On Sat, Mar 15, 2003 at 09:37:03PM -0800, Gautam Mukunda wrote: > Since hydrogen is (as you say) an energy transmission medium, > not an existing reservoir of stored energy (as petroleum is), a > hydrogen-based economy necessarily requires that someone, somewhere, > generate the energy that is stored/transmitted in hydrogen. The ways > that I can think of to do this, are, well, the exact same ways we > generate energy right now. So what's going on here?
Not EXACTLY the same. A coal process called integrated gasifier combined cycle (IGCC) produces H2, CO2 and other emissions (SOx, NOx, etc) but because removing the emissions is easier in this process, I believe it produces less overall emissions than burning oil in a combustion engine. Also, it produces much more concentrated CO2 than the conventional processes, so there is the possibility to capture and sequester the CO2 underground or in sea-beds. But capturing the CO2 is still expensive, and carbon sequestration is not yet a well-developed technology. There are several IGCC plants operating around the world (Tampa, Florida and Terre Haute, Indiana, Netherlands, Spain), but I think they are just burning the H2 and I don't think they are capturing and sequestering the CO2. Still, there is a lot of coal in the ground that will almost certainly be used in developing countries (potentially releasing a lot of greenhouse gases), so this seems like a good technology to pursue simultaneously with nuclear and renewable energy. -- "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.erikreuter.net/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
