Customer Reviews

The Hype About Hydrogen: Fact and Fiction in the Race to Save the Climate

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Having read Jeremy Rifkin's interesting, but rose-colored and somewhat tangential take on the future of the hydrogen fuel cell: The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the World-Wide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth (2002), I was pleased to read something from a full-time energy professional.

Joseph Romm, author of this sobering volume, worked in the Department of Energy in the Clinton administration and has been involved intimately with hydrogen research and development for many years. His main point is that we must eventually have a hydrogen economy based on the hydrogen fuel cell, but that we must not expect this to happen without some major technological breakthroughs. His book is a warning that the global warming clock is ticking and ticking, and that we need to do something now if we hope to avoid a possible catastrophe.

The really scary thing about global warming is that we may pass over the point of no return without knowing it. Furthermore, a full-blown, runaway greenhouse effect would make nuclear winter look like a walk in the park. Look what happened to Venus, where on any spring day (or winter day for that matter) the surface is hot enough to melt lead. Could that happen here? The real and direct answer to that question is: we don't know.

Romm is not painting any such dire scenarios in this book, but he does state most clearly that "the primary reason why we should pursue fuel cells and a hydrogen economy is to help respond to global warming." (p. 188) He adds, "global warming is the most intractable and potentially catastrophic environmental problem facing...the planet this century." (p. 152) Romm identifies carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere as the primary cause of global warming.

What to do and how to do it? Because Romm addresses these questions in such compelling detail, this is the book I believe that will be--if it hasn't already been--read by high-ranking government officials and the CEOs of energy corporations throughout the world. I hope that Sen. John Kerry and President George W. Bush will read it. What they will find is that it will require a closely co-ordinated effort on the part of both government and the private sector to bring about a cost-effective hydrogen technology. This technology will include the building of an infrastructure for making and distributing hydrogen that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Romm makes it clear that none of this will happen until hydrogen becomes competitive with fossil fuels in terms of cost and efficiency. Right now hydrogen is most cheaply made from fossil fuels themselves, a process that does not reduce green house gases, and furthermore is much more expensive, no matter what currently-available technology is used, than gasoline itself, and will remain so for many years, probably decades, to come.

Ultimately the goal is to manufacture hydrogen from water using renewable resources such as biomass, wind, sun, downward running water, evaporation, ocean currents, etc. to split the water molecule into its component elements. Romm's immediate future scenario has us obtaining hydrogen from natural gas while using our renewable energy resources to produce electricity in an effort to begin to slow the belching of carbon dioxide into the air.

Romm believes that oil production will probably peak in the first half of this century. He adds that "Some believe this will occur by 2010." (p. 16) Given this, it is obvious that we will have to come up with some sort of fuel to replace oil. Since only "a limited number of fuels are plausible alternatives for gasoline" (p. 16), and since the one with the most going for it is hydrogen, it will be hydrogen. But transporting hydrogen the way we transport gasoline will be more expensive, perhaps prohibitively expensive since it has to be condensed and/or made into a very cold liquid under pressure. One might think we could transport water instead and make hydrogen at hydrogen stations, but the most efficient conversion methods require large scale operations at high temperatures.

There are several other very challenging problems to be faced, not the least of which is what Romm identifies as "the chicken or the egg" conundrum. That is, automakers will not make hydrogen fuel cell cars until the hydrogen infrastructure is in place, and the infrastructure will not appear until there are a sufficient number of fuel cell cars on the road.

While I think Romm maintains a cautious level of optimism in the face of these difficulties, he does on occasion let his pessimism show: "If the actions of Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden and record levels of oil imports couldn't induce lawmakers, automakers, and the general public to embrace EXISTING vehicle energy efficiency technologies...I cannot imagine what fearful events must happen before the nation will be motivated to embrace hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which will cost much more to buy...to fuel, and require massive government subsidies to pay for the infrastructure." (p. 162)

If you want to know where we really are vis-vis the so-called hydrogen economy, read this book.

This book does read like a series of lectures which sometimes verge on contradicting one another. It is also easy, by disagreeing with some of his theses, to dismiss the entire book. But at the core are some sound premises:

- Hydrogen is not an energy source like oil, it is an energy carrier. One must expend considerable energy in making hydrogen suitable for use, then expend more energy to transport it.

