A new UFTO service
Hydrogen is not only a sizable industry in its own right (industrial gases), but the whole idea of a hydrogen energy economy has gone in and out of fashion for decades. I first came across it in the 70's, when colleagues at Brookhaven National Lab were drawing up scenarios that looked a lot like the diagrams people have today for a national hydrogen infrastructure. When and how much of that will actually happen is anybody's guess, but before hydrogen meets our every energy need, it could grow to represent an interesting fraction of the overall energy picture. Even at 5 or 10%, it would be very signiificant.
BONUS--the Economist, March 29 issue, has an exceptional special section
"Survey of Biotechnology".and one of the articles
outlines how biotech is changing some basic industries, including chemicals,
materials, and energy. It will remind you of the message we heard
at NREL a year ago about the "biorefinery" and biomass eventually
replacing fossil resources. Serious new progress is being made
on converting plant material (cellulose) into ethanol. But what really
caught my eye was the discussion of Craig Venter's new pet project...to
create a bacterium with a completely synthetic genome which would produce
hydrogen directly, without the intermediate step of making glucose.
The story broke back in November '02, with his announcement
of
the establishment of the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives (IBEA),
which was awarded a three-year, $3 million grant from DOE for research
to develop a synthetic chromosome which is a first step in the Institute's
work toward developing cost-effective and efficient biological energy sources.
Here are references to previous UFTO Notes that have focused on new and novel approaches to Hydrogen technology.
02 Apr 2003 UFTO Note - Photolytic Hydrogen from Sunlight08 Jan 2003 UFTO Note - Sugar to Hydrogen by Aqueous Catalysis
08 Dec 2002 UFTO Note - 2002 Fuel Cell Seminar
05 Dec 2002 UFTO Note - H2 from Multiple Fuels & Polymeric Membrane Separation
15 Nov 2002 UFTO Note - H2 Production Adapts Smelting Technology
10 Jun 2002 UFTO Note-DOE H2&FC Reviews
24 May 2002 UFTO Note - NREL VISIT
29 Oct 2001 UFTO Note - CO,CO2 Removal from reformate H2
16 Feb 2001 UFTO Note - On Site Hydrogen for Generator Cooling