The Hydrogen Energy Economy

This is a letter I wrote in March 2007 to some of my friends who occasionally tolerate the pontificating of my ideas on important topics :-) Here are some thoughts & solutions that can change the world from the global warming problem that is upon us:

X PRISE & A PARADIGM SHIFT: This CNN article on alternate energies for cars mentions hydrogen http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/03/09/cars.100mpg.popsci/index.html but even more interesting is how the same X group who put up a prize for encouraging private enterprise to put a man in outer space (achieved twice in 2004), is going to put up a prize for new development of alternate energy cars. They do not expect the new ideas to come from existing conventional companies (petrochemical companies), any more than they expected radically new rocket science ideas to come out of NASA. These old industries are "tired" & set in their way of thinking & not highly motivated to see a new & different way of thinking. They need to be side stepped by new thinking & new motivations. The article mentions that "we need a paradigm shift," in our thinking & I would agree with that. That's pretty much the same thing as saying that we need to "think outside the box". I have mentioned to many people what I believe the answer is, so maybe I need to focus myself on how to get involved in this new hydrogen energy economy & make a career out of it.

The answer is a car with an electric motor that is powered by a fuel cell battery, with hydrogen as it's fuel & that hydrogen should be stored in hydride cartridges to eliminate the need for infrastructure filling stations all over the country. Ideally that hydrogen should be generated from renewable sources (wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, micro bacterial, ocean waves, etc) so we aren't wasting non-renewable & polluting sources (oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, etc). This is as clear as the nose on my face, so others probably see it too, but industry is happily making lots of money with the existing model (note the current price gouging going on at the gas pumps), so the solution isn't going to come from them unless they can see a quick & easy way to make even more money using a new paradigm. With all new technologies, it takes investment before they get going & there isn't a lot of money to be made up front, hence they aren't going to move very fast on hydrogen because there is no early profit motive.

A NEW MANHATTAN PROJECT TYPE OF UNDERTAKING: The American's (with help from Britain & Canada) put together the "Manhattan project" during the second world war to create the atomic bomb to win the war. It was possibly the largest undertaking for one technical solution that mankind has ever done & they pulled it off in under 4 years using every brilliant mind they could put towards it. It should be noted that the politicians wasted 2 years dragging their feet before they got started, which could have ended WW2 two years earlier. If America really wanted to solve the global warming crisis, free themselves from the need of foreign energy dependence (oil), & put their country on the map towards technology leadership that would be the new way to be a superpower, they could pull another rabbit out of the hat & form another Manhattan project to bring about the hydrogen energy economy. This "Manhattan project #2" wouldn't be nearly as difficult as the one which created the atomic bomb, because everything has already been invented, it only needs to be refined so that economies of scale make hydrogen as doable as the hydrocarbon energy economy. This is possible, but unlike the sense of urgency during world war two, there isn't the uniform sense of urgency to do this (yet). There are still some people around who won't even admit that our planet is warming up at an alarming rate. Human nature seems to need a sense of urgency, or a disaster to act as a wake up call before great change occurs. When there finally is a sense of urgency, it may be too late, we may have cascaded our environment into a disaster of irretrievable feedback of global warming, unless we act really soon.

KEEPING THE COST IN PERSPECTIVE, A CHALLENGE FOR CANADA: By the way, in case people think a "Manhattan project #2" is too expensive, it supposedly only cost 2 billion dollars (based on 2004 dollars) for the Manhattan project #1. To put that in perspective, the American war in Iraq & Afghanistan spends 2 billion dollars every 5.8 to 9.6 days (depending on which estimates you believe) & that doesn't include the cost of veterans payments for decades to come. NASA's 2008 budget is 17.3 billion dollars (equal to 50 to 83 days of war in Iraq), or put another way, 42 days of NASA's annual budget would pay for a "Manhattan project #2" if it cost the same as the "Manhattan project # 1". The American Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year is 12.98 trillion dollars (12,980 billion dollars) so this is clearly doable to bring us into a new hydrogen energy economy, even for a country such as Canada which has a GDP of 1.089 trillion (1,089 billion dollars). Canada could afford the investment of a "Manhattan project #2". Personally I think it would take a much larger government money infusion than $2 billion to make a hydrogen energy economy happen in a few years. If a "Manhattan project #2" was organized it would have incredible dividends for the country(s) that developed it. America may be too divided to see the wisdom of doing this & too invested in war to want to spend the money, but Canada could do this & once again lead the world in a peaceable solution. BTW, Canada has been at the forefront of most leading technology including the Manhattan project #1. There is no reason why Canada can't lead the world once again into a new era.

