Hydrogen Production
There has been a lot of talk lately about using hydrogen-powered
cars and hydrogen fuel cells to meet the energy needs of the future.
What many people are forgetting is that hydrogen is produced routinely
today for a variety of purposes. For instance, nuclear submarines
use water electrolysis to produce hydrogen and oxygen, which is
used for life support and other purposes. In addition, the Space
Station uses electrolysis as well to produce extra oxygen for
breathing.
 Natural
Gas Steam Reformer for Hydrogen |
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But, most hydrogen production talk today is centered on producing
enough H2 to use in fuel cell powered automobiles. Fuel cells
use hydrogen to produce electrical current, which in turn power
the H2 cars. The only bi-product is water. This makes hydrogen
a very clean-burning fuel and reduces our dependence upon foreign
petroleum.
Hydrogen production is one of the major stumbling blocks to the
new hydrogen-based economy. How do we make enough hydrogen? Steam
reforming of natural gas is currently the most cost-effective
method of producing hydrogen.
While steam reforming is the most cost-effective method, electrolysis
of water is perhaps the easiest way to produce hydrogen, but the
electricity has to come from somewhere. Most electricity in the
U. S. is still produced from coal, so the gains to the environment
in using hydrogen may be lost by stoking the coal furnaces.
Some other methods of producing hydrogen include biological water
splitting, photoelectrochemical water splitting, reforming of
biomass and wastes, solar thermal water splitting and renewable
electrolysis from photovoltaics (PV), wind, biomass, hydro and
geothermal sources. In the future, most likely all of these sources
will be used along with nuclear power to generate electricity
for electrolysis in order to produce massive amounts of hydrogen
that our economy will need.
The hydrogen fueling stations of the future may actually have
hydrogen electrolysis units hooked up to the standard power grid,
creating hydrogen-on-demand for those who are refueling their
vehicles. This would save in the building of massive infrastructure
for the mass production, storage and distribution of hydrogen.
The downside of this idea is the drain this would also place on
our current power grids, which would entail delivering more power
to the grid via nuclear, solar, wind or other methods in order
to generate the required amount of hydrogen per location.
No matter whether hydrogen is produced centrally and distributed
locally or produced in a decentralized manner, what is certain
at this point is that much time, effort and money is now being
spent to ensure the future of the hydrogen economy. As more time
and development efforts take place, it will become even more certain
just how the production and distribution of hydrogen unfolds into
our everyday lives.
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