September 26, 2002
From the desk of Jane Galt:I remember how excited I
I remember how excited I was when I read in Time magazine or some such about the carbon-emissions-free future we could all enjoy just by switching our energy source to hydrogen fuel cells. And I remember how bone-crushingly stupid I felt when an engineer I know who enjoys travel, long walks on the beach, and making non-engineers feel bone-crushingly stupid, pointed out two things that I should have known:
1) Hydrogen is not lying around on the ground here on the planet Earth. It has to be produced. Producing this requires energy from another source. In our country, with our fear of nuclear, and our hydro supply that's far exceeded by our demand, that source is -- coal or oil.2) Hydrogen fuel cells are widely touted as clean because all they emit is "harmless water vapor". The single largest greenhouse gas is. . . you guessed it, harmless water vapor.
Hydrogen fuel cells might help improve our efficiency a little bit, because the big turbines they use to generate the electricity to make the hydrogen are much more efficient than the internal combustion engine that powers your car. But not that much, because most of the energy from burning oil is lost as heat. . . and then more is lost in transmission to the factory. . . and more is lost in turning water or methane into hydrogen. . . and more is lost in turning the hydrogen back into water and energy. So the net effect isn't very large, the Second Law of Thermodynamics being what it is.
So here's my question: I mentioned fuel cells to one engineer, who instantly set me straight. How come none of the reporters writing breathless articles about hydrogen power can do the same?
(Link via Dave Tepper)
Posted by Jane Galt at September 26, 2002 05:31 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links