Environmental Valuation & Cost-Benefit News

Abstract:
This paper contains brief statements about three new low-cost methods of obtaining clean hydrogen in massive amounts.

In the first method, new technology for converting solar energy and water to hydrogen at a price of $2.50 for an amount of hydrogen equal in first law energy to that in a gallon of gasoline seems to follow from a company's announcement of their new technology, already working, in one fully industrialized plant, producing electricity at a price corresponding to that from coal.

In the second method, pure hydrogen (no accompanying CO2) can be obtained from natural gas and heat. The cost would be a little less than that of the low-cost hydrogen from water decomposition (and avoid storage of hydrogen for the 18 h/day of zero solar light).

In the third method, CO2 is extracted from the atmosphere and combined chemically with the low-cost hydrogen to produce methanol. On being used to produce heat or electricity (fuel cell), CO2 is left over. However, the amount of CO2, thus added to the atmosphere is just equivalent to the amount removed. The presence of low-cost hydrogen from water means that the resulting methanol will also be of low cost and be a cure for global warming without a radical change of distribution method.

Keywords: Hydrogen; Global warming; Oil-based economy; Fossil fuels

Article Outline
1. Introduction
2. The projected fall in the cost of solar-based electricity
3. Hydrogen from natural gas without co-production of CO2
4. The synthesis of methanol from atmospheric CO2 and solar hydrogen

by John O’M. Bockris; Haile Plantation, 10515 SW 55th Place Gainesville, FL 32608, USA

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy via Elsevier Science Direct www.ScienceDirect.com
Volume 33, Issue 9; May, 2008; Pages 2129-2131
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2008.02.030