hydrogen

[miriam_e]

On the Science Show today they talked at length about some new developments in generating hydrogen cheaply for fuel in large algal ponds. Pretty amazing stuff. It turns out that the world's energy requirements can be met by a surprisingly small area of ponds.

While I'm delighted that people are working on alternatives to petroleum as fuel, I can't help but worry about large scale adoption of hydrogen. Hydrogen is the "H" in H₂O -- water. Hydrogen is also the only element that routinely achieves escape velocity, that is, it leaves our planet. Since its earliest days Earth has been losing hydrogen into space. This is not something that can be easily reversed... well, unless we go and collect more from some the other planets in the solar system -- not something we're likely to in the near future. We've shown many times that we are really sloppy about leakages and spills, but even if we were really careful such leaks are bound to happen, and if the world's economy changed over to hydrogen they would happen often. Dumping large amounts of hydrogen into the atmosphere would accelerate planetary loss. This, in time, would dry our planet because there would be less hydrogen available to make water. How long would it take to become a major problem? I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it would take much less time than you'd expect.

I'm surprised that nobody seems to have brought up that worry. It seems pretty obvious to me.

Comments

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Geez, I don't know, but it's interesting to me.
I always wondered though, cause they say the waste is water if that would end up changing climates. Putting water where it wasn't before and such. But really I don't know enough about it.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

The water-as-waste thing is, I guess, one of the great attractions of hydrogen power. What more innocuous a byproduct than water, the nurturer of life? But, as you say, perhaps altering the way water cycles through the ecosphere might end up having unexpected impact on our lives. I can imagine damp, foggy cities resulting, like the pea-soup fogs that used to shroud London in the old coal-fired days. This time it would result from saturated air rather than water condensing on particles. Would it increase fungal infections? Mosquito infestations?

Much better, it seems to me, is learning how to use ambient energy (brownian motion, sound, wind, light, osmosis), or biological strategies, like the citric acid cycle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_acid_cycle) and store energy in starch or sugar.

It really puts things in perspective when you notice that you can fuel a human all day with just a handful of grain... and our bodies are incredibly wasteful of energy because almost half (if I remember right) goes to powering our oversized brains.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Gluttonous brains! Lol.

Yah, I can't see how it wouldn't result in redistribution of water. Unless maybe if they had some sort of capture mechanism for the vapor.

I'm gonna have to research the other things you mention. Which should be fun. :)

I was talking to my boo about the hydrogen and he tells me that Air Germany has a plane powered by it now. That's all I know bout it though.