We hear about the energy shortages of the future and how the lack of oil will be a major problem somewhere around 2050. (The new book, "Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil" by David Goodstein, explains the coming energy shortage in well-documented detail.) Additionally, we hear concerns about pollution caused by the use of fossil fuels, such as coal, natural gas and oil, especially global warming caused by carbon dioxide.

Nuclear energy could of course provide a great deal of energy except for the problem of what to do with the used radioactive material. Plutonium has a half-life that is staggering and is one of the most deadly materials known to man. The energy industry has stopped building nuclear plants in the United States.

Wind, ocean tides, geothermal and solar sources are good renewable sources of energy. Wind has been used the most successfully and is seeing increasing use in areas with sufficient wind to justify the expense of putting up wind generators. The biggest problem is how to get the energy where you want it when you want it. Electricity does not store well.

The most recent idea is the use of hydrogen. This is a good idea as it is everywhere, although chemically tied up. Harness the energy in hydrogen and end up with water. It is readily available and creates no pollution; perfect. (I wrote a paper when I was in high school suggesting the use of hydrogen as a fuel.)

The problems are how to produce hydrogen and how to convert it into useful energy. Storing it in tanks and using fuel cells to create electricity works very well. Fuel cells have been used very successfully in the space program.

What is being proposed is to use hydrogen as a “battery”, a way to store energy. Produce electricity from renewable sources such as wind, ocean tides, geothermal sources or the sun. Create hydrogen from water with the electricity electrolysis and store it. Use the hydrogen in a fuel cell to produce electricity (the opposite of electrolysis). Run an electrical car or a generator with the electricity. Clean, distilled water, as the only by-product, can safely reenter the environment.

The biggest problems are cost and the technology not quite being up to what will be needed but close. Will it happen? It will take a great deal of money and political will along with serious long term thinking. It is an idea that needs doing.

Many large auto companies and energy companies are investing huge sums of money in the hopes that cars using hydrogen fuel cells will be available in 10 years. The Governor of Michigan, John Engler, announced last year that he wanted Michigan to be the center of the hydrogen fuel cell industry and was enacting laws to encourage this.

Ed note:As this issue was being prepared, information on a new program in Iceland came to our attention. In Iceland, all fossil fuel is imported. They use geothermal for their electricity and fossil fuel for cars, truck, and boats (primarily fishing trawlers). By using their geothermally generated electricity to produce hydrogen, they have taken the first step of converting their buses to hydrogen. They plan to convert all private vehicles next and then the boats. Iceland will have converted its energy economy to hydrogen and will change from producing the most greenhouse gases per capita to essentially zero.

Fuel cells hold the essential key to the final transformation, according to a BBC News article. With only 270,000 people and plentiful renewable energy in its geothermal fields, Iceland can make this transformation. The United States has about 1,000 times as much population and no substantial infrastructure for renewable energy yet.

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Contents copyright 2004 by Dr. A. V. Persson and ParaComp, Inc. All rights reserved.

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