Yes, we can convert to a hydrogen economy. Don't roll your
eyes at me. It's true. A total conversion to a hydrogen economy
is possible in the near future. How is that (you may ask)?
Well, we need an interim solution. I'm sure most of you already
know how fuel cells work, but for those who don't, let me
explain very quickly…
There are many types of fuel cells, but the most common one
is called a proton exchange membrane or PEM fuel cell. This
type of fuel cell usually uses hydrogen, but other fuel types
can also be used (such as methanol, ethanol etc). When methanol
or ethanol is used, the name of the fuel cell changes to “direct
methanol fuel cell” or “direct ethanol fuel cell”. Now, hydrogen
is fed into the fuel cell, and a platinum/carbon catalyst
breaks the hydrogen into protons and electrons. Since protons
and electrons are charged species, they cannot exist for very
long in nature because they are unstable. Everything in nature
moves toward neutralization or a balance of energies. For
example, if something is very hot in nature, the heat is distributed
to its surroundings, and eventually the temperature of the
very hot object equals the temperature of the environment.
In the case of ions, positively and negatively charged molecules
cannot survive for very long without combining with another
molecule to make it more stable. Now let's get back to the
discussion at hand -- so in the fuel cell, the hydrogen is
broken into protons and electrons. Normally protons and electrons
would not be able to stay in the ionic form very long, but
because the platinum/carbon catalyst layer is connected to
the persulfonic acid membrane layer, the hydrogen protons
are able to travel through the membrane to the cathode side
of the fuel cell. In the meantime, the electrons are attracted
to the hydrogen flow field plate, which is also pressed against
the fuel cell layer and is highly conductive. The electrons
are then drawn from the fuel cell catalyst layer to power
the load. The protons that traveled over to the cathode through
the membrane then combine with oxygen coming into the fuel
cell and create water. Interesting stuff, huh?
Okay Colleen, how a fuel cell works is interesting, but how
are we going to convert over to the hydrogen economy? Well,
first I had to explain how the hydrogen is actually used --
and now I will get into how our current economy can be converted
into a hydrogen one. So, do you know where hydrogen currently
comes from? There is a lot of information out there on how
fuel cells work, the benefits of fuel cells, and how we would
be much better off using them. But, rarely do these articles
get into the sticky situation of discussing where the hydrogen
comes from. Well, as many of you probably know, hydrogen is
not available on this planet in a purely gaseous form. It's
found everywhere in nature, but it is combined with other
elements to form other types of molecules. Therefore, the
hydrogen has to be manufactured. Many of you will not like
to hear this (and I even cringe at saying it), but most of
the hydrogen gas currently produced is created from petroleum-based
fuels. Aha (you say)! I knew there was a catch to this! Okay,
okay, okay I admit -- it does seem to be a sticky situation.
But, at least we currently have a way that hydrogen is manufactured.
At first glance it seems like this may not be any better than
our current solution -- but it is. The reason why this is
a better solution is because hydrogen can be manufactured
using many different methods. The interim solution for converting
to a hydrogen economy would be to use petroleum-based fuels
and coal. Now you're probably thinking -- this person must
be totally out of whack! Well, speaking from an engineer's
perspective, coal is not that bad of an interim solution.
There are many reasons why I say this:
1. Experts estimate that there is only 30 years of petroleum-based
fuels left on this planet.
2. In the United States alone, it is estimated that we have
300 years of fuel from coal that can be utilized.
3. Countries that tap into their coal resources can be more
independent, stronger and richer than countries that rely
on petroleum-based fuels.
4. The Clean Coal Technologies program in the United States
(instituted in 1986), has commercialized numerous technologies
for preventing pollution caused by coal processing. Coal is
no longer the “dirty fuel” that it used to be.
5. There are already numerous coal processing plants across
the United States and many parts of the world. In the United
States, half of the electricity is generated by coal. Therefore,
new plants may not need to be constructed. We can have plants
that generate electricity and hydrogen. A current project
that's utilizing this concept is the FutureGen project, which
is funded by the United States government and private industry.
Okay, you say “that's nice.” Why would we go through all this
trouble to generate hydrogen from petroleum-based fuels and
coal? Well, it's a good question. Our petroleum and coal resources
are limited. A much better solution for future generations
would be using pure hydrogen. So, you may ask, what are the
other manufacturing methods for producing hydrogen? Well,
there are many different fuels and methods that can be used
to produce hydrogen. Some of these include:
1. Nuclear energy
2. Biomass
3. Biofuels
4. Water electrolysis
Preliminary studies have shown that it is more expensive to
use hydrogen from petroleum-based fuels, coal, biomass and
biofuels because of the cost of producing hydrogen. The cost
can be decreased. Current estimates are based upon small quantities
of hydrogen produced. And there have not been many studies
conducted with biomass, biofuels or water electrolysis. The
best solution for hydrogen production is water electrolysis.
You will not hear about this much, because large corporations
are a factor in determining the outcome of the fuel cell industry.
If they had their way, we would only use fuel cells that are
gasoline-fed or all of the hydrogen would be generated from
petroleum-based fuels. But there are better solutions.
Now let's get back to creating the hydrogen economy. Okay,
so you say that there are many ways to produce hydrogen? Yes.
Okay, so how does this translate into a hydrogen economy?
I've heard that the cost to change the current infrastructure
to hydrogen would be so tremendous that it wouldn't even be
worth doing. I'm not going to lie to you -- it will be costly
to change the infrastructure. But, we'll have to do it at
some point. There are many countries that are racing to get
to this point sooner rather than later. For example, Japan
has the tightest timeline to convert to a hydrogen economy.
Their goal is to have a hydrogen economy in place by the year
2020. This is definitely within all of our lifetimes. So,
additional factors to think about are hydrogen storage and
transport. There are many types of hydrogen storage that are
already used, and can be cheaply manufactured if mass-produced.
The transport may be more of a challenge. One solution is
to have many plants (as mentioned earlier) that produce electricity
and hydrogen all over the country, therefore, making the transport
costs low. Perhaps the best option, (or the one this author
favors the most), is using solar panels to break water into
hydrogen and oxygen, and then directly feeding the hydrogen
into the fuel cell. There are a few hydrogen gas stations
in California that utilize this concept. The solar panels
are actually built onto the gas station roof to supply hydrogen
to the pumps. Imagine using this concept by having solar panels
on everyone's house or car to generate all of electricity
required! There are numerous ways that hydrogen can be generated,
and there are countless configurations for hydrogen storage
and use.
Yes, the transition from a petroleum-based to a hydrogen-based
economy will be expensive, but what's more costly in the long
run? Isn't it more costly to use petroleum-based fuels whose
resources are limited, to be a slave to the rising gas prices,
to be dependent on other countries for fuel, and spend billions
of dollars for wars that are most likely due (on some level)
to our dependence on petroleum? What is actually more costly?
