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)
The Hydrogen Energy Economy
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
The 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
The Hydrogen Energy Economy
Hydrogen energy:
LH2 storage sphere at the
Kennedy Space Centre;
most probably the
worldwide on-ground
hydrogen storage with
the largest content.
Electrolysers, Liquefiers
The Hydrogen Energy Economy
Hydrogen Transport,at Sea
The Hydrogen Energy Economy
The Hydrogen Energy Economy
The Hydrogen Energy Economy
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
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The Hydrogen Energy Economy
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• 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.
The Hydrogen Energy Economy
The Hydrogen Energy Economy
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⇒
The Hydrogen Energy Economy
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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 Economy
The Hydrogen Energy Economy
The Hydrogen Energy EconomySource: BMW Group (2001)
First Public Hydrogen Filling Station at Munich Airport
The Hydrogen Energy Economy
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
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The Hydrogen Energy Economy
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• 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
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The Hydrogen Energy Economy
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• 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
The Hydrogen Energy Economy
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
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The Hydrogen Energy Economy
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• 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
The Hydrogen Energy Economy
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)
The Hydrogen Energy Economy
Hydrogen energy:
It’s Hytime!