The Hype about Hydrogen - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Hype about Hydrogen: Fact and Fiction in the Race to Save the Climate is a book by Joseph J. Romm

Joseph J. Romm

Joseph J. Romm is an American author, blogger, physicist and climate expert who concentrates on methods of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and global warming and increasing energy security through energy efficiency, green energy technologies and green transportation technologies...

, published in 2004 by Island Press

Island press

Island Press is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, environmental publisher based in Washington, D.C., that specializes in natural history, ecology, conservation, and the built environment...

and updated in 2005. The book has been translated into German as Der Wasserstoff-Boom. Romm is "one of the world’s leading experts on clean energy, advanced vehicles, energy security

Energy security

Energy security is a term for an association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption. Access to cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies. However, the uneven distribution of energy supplies among countries has led...

, and greenhouse gas

Greenhouse gas

A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...

mitigation."

Over 200 publications, including Scientific American

Scientific American

Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...

, Forbes Magazine and The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, have cited this book.
The book was named one of the best science and technology books of 2004 by Library Journal

Library Journal

Library Journal is a trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey . It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional practice...

.
The thrust of the book is that hydrogen

Hydrogen

Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...

is not economically feasible to use for transportation

Transport

Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...

, nor will its use reduce global warming

Global warming

Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...

, because of the cost and greenhouse gas

Greenhouse gas

es generated during production, the low energy content per volume and weight of the container, the cost of the fuel cell

Fuel cell

A fuel cell is a device that converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through a chemical reaction with oxygen or another oxidizing agent. Hydrogen is the most common fuel, but hydrocarbons such as natural gas and alcohols like methanol are sometimes used...

s, and the cost of the infrastructure. The author argues that a major effort to introduce hydrogen cars before 2030 would actually undermine efforts to reduce emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gas

Greenhouse gas

es such as carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...

Description of the book

The Hype about Hydrogen contends that global warming

Global warming

and U.S. reliance on foreign fuel imports cannot be solved by the hypothetical hydrogen economy

Hydrogen economy

The hydrogen economy is a proposed system of delivering energy using hydrogen. The term hydrogen economy was coined by John Bockris during a talk he gave in 1970 at General Motors Technical Center....

that has been advanced as a possible solution to these problems, and that "neither government policy nor business investment should be based on the belief that hydrogen cars will have meaningful commercial success in the near or medium term."

The book explains how fuel cell

Fuel cell

s work and compares different types. It then reviews the difficulties in marketing fuel cells for applications other than transportation and argues that these are in fact easier and more likely to happen sooner than transportation applications.

The history of hydrogen and its methods of production are then described. The book claims that the most common and cost-effective method of hydrogen production

Hydrogen production

Hydrogen production is the family of industrial methods for generating hydrogen. Currently the dominant technology for direct production is steam reforming from hydrocarbons. Many other methods are known including electrolysis and thermolysis...

is from natural gas

Natural gas

Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

, which emits large amounts of CO₂

Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...

(a greenhouse gas

Greenhouse gas

), since it would require too much electric power

Electric power

Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.-Circuits:Electric power, like mechanical power, is represented by the letter P in electrical equations...

to produce hydrogen using the electrolysis

Electrolysis

In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a method of using a direct electric current to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction...

method. The monetary costs of hydrogen fueling infrastructure for the U.S. are then estimated at half a trillion U.S. dollars, and the book describes additional energy and environment costs to liquefy and compress hydrogen for use in fueling stations.

The book goes on to discuss the hypothetical evolution of the cost of vehicles with fuel cells and with hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine

Internal combustion engine

The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...

s, as well as possible adoption strategies. It then reviews the issue of the greenhouse effect

Greenhouse effect

The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is back towards the surface, energy is transferred to the surface and the lower atmosphere...

and offers four reasons why hydrogen would not be useful in reducing greenhouse gas emissions:

Internal combustion engine
Internal combustion engine
The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...

s continue to improve in efficiency.
Since hydrogen is likely to be made from combustion
Combustion
Combustion or burning is the sequence of exothermic chemical reactions between a fuel and an oxidant accompanied by the production of heat and conversion of chemical species. The release of heat can result in the production of light in the form of either glowing or a flame...

of fossil fuels, it produces less CO₂ and other greenhouse gases to burn the fossil fuel directly.
Fuel cells are likely to be much more expensive than competing technologies.
Fuels used to make hydrogen could achieve larger reductions in greenhouse gas emissions if used to replace the least efficient of the electric power plants
Power station
A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....

.

The book then describes pilot projects in Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

and California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

In its conclusion, the book states that hydrogen will not be widely available as a transportation fuel for a long time, and describes other strategies, including energy conservation

Energy conservation

Energy conservation refers to efforts made to reduce energy consumption. Energy conservation can be achieved through increased efficient energy use, in conjunction with decreased energy consumption and/or reduced consumption from conventional energy sources...

techniques, to combat global warming.

Critical reception

The Hype about Hydrogen was named one of the best science and technology books of 2004 by Library Journal

Library Journal

.

The New York Review of Books stated that the book gives "the most direct answers" to the question on the promise of a near-term hydrogen economy, calling Romm "a hydrogen realist".
The environmental community newsletter TerraGreen agrees with Romm in the claim that "the car of the near future is the hybrid vehicle", and cites the book's good reception by Toyota's advanced technologies group.
The San Diego Union Tribune's 2004 review noted that Romm's "clear logic" reaches conclusions similar to an authoritative study issued by the National Academy of Sciences

United States National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

.

Three UC Davis scientists who also reviewed the book agreed on its basic premises, but claimed that Romm had made selective use of sources, for example, citing the highest cost estimates, adopting extremely high estimates of efficiency for advanced gasoline vehicles, and giving weight to controversial non-peer-reviewed studies.
Romm and Prof. Andrew A. Frank

Andrew A. Frank

Dr. Andrew Alfonso Frank is an American professor of mechanical and aeronautical engineering at UC Davis. He is recognized as the father of modern plug-in hybrids,, and coined the now-common term. He has a B.S. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, a M.S. , from the University of...

co-authored an article, "Hybrid Vehicles Gain Traction", published in the April 2006 issue of Scientific American

Scientific American

, in which they argue that hybrid cars that can be plugged into the electric grid (Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle

A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle , plug-in hybrid vehicle , or plug-in hybrid is a hybrid vehicle which utilizes rechargeable batteries, or another energy storage device, that can be restored to full charge by connecting a plug to an external electric power source...

s), rather than hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, will soon become standard in the automobile industry.

External links

, quoting Romm

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Description of the book

Critical reception

See also

External links