We try to present a balanced view of the emerging alternative energy technologies on our pages. That means taking a critical eye to the science and tech of what is behind those options. I found a good article today that talks about [tag]hydrogen fuel cell[/tag] technology and why the writer does not think it has viability in the near term.
Ed Ring of www.ecoworld.com argues in an Always On post titled “The Hydrogen Hoax” that hydrogen production uses too much energy going in for the resulting output, whether you are using biomass, electricity or god forbid fossil fuels to generate the hyrdogen in the first place.
First of all, hydrogen isn’t a primary fuel. It has to be produced from something else, either from electricity via electrolysis, or refined from fossil fuel, or distilled from biomass. In all these cases, using the source fuel directly would be far more efficient than converting this energy into hydrogen.
There are many proponents of this technology in the mainstream these days but do they have their information down. In California the Govenor has proposed a whole network of hydrogen service stations across the state, well he did awhile ago anyways but not much has been heard from him on that front lately. Maybe reality crept into the equation.
I think there is room for optimism in this are of fuel technology but perhaps it is not our savior in the near term as many environmentalists have proposed.
What do you think?
