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NNadir

(34,839 posts)
Sun Dec 22, 2024, 05:54 PM Sunday

A solar-hydrogen economy for U.S.A.

The paper to which I'll refer in this post is this one: O'N. Bockris, T.N. Veziroǧlu, A solar-hydrogen economy for U.S.A., International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Volume 8, Issue 5, 1983, Pages 323-340.

In case you missed it 41 years ago, here it is. None of this "hydrogen economy" bullshit is new. The cult reappears every decade or so.

Back then, as is the case now, the "plan" for a "hydrogen economy" was basically an effort to greenwash fossil fuels, destroying exergy as they planned to go (and still do), since the hydrogen was supposed to be made using fossil fuels, with a little nuclear energy squandered on the side. One way to greenwash fossil fuels is to pretend, in defiance of reality, that the source of electricity is so called "renewable energy." Overwhelmingly on this planet, it isn't. The paper asserted that we would run out of fossil fuels. As of today, regrettably, we haven't. We are burning more of them than ever and dumping more of the fossil fuel waste from them directly into the planetary atmosphere. Destroying the exergy of fossil fuels to make hydrogen makes things even worse.

A graphic from the paper:



Simple, isn't it? As easy as pie...

How it's working out:

The paper was received for publication on August 3, 1982, early in the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, the proto-Trump, who died from Alzheimer's disease 20 years ago, not that the popularity of senility has gone away. If anything it's worse.

In the week of beginning August 1, 1982, the week the paper was received, the concentration of the dangerous fossil fuel waste was 340.97

As of this morning, it was reported thus:

Week beginning on December 15, 2024: 424.96 ppm
Weekly value from 1 year ago: 422.40 ppm
Weekly value from 10 years ago: 399.32 ppm
Last updated: December 22, 2024

Weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa

It would seem that 41 years of hydrogen bullshit, (on and off as people recognize it's bullshit and then forget that it's bullshit) did very little to prevent increases in the concentration of fossil fuel waste by almost 84 ppm. Of course now, - now the fossil fuel sales people looking to rebrand their product as "hydrogen" always show Potemkin vast landscapes trashed with solar cells to pretend their product is "green." It's not. It isn't. It's a fossil fuel product.

A Giant Climate Lie: When they're selling hydrogen, what they're really selling is fossil fuels.

Solar energy, in the United States and everywhere else on the planet, remains, 42 years after the bullshit fantasy was first handed out, a trivial form of energy that has nothing to stop the planet from bursting into flames.

And let's be clear, almost none of the electricity in the trivial "electrolysis" pie slice in the graphic below comes from solar or other so called "renewable energy." Almost all of the electricity on this planet is generated by the combustion of dangerous fossil fuels. Electricity is a thermodynamically degraded form of energy, and wasting it to make hydrogen degrades it even further.



The caption:

Figure 1. Global current sources of H2 production (a), and H2 consumption sectors (b).


Progress on Catalyst Development for the Steam Reforming of Biomass and Waste Plastics Pyrolysis Volatiles: A Review Laura Santamaria, Gartzen Lopez, Enara Fernandez, Maria Cortazar, Aitor Arregi, Martin Olazar, and Javier Bilbao, Energy & Fuels 2021 35 (21), 17051-17084]

I referred to this graphic, and reproduced it, discussing a paper in the journal I discussed above here: The current sources and uses of hydrogen.

Have a nice weekend, Happy Holidays, and good luck with all the shopping for consumer items, hopefully not to include home electrolyzers, even if a fossil fuel pusher suggests helping him, her, or they greenwash fossil fuels and recommends buying one. Hydrogen is a dangerous material that should only be handled by highly trained chemical engineers or other qualified types.


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Think. Again.

(19,027 posts)
1. Oh yes, the fossil fuel industry has blocking any and ALL alternative energy production technologies for generations...
Sun Dec 22, 2024, 06:15 PM
Sunday

...and they continue to this day, mostly through the spread of disinformation, paying for false or misleading "scientific" reports, and heavily paid lobbyists, some of which made their names working to fool the publuc about the harms of cigarettes.

Even today, they are working hard to keep fossil fuels in the mix by promoting the lie that Hydrogen can only be made through the use of fossil fuels, when the bulk of the world is focusing their efforts on building a "Green Hydrogen" economy that uses no fossil fuels, and emits no greenhouse gases either in it's production or use. The technology is there, it's already in use, and we are being fooled into believing it doesn't exist.

One day, soon hopefully, the American public will stop being fooled by the misinformation and will see that we are dangerously giving away our nation's energy security if we don't catch up with the rest of the world and start building out an energy economy to replace CO2-emitting fossil fuels.

Caribbeans

(1,038 posts)
2. He's sill living in the 70's or 80's
Sun Dec 22, 2024, 07:04 PM
Sunday

the time period of most of his hydrogen articles and when he says "Hydrogen is a dangerous material that should only be handled by highly trained chemical engineers or other qualified types." he ignores the fact that H2 is safer than propane or natural gas. It would be funny if not so sad.

As I write this there's a 250 gallon propane tank about 20 feet away. And if there's a leak and a spark I'll probably die. And for the record, I didn't come here to get into any ridiculous H2 "fight", I've much better things to do. Thanks for being openmided, FTR I don't think H2 is a magical savior or anything, it's just a part of the new green future, which China is hard at work on. The US seems to be hard at work fighting with themselves - while subsidizing - wait for it - OIL AND GAS and if anyone thinks it will be easy to stop the blood suckers in that industry from leaching off the US good luck!







Here's a neighborhood destroyed by .... something piped through most communities in the US



Hydrogen IS SAFER THAN NATURAL GAS AND PROPANE
unless you live in fantasyland, or maybe 1980

Aug 24, 2023

Fossil Fuel Subsidies Surged to Record $7 Trillion
https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2023/08/24/fossil-fuel-subsidies-surged-to-record-7-trillion

Think. Again.

(19,027 posts)
3. I agree, we're gonna need every non-emitting tech we got, now.
Sun Dec 22, 2024, 07:09 PM
Sunday

We can sort out the details once we're past the danger of pumping more CO2 into atmosphere.

multigraincracker

(34,287 posts)
4. Years ago I heard a talk by a crazy guy and his idea for a hydrogen hemp economy.
Sun Dec 22, 2024, 07:46 PM
Sunday

Over the years he has made a lot of sense.
Hemp fiber can replace wood for paper and save the trees. It grows in poor soil and need less moisture than most crops. Hemp seed for food and oil that could replace desial fuels. The fiber can help replace plastics, see Henry Fords experimental car body using a composite of hemp fiber. It’s a renewable resource. That can even be used in construction projects. The paper it makes is far superior than tree paper. In fact our Constitution is written on it. The more you look into it, the better it gets.

NNadir

(34,839 posts)
6. It doesn't make sense at all, because of land and water requirements. It's just more biofuel based wishful thinking.
Mon Dec 23, 2024, 02:18 AM
Monday

The fact is that after all this talk about all forms of so called "renewable energy," the climate is becoming more and more unstable because reactionary "renewable energy" doesn't work. Thus the ability to grow crops, either for food or hemp or some other cellulosic plant becomes more and more problematic.

One of the consequences of extreme global heating is water shortages resulting from droughts and the disappearance of glaciers. It is also clear that extreme temperatures impact growth rates and sustained, can kill crops.

Think. Again.

(19,027 posts)
7. (psssttt... the climate is becoming more and more unstable because ....
Mon Dec 23, 2024, 07:00 AM
Monday

....we haven't yet replaced fossil fuels with renewable energy as our energy useage increases. Pass it on.)

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