Glenn-
Ideally, yes, we want pure H2. We can get pure H2 from petroleum fuels, but we gain neither in energy nor in reduced carbon-containing gases released into the environment (even though we can perform this "cracking" of gasoline to produce H2 at a centralized factory, the process still will generate carbon in the form of greenhouse gases). We can also build fuel cells which run on, e.g., methanol. In that case, again we are generating greenhouse gases. But at least with methanol we have a liquid fuel (methanol is liquid at room temperature and pressure, unlike hydrogen) which is much easier to distribute.
If/when we can learn to create hydrogen with reasonable efficiency from electricity, or better yet directly from solar photovoltaic (think APWR for a pure play here) or wind energy, we'll be on our way to a clean source of hydrogen (the electrolysis of water) with which to power the fuel cells to run our homes, laptops, automobiles, and cell phones. Apparently a fuel cell will power a laptop for a week. I wonder if that power source is commercially available today.
Randy |
