Many automakers believe that the ultimate replacement for gasoline power will be hydrogen fuel cells. In order for this to come about, production of hydrogen will need to be economical and energy efficient.
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe but here on earth it is bound up in chemical compounds, most notably water. Breaking apart water into oxygen and hydrogen is a process known as electrolysis and if it could be done cheaply enough and not use too much energy in the process, hydrogen-powered cars could truly be the ultimate answer to our transportation needs.
A large-scale, economic hydrolysis technology could do far more than power our cars. Hydrogen is a great way to store excess energy produced by solar and wind installations. Hydrogen produced with excess electricity could be stored in tanks and transported over pipelines or in trucks. Pound for pound, hydrogen stores three times as much energy as gasoline.
Converting electricity into hydrogen and then ultimately back into electricity is not the most efficient process in the world. At best, it will consume about half the original energy. However, the process could have minimal environmental impact and, after all, there is plenty of sunshine, plenty of wind, and plenty of hydrogen to go around.
This concept of an infrastructure for energy storage and transportation is known as the hydrogen economy. We are a long way from implementing it at the moment. However, the hurdles are largely economic as opposed to fundamental technology issues, and technologies have a history of getting cheaper over time.
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Web Links
Hydrogen Energy Storage: A New Solution To the Renewable Energy Intermittency Problem
Photo, posted November 16, 2010, courtesy of Zero Emission Resource Organisation via Flickr.
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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.