For some time now, the world has been abuzz with the excitement, and energy (no pun intended) of hydrogen. However, for many of us, this is little more than a word. What are the differences? What does it do? And why is hydrogen so hard to manufacture when it is everywhere in our water supply?
These are all questions that, for most people who listen to the rumors surrounding hydrogen adoption, go unanswered.
So, this week I am looking to answer some of the questions surrounding the concept of a ‘hydrogen economy’ and present a few of the pros and cons of using hydrogen for energy storage.
First thing is first. Hydrogen is the first element in the periodic table. It only consists of two items, a proton and an electron. For our purposes, there are not really any isotopes to worry about and hydrogen is just as simple as it sounds, one proton and one electron.
For those of you with some chemistry knowledge, you may know that the first electron ‘shell’ likes to be filled with two electrons. With this in mind, we can see why hydrogen, an element with only one electron, may not be the most stable when it is isolated.
To extract energy from hydrogen, all that must be done is expose the isolated hydrogen element to oxygen. Through this process, an electron is released and this electron can be channeled into electricity. The contraption that releases this electron and channels the electric current is known as a fuel cell. All you have to do is put hydrogen in, and by mixing with the oxygen in the air, water comes out.
Seems pretty cool, right? Well here are some of the issues:
1) Hydrogen does not occur in its isolated state naturally… besides on the sun.
This means that hydrogen must be manufactured from somewhere. Essentially, we need to put energy in to create hydrogen. This can either be accomplished by synthetic or biological processes. Synthetic processes include burning cruder sources of energy such as coal to create the electricity to harness hydrogen from water. Biologically, there are some algal species that can generate hydrogen as a byproduct of cellular respiration. But both of these processes are not scalable at present. Currently, the only effective hydrogen production facility occurs in Iceland where the use of geological heat emanating from thermal hot spots allow for geothermal synthetic hydrogen production.
It should be noted that significant research has been channeled into hydrogen production and generation. In fact, a graduate student at University of Delaware recently manufactured a method of hydrogen generation that employs concentrated solar energy through the use of mirrors coupled with a zinc oxide catalysis.
2) Hydrogen has no industry
As of now, there are no real ways to ship or use hydrogen. Hydrogen fuel cells are objects only found in illusive labs and academic settings. They are not commonplace in cars or power plants. With that said, the cost of upgrading the entire infrastructure to be hydrogen friendly is immense. This number is only increased when we consider that hydrogen must be shipped to distribution points. When we consider the relative volatility of hydrogen (think Hindenburg) we can quickly understand why this may be an issue.
3) Hydrogen lacks political support
Although energy storage will be an issue, there is little momentum behind instituting a hydrogen economy at this time. It is costly, dangerous, and benefits very few. As most people are content with their hydrocarbon fuel source (and one may argue that there is no better fuel source), we are hesitant to leap at the prospect of changing everything into hydrogen.
With these issues in mind, one might argue that there is little incentive to change the status quo. Perhaps this argument has more merit than meets the eye. However, we simply cannot continue to deplete our natural hydrocarbon reserves worldwide without an eye for sustainable production. Perhaps more effort should be invested in finding ways to cleanly, and cheaply produce hydrocarbons in a sustainable manner. This way, we can go on driving our cars and powering our grid guilt free, without having to upgrade and change the entire system… just a thought.
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