11 replies to this topic

[engware]

To All:

Hydrogen economy -- another interesting engineering topic.

So I would like to find out what you think about hydrogen economy, its potential and how to make it possible and commercially viable ...

Also, everybody is welcome to contribute to the Hydrogen Economy topic.

Thanks,

Gordan

Below are a few plots related to combustion -- complete combustion of carbon, hydrogen, sulfur, coal, oil and gas with air at standard conditions (298 [K] and 1 [atm]) with no heat loss and stoichiometric conditions.

[djack77494]

Gordan
A hydrogen economy, if it comes to be, is unlikely to apply to the generation of electrical power, especially on a large scale. Please do not double post.
Doug

[engware]

Doug:

I do apologize for not knowing the rule about not to have a double posting of the same topic in various forums.

From now on, I will make a single post of the topics that I initiate.

My suggestion it to ask the Administrator to delete the other one.

Thanks,

Gordan

[engware]

To the Adminstrator:

Thanks for taking out the duplicate post that I posted and it turned out was against the Forum Policy.

Gordan

[engware]

Doug:

Here is a thought on hydrogen economy that I would like to share with you and the Forum members and/or visitors.

It is believed that both renewable (wind and solar) and nuclear energy can be used to generate hydrogen when the energy supply exceeds the demand.

Such generated hydrogen -- energy carrier -- can power fuel cell wirelesss applications in order to meet the demand for energy on the move (laptop computer applications, cell phones, electronics etc). Such applications could have a much higher energy pricing levels since they are independent of the grid allowing revenue and profit generation -- commercially viable operation.

In such a way, hydrogen powered fuel cell wireless applications could become economically viable allowing the push for the Government sponsored hydrogen economy and hydrogen applications in other energy areas such as power generation where currently hydrogen technology commercialization is almost impossible due to the high capital costs.

Currently, there are many obstacles that need to be successfully resolved and demonstrated to allow safe and reliable use of hydrogen powered applications -- hydrogen generation, storage, distribution and usage.

However, in my opinion, the future looks promising and exciting.

Thanks,

Gordan

[djack77494]

Gordon,
Maybe I am a pessimist, but I do not view hydrogen's contribution to the energy economy to be very significant over the near to intermediate term. Hopefully, hydrogen will be able to make some inroads on small scale energy usage, perhaps largely replacing batteries. I do think it can become competitive in what I'll call medium scale energy consumers such as transportation (cars). On a larger scale, there are quite a few major problems to be solved. Here I view hydrogen more as a means of storing energy than as an economical source of energy. Like other storage technolgies, you pay a penalty in the conversion process at both sides. That will make it tough to be competitive against direct generation and use technologies.
Doug

[Gloria_tan]

I see huge cost if hydrogen economy is coming up, e.g. power and water consumptions.

[engware]

Gloria:

Yes, you are right about the high capital requirements in order to have commercial, reliable and safe operation of hydrogen fueled engines.

However, if nothing gets done in terms of pushing hydrogen economy forward, potential negative global warming impact will cause enormous loss.

Thanks,

Gordan

[djack77494]

Gordan
Let me suggest that you look over the "Kyoto Protocol" topic for a thread started in May of 2003 discussing the global warming issue. Unfortunately, the thread I refer to somehow got attached to the initial subtopic heading which is normally used for messages from the administrator. Thus it is not real easy to locate this thread.

Despite this, I suggest you find and review this thread to see some of the global warming feelings of fellow chemical engineers. (Please post back if you have trouble finding the thread and I'll try to provide more complete details.)
Doug

[engware]

Doug:

Let me start with wishing you and the Cheresources.com members and visitors a Happy New Year!

Doug, thanks for your post and a suggestion to check out the "Kyoto Protocol" topic and/or forum.

Thanks to your tip, I was able to find and go through the thread that was started way back in May of 2003.

It is a good thread.

The thread does indicate that global warming is an interesting subject matter and can be viewed from many different perspectives and approached/solved in many different ways.

At this point, I have no intention of taking any specific views and adding more spin to it.

Again, Doug thanks for pointing out to me and other Cheresources.com members and visitors about such postings and threads.

Thanks,

Gordan

[djack77494]

You're quite welcome, Gordan. Though you indicated that you have no intention of taking any specific views and adding more spin to it, I think the idea of a thread like this is to do exactly those things. While there's obviously a lot of science in the topic of global warming, there is also a lot of room for speculation and interpretation.
Doug

[engware]

Doug:

Thanks for your reply and encouraging words to be active.

Yes, you are right when you say that there is some concrete evidence about global warming and that there is still plenty of room for speculation and interpretation.

In my opinion, global warming is a tough cookie.

Actually, I am glad that such topics can be discussed with engineers like you.

Doug, I do appreciate your input and feedback.

Thanks,

Gordan