaction and trying to devise more efficient ways to produce hydrogen from water. This blog will be an ongoing description of my efforts in this area as well as related stories that I write.
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