Comments on: The Hydrogen Economy

By: mark

mark — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 06:41:21 +0000

Very interesting site, Hope it will always be alive!

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:44:54 +0000

Thanks for your comments. I’m glad you enjoyed it!

By: Shawn

Shawn — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:43:14 +0000

Rick, fantastic piece! I echo your sentiments and can hardly wait for your analysis of the red-headed sister of this moron, clean coal.

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:14:47 +0000

Thanks for your comment.

The answer is actually hidden in your question; “hydrocarbon.” Hydrocarbons are compounds comprised primarily of hydrogen and carbon, so once we take the hydrogen out, we are left with the carbon.

It’s fun to think about the history of carbon on this planet. Our atmosphere used to be thick with carbon dioxide; so thick you couldn’t breathe it. Over a period of millions of years, plants pulled all that carbon out of the atmosphere and, with the help of geologic activity, buried it neatly in the ground. Over the last century, we have dug up millions of tons of the stuff and put it back into the air.

By: Gabe

Gabe — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:13:47 +0000

Is oil the only hydrocarbon that we can separate to get the hydrogen? If they could split something else that is more commonly found, wouldn’t it be a good alternative?

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:50:17 +0000

Good question. Actually, solar panel efficiency has continued to improve every few months for the past 20 years or so. Currently, the really expensive ones are at 40% efficiency, which is about as far as we can go with this technology. The challenge now is, as you say, one of scale. And, of course, there will be new breakthroughs.

By: Michael Moore

Michael Moore — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:49:10 +0000

Excellent Rick! H2 as an inefficient battery sums it up nicely. It has always bugged me that no one pointed out that hydrogen isn’t free, that it isn’t tucked under a rock someplace. The whole hydrogen discussion always felt like a *slightly* more plausible argument than cold fusion.

What I can’t figure out is why they aren’t busting everything to get the cost of solar panels down to a dollar a square foot and then putting them on the roof of every man woman and dog in the country.