Re: Best Books on Hydrogen Future Possibilities



Gary wrote:

I'm a total layman / novice. But for some reason I find myself thinking a
lot about the possibilities of hydrogen.

I'd like to get some books that explain the possibilities and obstacles for
hydrogen.

You don't need a book.

Here's what you need to know about hydrogen.

Hydrogen in its elemental form doesn't occur in nature so it has to be
manufactured.

Manufacturing hydrogen currently uses fossil fuels so, aside from the possible
advantage of using it to reduce *local* air pollution, there is no advantage in
terms of total pollution or CO2 footprint. In fact these may be worse when using
hydrogen as the processes require an extra energy input.

Hydrogen so manufactured may be used as a fuel in many existing engines
(typically with slight modifications only) and in fuel cells.

When hydrogen is used as a fuel in internal combustion engines etc, most of the
energy value is wasted just like when burning fossil fuels in them.

Hydrogen used in fuel cells may produce electricity at around 50% efficiency
(so only half the energy value is lost).

Hydrogen manufactured using electrolysis requires vast amounts of electrical
energy. And doing so is 'lossy', so you end up with less energy value than you
had to begin with. Any 'hydrogen economy' would first require a 'crash
programme' of building huge numbers of new electrical power generating stations.
In order not to vastly increase greenhouse gas emissions, the only practical
power source for these would have to be nuclear.

Hydrogen is explosive over a wide range of air / hydrogen mixture values. It
therefore requires *extreme* care in handling and the security of any storage
containers.

Hydrogen leaks from ordinary steel pipelines and will make them brittle too.

Hydrogen occupies a very large volume for it's energy value and therefore
requires compression or liquefaction in order to be practically stored. This
wastefully requires additional energy inputs.

Willie Mook claims to have the answer to cheap photovoltaic solar power
generation of hydrogen but so far it's largely just talk. He vastly exaggerates
his claims. I wouldn't take him TOO seriously. His ideas are intereting but in
his enthusiasm for them, he appears to lost any sense of objectivity. Some of
his posts make him sound quite mad in fact.

Graham

.

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