Re: bad hydrogen

George,
There was a policy forum by A. E. Keith and A. E. Farrell, "Rethinking
Hydrogen Cars," in /Science/, July 18, pp. 315f; responses on Nov. 21,
pp. 1329ff. The forum had a negative tone; responses challenged the level
of leakage, costs, etc.

I have questions about the source of H2. Most now seems to be made from
methane (natural gas), already in short supply. Getting it by hydrolysis
requires coal- or gas-fired generation of electricity, which does nothing
to reduce CO2 emissions--unless there is a wholesale switch to nuclear
generation. ;-) The use of "renewable" sources seems to require so much
energy for manufacturing that the return is minimal or negative. However,
I have not seen data on this. I'd like to have my pessimism challenged by
something more solid than wishful thinking. Anybody got a working design
for a perpetual motion machine?
Dave

On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 11:26:34 -0500 George Murphy <gmurphy@raex.com>
writes:
> Recently there was some discussion here of possibilities for a
> hydrogen economy.
> There was an article in the 23 Dec. _US News & World Report_ (p.54)
> about an aspect of
> this that I don't think were part of the discussion here - or at
> least that I recall.
> This is the negative environmental effects of leakage of hydrogen
> from pipelines &c.
> They include colling fo the stratosphere, worsening of ozone holes,
> increased global
> warming due to elimination of chemicals that break down methane, &
> possible effects on
> soil organisms. These concerns are attributed to Yuk Yung, a
> planetary atmosphere at
> Cal Tech, & others.
> Any comments?
> Shalom,
> George
>
> --
> George L. Murphy
> gmurphy@raex.com
> http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
>
>
>
Received on Mon Dec 29 13:25:38 2003