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Strategies & Market Trends : Heinz Blasnik- Views You Can Use -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zonder who wrote (2665)	6/25/2003 8:58:27 PM
From: yard_man	Respond to of 4905

let me print out at work tomorrow, then I'll give you a pt by pt -- oops. still owe the thread a scanned version of that SciAm article on nanotech -- gotta make a trip to the library soon ...

To: zonder who wrote (2665)	6/25/2003 9:08:32 PM
From: yard_man	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4905

here is a major problem -- they are glossing over the energy to "extract" hydrogen from water -- it takes more energy to break the bonds than you get out of the reaction -- SOoo -- if you use some renewable source of energy to break that bond -- that is less efficient than simply generating the energy from the renewable and using it -- essentially what you are using hydrogen for in that case (renewable energy for electrolysis) is composing an energy storage system which is lossy -- just like batteries. Now you are back to the problems which are attendant to the renewables themselves -- whether it be energy density -- power availability or whatever There are a number of other problems -- >>4. Ramp up hydrogen production But where will the hydrogen come from? Ironically, while hydrogen is the most plentiful element in the universe, it rarely appears in its pure form. It must be extracted from substances that contain it, like fossil fuels and water. The problem is that the extraction itself requires power. Currently, the least expensive method is a process known as steam reforming, in which natural gas reacts chemically with steam to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Far preferable would be to use carbon-free resources like solar, wind, and hydropower to produce electricity for electrolysis, which splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen would make renewable energy practical, acting as a storage medium for the modest amounts of energy such resources produce. Wind power, especially, lends itself to this sort of use. This and other renewables should receive $10 billion as a seed for long-term development. << I would rather see money spent on clean coal technologies. Coal is reasonably energy dense and we have lots of it ...