- A hydrogen automobile is the last place to begin because of conversion efficiency and infrastructure issues. Instead the author advocates near-term development of proven solutions like hybrid cars. Note: Toyota, with hybrids now and fuel cells in development, made their own study of total efficiency. It shows that a fuel cell vehicle is less efficient than the current Prius and a fuel cell hybrid would only be equal. See a summary by going to http://www.autofieldguide.com/articles/030501.html The study is near the end of the article.

- The best place to start with hydrogen is with on-site industrial power generation with cogenereated heat. The author makes a good case for this, primarily that industrial fuel cells are much more efficient than the types being developed for automobiles and that the efficiency is quite good when the waste heat is consumed as well. As well the infrastructure issues are much easier to solve. He does a nice analysis of the market conditions which have slowed the development of this application.

Unfortunately not dissected in the book is the role of the all-electric vehicle. It has been written elsewhere that generating electricity to charge an autombile battery is much more efficient than generating electricity to separate out hydrogen to transport it to fill a car to make electricity in a fuel cell. Given the recent advances in battery technology this is not so far off as it seemed a few years ago. The best part is that the electricity can be generated by any means (including hydrogen fuel cells) without hydrogen delivery infrastructure issues. It would have been nice if he had covered this angle as it has relevance in deciding where public reasearch money should be allocated.

All in all, if read carefully one will find much to think about.

Hydrogen's major disadvantage as transportation fuel is it's low energy density. Compressed hydrogen requires heavy storage vessels and significant energy for compression. Liquid hydrogen suffers from evaporation losses and unacceptably high liquefaction energy. Hydrate storage of hydrogen is a long way from being practical for motor vehicles.

Fuel cells have been touted as the next big thing in transportation. However, fuel cells are extremely expensive and not durable. Especially discouraging is that automotive variety fuel cells will not be significantly more efficient than internal combustion engines.

Alternative hydrogen infrastructure systems are: 1) pipelines to fueling stations and 2) on site reforming of liquids such as methanol, ethanol of other hydrocarbons. All alternatives would require massive capital investment. Local reforming of alcohols or hydrocarbons would be inefficient (and wouldn't make sense because it would be more efficient to use them directly as fuel in internal combustion engines).

A strength of the book is that is deals with overall process efficiencies and carbon dioxide byproducts of various processes. Processes are briefly described for producing hydrogen from coal, natural gas and water + electricity, all of which are well known and energy intensive.

Electrical generation processes briefly discussed include nuclear, geothermal, combined cycle and combined heat and power. Wind and photovoltaic are mentioned but not given much coverage.

Romm makes a convincing case that hybrid diesel electric vehicles will be the logical successors to today's autos.

The concluding chapters deal with the carbon dioxide issue, which Romm finds extremely threatening.

The book is well written and easily readable. Although an engineering or scientific background is not necessary to understand it, not much is provided in the way of background.

Joe Romm's marvelous new book, 'The Hype About Hydrogen', is 'must read' for policy makers, environmentalists, researchers, activists, investors, and all citizens who want a sound and honest appraisal of the possibility of a future 'hydrogen economy'. Dr. Romm's broad expertise in energy-related R&D is evident throughout this long-overdue and objective look at the seriousness of its technical challenges. For several years, a handful of insightful scientists around the world have been trying to get their voices heard regarding the serious issues that seem likely to prevent a hydrogen economy from becoming a reality for at least 40 years. Sadly, even the professional scientific journals and institutions, apparently fearful that the truth might jeopardize funding of pet projects, have hesitated to give audience to the daunting scientific objections to a hydrogen economy.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released a detailed study, 'The Hydrogen Economy: Opportunities, Costs, Barriers, and R&D Needs', early in 2004 that was the first step by a distinguished body toward an objective look at the hydrogen economy. Anyone interested in a sound appraisal of current hydrogen technology needs to start here.

Joe's book, like the NAS study, points out in a clear, and scientifically sound manner why (1) hydrogen fuel cells are not likely to become cost competitive in vehicles, (2) hydrogen fuel will likely always be too expensive, (3) FC vehicles do not help reduce greenhouse gases, (4) the hydrogen infrastructure hurdle is immense, and (5) we must begin now taking meaningful steps to reduce CO2 emissions.

