Studying the hydrogen energy chain

Alternative-energy companies are targeting state and local governments as the places to showcase the latest hydrogen fuel technology, but there are still many issues to clear up before the technology becomes a significant part of everyday life.

Researchers look at the entire energy chain (the energy equivalent of a food chain) when evaluating a potential alternative fuel. While cars powered by hydrogen are more efficient than those powered by gasoline, the leading production method for hydrogen fuel requires a lot of electricity. And if hydrogen fuel isn’t produced efficiently by this method, it becomes less viable as a fuel source overall, according to Ken Kurani, an associate researcher at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California at Davis.
To create a hydrogen-based transportation system that has a low overall carbon footprint, primary methods of producing hydrogen can’t be based around coal-fired power plants, Kurani said. Such a process would require a system for capturing and safely storing carbon dioxide emitted by the burning coal–a process called carbon capture sequestration. “If you burn all this coal (to generate electricity to make the hydrogen) and have all this CO2, what are you going to do with it?” said Kurani.

In areas where such resources are abundant, solar and wind energy can efficiently produce the electricity needed for electrolysis, a step in hydrogen-fuel production that liberates hydrogen from water.

Chemical processes that produce hydrogen in a closed, looped system–where chemicals are not completely consumed or denatured–are being researched by the Department of Energy and many groups in the private and public sectors.

ZDNet