Islands of hope in hydrogen: clean hydrogen energy is just around the corner… if governments have the guts to take on the oil barons - Get it Right!

New Internationalist, Dec, 2002 by Seth Dunn

The geopolitical implications of hydrogen are enormous. Coal fuelled the 18th- and 19th-century rise of Britain and modern Germany. In the 20th century, oil laid the foundation for the United States' unprecedented economic and military power. Access to geographically concentrated petroleum has shaped major wars, including the 1991 Gulf War, and determined relations between and among Western economies, the Middle East and the South. Shifting to the plentiful, more dispersed hydrogen could alter the power balances among energy-producing and energy-consuming nations, possibly turning today's importers into tomorrow's exporters. As incredible as it sounds, the US's current superpower status may he eclipsed eventually by countries that harness hydrogen as aggressively as the US tapped oil a century ago. Countries that focus their efforts on producing oil until the resource is gone will be left behind in the rush for tomorrow's prize.

The most important consequence of a hydrogen economy may be the replacement of 20th-century 'hydrocarbon society' with something far better. Hydrogen fuel cells could help address global energy inequities--providing fuel and power to developing areas where nearly two billion people lack access to modern energy services. In a developed form, hydrogen energy production could persuade and assist developing economies in Asia, Latin America and Africa to bypass the hydrocarbon era that seemed to bring wealth, however short-lived and unsustainable, to the industrialized world. This would be a major development towards a more secure world. It would step boldly towards environmental security through greenhouse emission reduction. And it could create greater political security by wiping out world dependence on oil--and the need for countries to fight for it.

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THERE are more than 540 million vehicles in the world. They have a lot to answer for. Traffic accidents kill more than a million people each year, injure tens of millions more and cost poorer countries twice as much as they receive in international aid. The development of hydrogen energy won't stop this. Nor will it rectify the urban planning nightmares caused by car congestion and the building of ever-more roads.

But hydrogen energy can help stop a third of the world's greenhouse gas emissions that transportation causes. Cars run by hydrogen fuel cells can eradicate the fumes that currently contribute to thousands of pollution-related deaths each year in megacities like Delhi, Beijing and Mexico City. Hydrogen therefore has a significant potential to start reversing the social problems cars cause.

At present the extent of this reversal is largely in the hands of the oil and auto companies. Hydrogen for fuel cells can be generated from renewable sources (for instance, water electrolysis through wind or solar power) or emerge from the process of 'reforming' hydrocarbons (including gasoline and methane). It can be supplied directly to a car in liquid form or made on board the vehicle. The least polluting method is to generate the hydrogen from renewable sources and supply it direct to the vehicle--the only emission is a puff of water vapour. The most polluting methods are the ones that rely on reforming hydrocarbons inside the car. As the costs of the former currently far outweigh the latter, most car manufacturers favour concentrating their research and development on continuing use of hydrocarbons--and continuing creation of emissions (although at a lower level).