HYDROGEN: Energy of the Future

Lots of cars crowd the streets everyday and imagine its huge emission of gases that deteriorates the Earth. Also picture the huge oil deposits of the world suddenly run out of oil. What will happen to the world without an energy resource? Price hikes of commodities will be all over the place, ease of transportation will cease, the gadgets and appliances will be useless since there is no electricity and the industries will stop. Considering that fossil fuels are nonrenewable, this prediction will likely to happen for the next decades of the world to come and one of the ideal solution is the use of hydrogen as a fuel. But will it be feasible?

Many oppositions of hydrogen economy argued that many years have already passed since the use of hydrogen is proposed but still, its progress is unfelt. They also pointed out the commercial production, storage and distribution of hydrogen fuel would be uneconomical. In European countries, they have already released hydrogen powered buses, however many pointed out that maintenance of the automobiles were inconvenient.

“The use of hydrogen as a fuel dates back to 1800’s , however, it wasn’t patronized since the production of hydrogen in its pure form is tedious and uneconomical (Drennen, Rosthal, 2007, p10)”. “Hydrogen is abundant in nature however it rarely exists in its pure form. It can be isolated from the compounds that contain it such as the hydrocarbons in the process of reforming (Sorensen, 2005, p5)”. However using hydrocarbons to produce hydrogen fuel is no different from directly combusting fossils to generate electricity. “Electrolysis of water can be used to separate it into oxygen and hydrogen but it consumes a huge amount of electricity in order to proceed or needs an expensive catalyst such as platinum. Combustion of hydrogen produces energy and water only. (Silberberg, 2009, p955).”

Thus, groups of scientists tried to discover inexpensive catalysts for hydrogen production. “Last November, 2012, University of Cambridge announced a cobalt-containing catalyst can generate electrolysis at normal conditions. Another group of researchers in Joseph Fourier University also discovered two-cobalt based catalysts inspired by the biochemistry of bacteria that converts hydrogen in the soil for their needs. ACS also reported the discovery of the use of carbon powder added to water then beamed with laser in nanoseconds pulses splits water (qtd. fr. ScienceDaily, 2012)”.

Car manufactures also give effort for hydrogen-power research. “Last January, Honda and Toyota showcased their hydrogen powered automobiles in the Washington Autoshow. These new units of automobiles were more efficient compared with the last released units and were particularly designed to be capable of efficiently using hydrogen fuel cells. Honda even announced these units will be available in the market in 2015 (Ravindranath, 2014)”.

Thus, hydrogen economy is not only a theory. As pointed, “it will stop the imbalance of wealth flow brought by the uneven distribution of fossils in the world which makes the fortunate countries richer and the unblessed countries poorer (Rifkins, 2002, Ch. 4)”. It will also ensure the development of science and technology, healthier environment, stable economy not controlled by a few people only and continued industrialization. Every people in the society will be empowered and quality of life can be improved.

References:

Drennen, Thomas & Rosthal, Jennifer. 2007. Pathways to a Hydrogen Future 1^st ed. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Inc.

Ravindranath, Mohana. 2014. Hydrogen fuel cells, clean-tech concepts reach Washington Auto Show. The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/hydrogen-fuel-cell-clean-energy-concepts-reach-washington-auto-show/2014/01/22/f15df44c-8398-11e3-8099-9181471f7aaf_story.html. February 18, 2014.

Rifkin, Jeremy. 2002. The Hydrogen Economy. New York: Jeremy Rifkin.

ScienceDaily. 2012. Hydrogen Production: Can Cobalt Be Used to Replace Platinum? ScienceDaily.com. http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2013/08/130828114250.htm. January 21, 2014.

ScienceDaily. 2012. Scientists Produce Hydrogen for Fuel Cells Using an Inexpensive Catalyst under Real-World Conditions. ScienceDaily.com. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120823112927.htm. January 21, 2014.

ScienceDaily. 2013. Producing Hydrogen from Water With Carbon/Charcoal Powder. ScienceDaily.com. http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2013/08/130828114250.htm. January 21, 2014.

Silberberg, Martin. 2009. Chemistry: The Molecular Nature of Matter and Change, 5^th ed. New York: McGraw Hill.

Sorensen, Bent. 2005. Hydrogen and Fuel Cells. Burlington, USA: Elsevier Inc.