Comment & Debate
Arthur St. Antoine. “Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Reality” – Where does hydrogen come from? Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. Trouble is, most tiny hydrogen atoms within our reach are happily married to big, fancy carbon and/or oxygen atoms, and convincing them to leave and pair up with another boring H atom in liquid or gaseous H2 requires a considerable amount of energy.
“So far, hydrogen-powered cars are fuel for future thoughts”. USA Today. 21 July 2008 – “According to Frank Kreith (J. of Energy Resources Technology, December 2004) more energy is required to produce the hydrogen fuel than is available from ‘burning’ that hydrogen in a fuel cell. Substantially more electricity could be produced by burning the hydrocarbon in a conventional electric utility than could be produced in a fuel cell from the same material converted to hydrogen; too many conversion steps in the hydrogen production process.”