hydrogen
3 December 2004
HYDROGEN
The automobile industry is planning to put fuel-cell-powered automobiles on the road by 2004. But the new cars won't be on the road for long because these fuel cells use hydrogen via methanol that is made from fossil fuel. Hydrogen is not a "source" of energy -- it's an energy "carrier" (like electricity). A chemical process known as "steam methane reforming" produces about 95 percent of the hydrogen used in the USA. A carbon-based feedstock (usually natural gas or coal) is combined with steam under high pressure and temperature to produce hydrogen at about a 35 percent energy loss. Methanol is usually produced from natural gas or coal at a 32 to 44 percent net energy loss. .
But how about hydrogen from water? The Schatz Energy Research Center recently built a hydrogen generation station for use with their fuel cell vehicles. According to Michael Winkler, hydrogen generation is about 80% efficient using electricity to extract hydrogen from water. The Center's fuel cells are about 50% efficient. This leads to a total cycle efficiency of approximately 40%. .
None of this includes the energy costs of either producing the original electricity or manufacturing the equipment. Moreover, no renewable energy systems have the potential to generate more than a tiny fraction of the electricity now being generated by fossil fuels.
The automobile industry is planning to put fuel-cell-powered automobiles on the road by 2004. But the new cars won't be on the road for long because these fuel cells use hydrogen via methanol that is made from fossil fuel. Hydrogen is not a "source" of energy -- it's an energy "carrier" (like electricity). A chemical process known as "steam methane reforming" produces about 95 percent of the hydrogen used in the USA. A carbon-based feedstock (usually natural gas or coal) is combined with steam under high pressure and temperature to produce hydrogen at about a 35 percent energy loss. Methanol is usually produced from natural gas or coal at a 32 to 44 percent net energy loss.
