Hydrogen Power

Shaq Torrella

English Comp II

03/01/2013

Hydrogen Fuel

Our society and the world is completely dependent on fossil fuels and there have been many attempts at creating alternatives, but there is one that stands out above all the others with is the most abundant element in the universe: hydrogen. Hydrogen is an energy source that will not just run cars, but it can be used to power your house, office and anything that runs off of electricity. The best part about hydrogen is that when it creates electricity it gives off nothing but water vapor into the air making its carbon footprint non-existent. "Fuel cells are space age technology used on NASA vehicles to provide both electricity and heating and also clean drinking water." For years now Europe has been spending upwards of 1 billion euros on development and implantation of hydrogen into the economy. Even though NASA has used hydrogen for a while, the U.S. has not started seriously considering hydrogen as an alternative fuel until very recently. Hydrogen has the potential to replace fossil fuels and break free from our addiction and overconsumption of all fossil fuels.

There are very easy ways of using hydrogen however these ways don't completely eliminate fossil fuels. These are all mixtures of fossil fuels and hydrogen to make fossil fuels more efficient. Currently there are many alternative fuels, and the more we are pushed to get off fossil fuels and greenhouse gasses, scientists continue to produce new alternatives such as hydrogen, compressed natural gas, vegetable oils, bio gas, and petroleum-based fuels including alcohols, and liquefied petroleum gas. As research continues we see hydrogen "has been regarded as a future secondary fuel for power system due to carbon-free operation"(Kandasamy). One major advantage of hydrogen is that it does not always need a fuel cell to run. When mixed with a small amount of compressed natural gas, it can run the average combustion engine with low green house emissions. These steps would cut back on out consumption of fossil fuels, but none of these eliminate fossil fuels completely.

There is a way to make hydrogen without any fossil fuels to create completely clean energy. This is by running liquid hydrogen through a fuel cell. Hydrogen is one of the most abundant elements on planet earth; most people don't realize that it is in all the water in the world H2O: the H in H2O stands for hydrogen and the 2 means that for every one water molecule there are two hydrogen atoms connected to a single oxygen atom. Hydrogen itself is a gas that is very light and floats up to the top of the atmosphere so it must be obtained through other materials such as water. Hydrogen isn't something that was just discovered in the last few decades; it has been around for hundreds of years. "Sir William Robert Grove created the first fuel cell, dubbed the gas batter in 1845."( Busby, R., and Altork). Hydrogen can be obtained from water through a process called electrolysis; in which electricity is run through water and the hydrogen atoms are broken off of the oxygen atom. The hydrogen is captured as a gas and is then compressed into a liquid, which then can be used to create electricity. Hydrogen itself cannot carry energy. The hydrogen must go into a fuel cell which then converters it into electricity, which can be used to power your car or your house. The fuel cells play a very important part because they create power while emitting only water vapor. This leaves no need for fossil fuels to be used at all to power your car all you need is liquid hydrogen and a fuel cell for completely clean energy.

Europe has been the industry leader in developing and implementing hydrogen based electricity into the economy and making it available to the public. In Europe they have been working on integrating hydrogen since the 1990's mostly lead by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Join Undertaking, established by the European Union. "Funding for low carbon energy research on hydrogen and fuel cells in Europe has been gradually increasing since 1990 but has gained significant visibility with the establishment of the join undertaking which is an innovative industry-led scheme, covering the full innovation cycle, from research to market entry"(De Colvenaer, Bert, and Castel). The Clean Hydrogen in European Cities project "involves integrating 26 FCH buses in daily public transport operations and bus routes in five cities across Europe--Aarau (Switzerland, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy), London (GB), Milan (Italy) and Oslo (Norway)" (De Colvenaer, Bert, and Castel). Europe is also implementing hydrogen-refueling stations not only to support the buses for public transport, but also to stimulate growth in private industries to create hydrogen fuel cell cars. The FCH JU is also focusing on cleaner production of hydrogen. Currently using natural gas is the cheapest way to create hydrogen, but continuing research and development on cleaner energy sources is extremely important because the ultimate goal is to break free of oil. By 2015 the FCH JU is hoping to have full commercialization of personal hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Scandinavia plans on expanding the Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway by building on existing infrastructure. They hope to offer a total of 20 hydrogen personal cars. In addition they will have five demo tours around Europe. Europe is seeing hydrogen as the next great fuel and this it is not only decreasing its carbon footprint, but also building a new industry to stimulate the economy.

Here in the U.S. we have not been as progressive as Europe has. We have been focusing on alternative fuels but not so much hydrogen. The United States is one of the largest consumers of oil, "we consume 140 billion gallon's annually, which accounts for two thirds of the total national oil consumption"(Satyapal, Sunita, Petrovic, and Thomas). Many citizens of the U.S. are also strongly against our dependence on fossil fuels; however, we are very far behind in integrating hydrogen into the consumer market compared to Europe; along with this they alternative fuels we have been implementing into the society such as completely electric cars have no had they great success that we hopped for. "In his 2003 State of the Union Address, former president Gorge W. Bush proposed $1.2 billion in research funding so that the first car driven by a child born in the 21st century could be powered by hydrogen and pollution free"(Elliott). Bush not only emphasized the fact that it was environmentally friendly, but also that it was important to the U.S to be energy independence. Bush was and is not the only one who supports hydrogen fuel. "Joan Ogden argues in a Scientific American article that,