hydrogen energy - now! filethe hydrogen energy economy we distinguish the hydrogen economy and the...

The Hydrogen Energy Economy

Hydrogen Energy - Now!

Presented at an Energy Hearing of the National

Parliament of Argentina1)

ByCarl-Jochen Winter, Ueberlingen, Germany 2)

_________________________________________________1) Mai, 2004, Buenos Aires, Argentina

2) Professor Dr.-Ing. Carl-Jochen Winter, Vice President - The International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE)


We distinguish the hydrogen economy and the hydrogen

energy economy: The hydrogen economy is in full swing

• Oil refineries, the technical gases industries, hydrogen chemistry, methanol

or ammonia syntheses, the electronics or glass industries, the food industry …

cannot do without hydrogen. To date, only two industrial branches depend on

hydrogen energy: the space launching business and fuel cell propelled

submersibles.

• Today, the global hydrogen production capacity is approx. 50 million tonnes

p.a., with an annual growth rate of 10% - much too small an amount in order

to serving as gauging rule for the forthcoming hydrogen energy economy


Hydrogen technologies which are routinely marketed

• Hydrogen production via steam methane reforming (SMR) of natural gas,

partial oxidation of heavy oil fractions, coal gasification, or water electrolysis is

day-to-day practice

• The same applies for hydrogen storage either underground or on-ground, in

gaseous form or liquefied, or in metal hydrides

• Hydrogen is routinely transported over distances of up to continental

extensions in pipelines or in all sorts of transportation means by rail or road, or

sea-, air-, or space-borne

• Hydrogen is utilized non-energetically as a compounding element or a

cleansing agent , or energetically in heat engines particularly in space launchers


Hydrogen energy:

LH2 storage sphere at the

Kennedy Space Centre;

most probably the

worldwide on-ground

hydrogen storage with

the largest content.

Electrolysers, Liquefiers


Hydrogen Transport,at Sea



The transfer from the hydrogen economy to the

hydrogen energy economy: major motivations

• Oil and gas are finite, and increasingly concentrated in the world “energy

strategic ellipse” from the Persian Gulf via Iran, Iraq, Central Asian States to as

far as Siberia where approx. three quarters of the worldwide proven oil reserves

and a significant portion of natural gas are located

• Non-CO2 sequestered fossil fuels do not meet the Kyoto requirements

• Hydrogen from CO2 sequestered coal or renewable hydrogen from solar,

wind, hydro, or biomass are environmentally and climatically clean, securely

safe, globally ubiquitous and infinite in a finite world

⇒


⇒

• Fossil fuels’ de-carbonization and, thus, hydrogenation, and, because the

atomic weights of carbon and hydrogen are 12 and 1, respectively, de-

materialization are under way: Because of the ongoing shift from solids-to-

liquids-to-gases with their hydrogen/carbon ratios of coal : oil : natural gas :

hydrogen = < 1 : 2 : 4 : ∞, the relative carbon tonnage of energy decreased in

the last 120 years by 35%; energy is continuously becoming hydrogen richer

and carbon poorer. For the time being, already two of three atoms burned in

carbonaceous energy utilization worldwide are hydrogen atoms. The trend

holds.


Innovative technologies – the opening valve for

hydrogen energy (a selection)

Production:

• Efficient electrolysers for renewable hydrogen generation

• CO2 sequestration technologies

• The CO2 – free coal fired power plant

Storage and Transport:

• Lightweight mobile storages

• Hydrogen dispensers for pilot hydrogen corridors

• Pick-a-back hydrogen transport in natural gas pipelines⇒


⇒

Utilization:

• Fuel cells in portable electronics, in stationary combined heat & power

(CHP) production, and on-board vehicles as exergetically efficient land-,

sea-, or air-borne auxiliary power devices, or in land- or sea-borne electric

drive trains

The Hydrogen Energy EconomySource: BMW Group (2001)

First Public Hydrogen Filling Station at Munich Airport


Pluses of the hydrogen energy economy

• It delivers anthropogenic energy for ever

• Hydrogen from CO2 sequestered fossil fuels and renewable hydrogen

are environmentally and climatically clean over the total energy

conversion chain, from cradle-to-grave

• Hydrogen enables world renewable sources (solar, wind, …) to become

a part of the world energy trade system

⇒


⇒

• Hydrogen from coal offers “dirty” coal a renaissance in returning to the

booming gases market, particularly in the two user sectors energy in buildings

and energy in transport which stand for approx. two thirds of the total end

energy demand of industrialized countries, and from which it disappeared with

the advent of oil and gas: Today, electricity (and steel) keeps coal alive;

tomorrow, hydrogen will be keeping clean coal alive!

• Because there is no nation in the world without an indigenous renewable or

clean coal source of hydrogen, a hydrogen - “OPECization” is hardly

imaginable. Ubiquitous hydrogen is becoming a powerful competitor for

increasingly oligopolized oil and gas and, thus, serving as a global peace

keeping means

⇒


⇒

• Hydrogen helps bringing a so far neglected exergetically highly efficient and

clean energy converter - the fuel cell - to the market; the fuel cell exergizes

the energy scheme and, as a consequence, activates hitherto dormant virtual

power at the end of the energy conversion chain: Thanks to hydrogen and the

fuel cell, power will be generated as customary not only at the front end of the

energy conversion chain, but at its back end, too!

• Hydrogen joins the other secondary energy carrier - electricity - and, thus,

moves the centre-of-gravity in the energy conversion chain towards its end;

energy de-centralization ceases to being a mere catchword


Minuses: Time and Cost!

• The dominating energy raw material supply oriented energy politics of

nations is supplemented, and later replaced, by energy technology politics;

technologies are not energies, but energy efficient technologies are as good

as energies. Hydrogen energy is part of the knowledge-based future energy

economy

• Hydrogen’s primary energies - CO2 sequestered coal and renewables -

are still far from being economically viable; decades of development

worldwide lie ahead

⇒


⇒

• The secondary energy carrier hydrogen is not available for a shoestring, it

will becoming more expensive than the primary energies it is made from.

However, there is good reason to expect that this cost increase is (more than)

outweighed through the much higher efficiencies in the user sectors

• Energy needs time! Decades up to half centuries are the archetypical

measures for the market introduction of novel energies or their technologies.

As the consequence for the hydrogen energy economy, it’s HYtime!, let’s not

hesitate to start and see it through

The Hydrogen Prices 2020Production from Dissimilar Primary Energies


Hydrogen from $/GJ

Natural Gas w/ CO2-Sequestration 7 – 11

Coal w/ CO2- Sequestration 8 – 11

Biomass (gasified) 10 – 18

Wind on-shore 17 – 23

Wind off-shore 22 – 30

Solarthermal Power 27 – 35

Photovoltaic Power 47 – 75

Nuclear Fission 15 – 20

Breeder Reactor 10 – 25

for comparison $/GJ

Gasoline / Diesel 6 – 8

Natural Gas 3 – 5

Source: IEA (2003)


Hydrogen energy:

It’s Hytime!

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