Abstract
Introduction
- What is the Hydrogen Economy? Is it going to happen?
- The energy sector of the world is on the cusp of immense change
- The world’s demand for energy is voracious and increasing
- Our energy infrastructure is aging and large chunks are at the end of
their design life
- People are becoming aware that the primary energy resource, fossil fuels,
is not limitless
- We are constantly bombarded with catastrophic predictions of global warming
- So what is the answer?
- One solution being put forward is to convert from the Carbon Economy which
fuelled the Industrial Revolution to a Hydrogen Economy
- But what is this and will it solve the problems?
Report Scope
- This report explains what a Hydrogen Economy would be
- It describes the many obstacles which would need to be overcome to bring
it into existence
- The development of the Hydrogen Economy will advance on two parallel fronts
- The development of another technology, the Fuel Cell, is essential to the
exploitation of Hydrogen; the two are interlinked
- Fuel cells utilise the chemical energy of hydrogen to produce electricity
and thermal energy
- We are further along the road than many people realise, the report
outlines the development of Fuel Cells as technologies and markets
- The technology and infrastructure to produce and deliver large quantities
of hydrogen to consumption points must be created
- The many and varied technologies of Fuel Cells, alternatives to batteries
and the combustion engine, must be developed and refined to exploit the
properties of hydrogen
- Hydrogen will be produced from a diverse base of primary energy
feedstocks, or from water using renewable electricity in the process
- Fuel Cells are already being commercialised and are used in a wide variety
of products
Key Research Findings
- Hydrogen and Fuel Cells have competitors
- New technologies include large scale electrification in conjunction with
plug-in hybrid vehicles and Li-ion batteries in transport
- In the stationary applications market, distributed electricity generation
or cogeneration present an alternative to hydrogen
- Other significant competitors are a new level of power generation
technologies, such as large, increased efficiency coal and gas-fired power
plants, possibly using underground coal gasification (UCG) with CO2 capture
and storage (CCS), renewable electricity supply technologies which are already
widespread in the market (wind and solar PV) or now being commercialised
(ocean and tidal energy), and new nuclear power technologies
- ABS believes that in 50 years the world may use a hybrid, a composite of
Hydrogen and Fuel Cells, beside other energy carriers, distributed generation,
gas and electricity, renewable energy and emission-free generation from
hydrocarbons using underground coal gasification, carbon capture and storage
- The possibilities are endless
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