Our planet is facing the serious dual challenges of global warming and the end of cheap oil. Dr. Romm puts the issues of fuel cell manufacturing cost, hydrogen fuel cost, competition, infrastructure cost, and global warming in easy-to-understand language. My only criticisms are that I wish he would have included more on (1) the challenges of hydrogen production by nuclear energy and (2) promising next-generation biofuels, such as cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel from mustard seed, bio-methanol, mixed-higher-alcohols from biomass, and biodiesel from high-oil algae. My recent paper, 'Fuels for Tomorrow's Vehicles', nicely complements 'The Hype About Hydrogen' in this regard. The Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment has also recently released a scholarly work that, like 'The Hype About Hydrogen', looks fairly at the putative hydrogen economy and comes to similar conclusions. -F. David Doty, PhD, engineering physicist

We are told that we are just 10 years away from a viable hydrogen economy by many optimistic politicians and CEOs. We keep being told that we are almost there with revolutionary competition for the internal combustion engine (ICE). Romm takes a serious look at the potential (and hopefully eventual) hydrogen economy as well as why we need to start working decades ahead of its arrival for it to actually work out.

First off, why are we wanting to get a hydrogen fuel cell car? Two main reasons -- energy independence and global warming, the second of which is the more serious problem (and I would say less than 10% of the US population will see this topic as being in any dispute within 5 years -- sadly we just don't have 5 years to sit around). I will focus on the global warming reasoning since very few people in the US seem to be serious about energy independence, even with $3/gallon gasoline.

I'll run over a couple of the arguments Romm gives; there are more in the book, and they are worth reading about.

-The infrastructure problems with a hydrogen economy are daunting. Hydrogen would probably be stored as a gas, not a liquid, meaning we would need to redo a lot of the current infrastructure. We may not have to start from square one, but it will be relatively close and it will be costly.

-If we figure out all the problems with hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles (ie, we get the costs significantly down and the infrastructure problems fixed), we still have a major problem with production. Why? Primarily the environmental reasons. We do not have a good source of hydrogen since we have to burn fossil fuels to get the energy for hydrogen or get the hydrogen from fossil fuels, and both options emit lots of CO2. Following the numbers (given in the book); the bottom line is we emit more CO2 than if we didn't make the switch at all. Even if we got all our hydrogen from renewables and we were using coal for other power uses, it would make significantly more (global warming and environmental) sense to direct the renewable energy to cover coal plants' electricity output and shut them down rather than stop gasoline from being used (fewer total emissions).

Romm goes over each possible solution at each step carefully, covering the economic, environmental, and political possibilities. This is what makes this book tedious and dry to some people -- it is so thorough. Romm covers every reasonable aspect with clarity and often too much detail (I just moved along on a few sections that were too drawn out). His reasoning and conlusions seem very sound. So what does Romm suggest we do in preparation of a potential hydrogen economy?

1. Shift towards higher energy efficiency and renewable energy, neither of which will hurt the economy and will actually save money in the long run.

2. The costs of the hydrogen infrastructure will be enormous, and thinking we will just change everything immediately when hydrogen cars are available (and priced about the same range as internal combusion cars) is just not going to work out economically, politically, or socially. We need to prepare to phase out gasoline and keep open the possibility of phasing in hydrogen, when it's ready.

3. Business as usual is going to greatly complicate the global warming problem, meaning we are going to be battling global warming as we try to develop the infrastructure for hydrogen -- both will be very expensive. Action needs to happen now with no further procrastination. Further, beginning changes now will make it easier to make future changes and make those future changes smaller.

I've outline the big picture that most people will find of interest in this book -- potential vehicle fuel cells. What I haven't mentioned is that Romm discusses fuel cells in general as well, not just for vehicles but for electricity as well, which actually does seem to have a chance to break out in the next decade.

After reading the book, I don't call Romm a pessimist; I call him a realist and someone I wish could help make policy decisions now. I would highly recommend reading this book to anyone interested in what is going on with hydrogen fuel cells or fuel cells in general; it takes a balanced view of the reality and necessity of fuel cells. The book also outlines where our world is headed over the next several decades with global warming.

For those interested, this book has loads of endnotes with the sources of Romms information, so you can find the original sources if you like.

This book shows us in detail what is going on in the world of hydrogen. So many people tout the 'Hydrogen Economy' as the solution to all of our problems, both environmental and caused by the peaking of the production of Hydrocarbons (see Heinberg's The Party's Over). Romm spells out for us how hydrogen is not the perfect solution, but is in fact frought with problems including production, storage, and transportability. This is an important book for anyone interested in the future of energy, which is closely linked with the future of our society.

