Nuclear power and the hydrogen economy

[John Jacobus <crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM>]

I receive the following for another list server and

thought I would pass it along.



As noted in the report, which can be found at 

http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/hydrogen.pdf :



"Carbon-neutral hydrogen production technologies

(including technologies that use and reuse

carbon but are not net producers of CO2) could exploit

many resources in sufficient supply to

meet the needs of a hydrogen economy. These resources

include sun-energized resources (solar,

biomass, wind) and nuclear energy. Geothermal and

geochemical resources could also play a

role. . . ."



Generally, the report does not consider nuclear power

to be a signicant factor in future energy needs, but

may support hydrogen production.



"However, the potential capacity for solar

hydrogen is quite large. The estimated power output

from 10% efficient solar cells covering

1.7% of the land area of the U.S. (an area comparable

to the land devoted to the nation’s interstate

highways) is 3.3 TW, equivalent to the total U.S.

fossil fuel use in 2000. To place this

capacity in perspective, 3,300 new 1-GW nuclear power

plants would need to be built — roughly

1 for every 10 miles of coastline or major waterway —

to supply the same 3.3 TW of power.

This capacity is more than 30 times greater than that

provided by the 103 nuclear plants now in

the U.S. Such growth in nuclear power is not feasible

today because of the severe constraints in

cost, nuclear fuel supply, site availability, safety,

public acceptance, and waste disposal.

Nevertheless, thermochemical cycles that use the heat

from nuclear reactors to produce hydrogen

by water splitting are being developed and could, in

principle, play a role in the hydrogen

economy on a smaller scale."



I am not an expert on the subject, and would like to

hear some comments, which I imagine we will.



FYI

The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science

Policy News

Number 109: August 21, 2003



Report Charts "Basic Research Needs for the Hydrogen

Economy"



The future large-scale use of hydrogen as an energy

carrier has been

given considerable attention in congressional

hearings, secretarial

speeches, and by President Bush in his State of the

Union address

this year.  A just-released report outlines the basic

research

required to turn the promise of a hydrogen economy

into a reality.



The report summarizes the findings of DOE's "Basic

Energy Sciences

Workshop on Hydrogen Production, Storage, and Use"

that was convened

in May.  This workshop was chaired by Dr. Mildred

Dresselhaus of

M.I.T., who has previously served as the director of

the Department

of Energy's Office of Science and who is now the chair

of the

Governing Board of the American Institute of Physics. 

The 175-page

report was prepared by Argonne National Laboratory,

and can be found

at http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/hydrogen.pdf



. . .

The report's sections on the findings of the three

panels describe

the challenges.  For instance, providing sufficient

and

cost-effective means to produce usable hydrogen will

require an

"intensive effort in both basic research and

engineering."  If

fossil fuels such as coal are used, a carbon-neutral

system would

require the development of an economic and safe method

for CO2

sequestration.  Other production systems are

described, including

various forms of solar hydrogen, biological and

biomimetic systems,

and thermal energy.  Efficient and effective hydrogen

storage,

particularly for vehicles, is critical.  The

transportation sector

is the "most intensive driver for the hydrogen

economy," the report

states, but onboard storage for transportation uses is

"one of the

major challenges in achieving the hydrogen economy." 

Potential

gaseous, liquid, and solid-state storage methods are

described.

Particular attention is given to metal hydrides, which

researchers

believe "may represent ideal storage systems."  There

are more than

numerous metal hydrides, none of which thus far have

met all

requirements.  Solving this problem will require a

multidisciplinary

approach involving, among other fields, physics and

materials

science.  Nanoscience could, the panel found, "provide

revolutionary

new capabilities that will have a profound impact on

hydrogen

storage."  The third panel reported on challenges

involving fuel

cells and novel fuel cell materials.   The panel found

that there

will be a "long pathway" to the use of fuel cells in

automotive

applications, with a cost reduction of almost two

orders of

magnitude needed from what is expected to be the cost

of

mass-produced fuel cells using current technologies. 

Durability is

another important issue to be dealt with.  "The

development of

efficient and cost-effective fuel cell technology

solutions for

automotive and stationary applications presents a

grand challenge

that will take a substantial and sustained effort in

chemical and

materials research," the panel concluded.

. . .

###############

Richard M. Jones

Media and Government Relations Division

The American Institute of Physics

fyi@aip.org    http://www.aip.org/gov

(301) 209-3094

##END##########











=====

-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com



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