This was an excellent book that seems to be written by someone who would have liked for hydrogen to be the fuel of the future but who realizes that it may not be the most practical solution.

He mentions the high cost per KW for fuel cells, the difficulty with transporting and storing hydrogen and other barriers that may prevent hydrogen from being widely adopted as a transportation fuel.

He gives some background on Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM), Molten Carbonate and solid oxide fuel cells and provides cost and performance information for them.

He examines other technologies such as hybrids, e-hybrids (plug-ins), natural gas and traditional fossil fuel engines and right now it seems that hybrids and e-hybrids may be better options for reducing greenhouse gases.

The book is very well written and well researched and is worth reading for anyone who wants to know what would be involved in establishing a hydrogen economy.

I purchased two books on our energy future at the same time: Romm's book and "Power to the People" by Vaitheeswaran. Romm's book is by far the better one. It asks the questions and importantly does not blanche from giving you the complex and perhaps disappointing answers. The Vaitheeswaran book, on the other hand, asks the questions and gives no answers. Vaitheeswaran does provide a lot of uplifting examples of energy efficiency around the world. But just because something works in a remote Indian village doesn't mean it's the proper solution in a First World city. Romm's book is geared towards energy usage of the First World and does not suffer such short-sighted disconnect in reasoning.

Most oil is used in transportation.

And here, Romm puts it bluntly. Current gasoline-hybrid cars are nearly as efficient as **projected** fuel cell cars; a diesel-hybrid will be even more so.

Plus, on the CO2 side of the stick, he notes that no current method of hydrogen generation offers tremendous CO2 savings. For example, renewable electricity will save more C02 from the atmosphere if it's used to keep coal-fired electric power plants offline rather than used to electrolyze hydrogen from water.

Romm goes into details of the transmission, storage and fueling problems as well. He says that fuel cells may gain more applicability in the future as backup electricity sources for large businesses, but that's likely to be the only real increase in their use in the next 25 years.

In fact, he explicitly says that hydrogen-powered vehicles will have less than 5 percent of market share by 2030. And he takes folks like the Rocky Mountain Institute, as well as GM, to the woodshed for wildly hyped timetables of when hydrocars will hit the road.

So, what's that mean? He spells it out in black and white. We have to raise CAFE standards, especially on SUVs. No two ways about it.

Romm tells us to get real, and anybody and everybody concerned about Peak Oil, global warming or both needs to read this book.

Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe. That's the end of the good news.

The bad news, according to Joseph J Romm, is that extracting it from its various sources, including water is, at present very costly.

Romm describes electrolysis from water as a "mature technology" with a huge downside: it costs more than 1.4 units of energy to obtain 1 unit of hydrogen energy. In other words you use more energy getting it that it offers in return.

Using waste heat from nuclear power stations is another option, but do you really want to go down that road to save the planet?

All of which just about sums up the problem with hydrogen: in terms of using it to fuel fleets of vehicles the various fuel cells exist at the R & D stage, but safe storage - given the massive compression needed - is a huge problem, requiring costly materials, and exacting safety standards.

But the biggest problem of all, according to Romm, is that the vehicles and the infrastructure - storage, delivery pipes, and the hydrogen equivalent of gas stations - all need to come online alongside the vehicles. You get both, or neither. And the costs are enormous: it's down to governments to initiate and subsidise.

The Iceland Experiment, outlined in the second half of the book, looks exciting until you realise Iceland's unique situation, and its very small population.

(If the Gulf Stream survives climate change - a big if - Iceland looks to be the place that might survive when others go under! I wonder if they take immigrants?!)

Romm writes in easy style, but much of the technical content was way over my head. Don't let that put you off, Romm offers useful summaries at the end of most chapters, and you will get the big picture. And it's a grim one.

Like many authors in this field, Romm believes time is not on our side:

" ... if we fail to act during this decade to reduce greenhouse emissions - especially if we do so because we have bought into the hype about hydrogen's near-term prospects - historians will condemn us because we did not act when we had the facts to guide us, and they will most likely be living in a world with a much hotter and harsher climate than ours, and one that has undergone an irreversible change for the worse."

Are you paying attention in the White House? Are you paying attention Tony? And you, Melanie Phillips: how many more meretricious denials are you going to write in The Daily Mail?

Read this book: hydrogen could save the world's economy, but its way too far in the future.