HYDRAULICS ENERGY RECOVERY IS ANOTHER GREAT IDEA: The CNN link above also mentions about a new recovery & propulsion system of "hydraulics" for cars which can be applied to old technology like gas burning internal combustion engines & new technology cars that are hybrids or that use hydrogen to run electric engines. In city traffic, cars get worse efficiency than on the highway because they waste a lot of energy accelerating & decelerating (braking), or idling at a stop. So what if you could recover some of the wasted energy used in braking & put it towards accelerating? Well you could increase your mileage efficiency by up to 30%. The concept is not new, but what is new is a drive train for the motor that uses "hydraulics" to accelerate & decelerate. When you brake, instead of brake pads stopping the wheels (a total waste of inertia or kinetic energy) the hydraulic pump does the braking & stores 70% of the wasted energy as pressure which can later be used to make the wheels accelerate. Not only does this idea recapture energy that was being wasted by braking, but the idea eliminates the need for a transmission. Conventional automatic transmissions are an energy waster, they take away from the efficiency of a car. The use of hydraulics as an energy recovery method for braking & as a transmission replacement for acceleration is an example of thinking outside the box. It's not new technology, but the way it's employed is new & it offers the possibility of getting mileage efficiency in city driving that is nearly as good as if you were doing highway driving. If you added the use of hydraulic acceleration & deceleration to an electric car that was run by hydrogen, it would augment it's efficiency in city driving & such a vehicle would not only be cheaper to fuel, but it would accelerate faster & be completely pollution free. This is possible right now, it only takes the minds of core people in a Manhattan type project to make it a reality. Unlike the original Manhattan project where they had to create new stuff that never before existed, a "Manhattan project #2" is just a matter of refining existing technology & combining it in innovative ways that make it safe, practical, cost efficient, pollution free & economical on a large scale.

WHO IS REALLY FOR THIS IDEA & WHO ISN'T: Here's a quote worth giving some thought to. "...the current paradigm is so thoroughly established that the only way to change is to start over again." quote from Donald Norman. From my perspective & a historical perspective, the solutions to major problems don't come from the organizations that created the problem. The solution for a pollution free renewable resources based hydrogen or electrical energy economy, absolutely will not come from the hydrocarbon petrochemical industry that caused the problems (or the current American president who is an oil man), so we shouldn't be looking to them for many of the answers, nor are most governments likely to pay much more than lip service to the new idea when they derive so many taxes from the current system (follow the money trail). An example of that lip service was the announcement in January 2003 by president Bush http://www.execulink.com/~impact/hydrogen.wmv that he would devote $1.2 billion dollars to hydrogen research in the coming years, which really is a paltry insulting sum when spread over many years, that is nothing more than lip service to pacify the green environmental people when it doesn't expect to put hydrogen vehicles on the road for 16 years. If an American president (Roosevelt) can set an agenda of making an atom bomb & achieve it in under 4 years & if an America president (Kennedy) can set an agenda of sending a man to the moon & achieve it in just over 8 years from announcement to completion (at the same time as the Vietnam war was being funded), then any America president (even one as incompetent as Bush) can sure as hell set an agenda of making hydrogen cars available to the public in less than 16 years. Bush is an oil man who represents far right wing interests as well as many business interests, so you will not see green hydrogen solutions coming from an oil man, only patronizing promises that aren't kept & are meant to deceive his true intentions of using hydrocarbons (see Green Hydrogen Coalition). The same vested interest in "control" is true of a judicial system which is entirely controlled by lawyers who make the laws, enforce & judge them. Their way of life & power base is threatened by radical change from within, so they will resist change to the laws & judicial system they have established, just like the oil & car industry will resist change. The only way you can truly make needed massive change quickly, is either because of a sense of urgency (life & death situations), or from outside the system, by free thinkers who come up with a better way to do an "end run" & make the old system obsolete. History is replete with examples of people who think outside the box by making paradigm shift changes despite the status quo resistance.

AN OPPORTUNITY TO GET NORTH AMERICANS BACK TO WORK: On March 20/2007, Bush was touring American auto plants http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/03/20/bush.automakers.reut/index.html & these auto companies "want a large federal investment to help them advance alternative fuels and battery technology for electric cars." These are the same domestic auto companies that refused to make more fuel efficient & smaller cars in the last 15 years while the Japanese made fuel efficient cars. Bush will probably do nothing much to help these domestic car companies, but from my perspective this is the perfect opportunity to get these companies to see that the future could be in leapfrogging the Japanese by moving fast into making electric cars that run on hydrogen. American car manufacturers have always followed the Japanese, maybe now is the time to lead the Japanese. These domestic car companies are in major trouble & they need a magic bullet to help fix things & that magic bullet could be making hydrogen cars. They are finally in a position to want to embrace this technology because it could be what saves them. It's time to unfold the Hydrogen energy economy, salvage our environment & save our industries.
Update note just over two years later (June 2009) General Motors & Chrysler did not make the changes & recently went bankrupt. We could still repurpose their factories & employees to build electric cars before the assets are sold off, but vision is lacking & that probably won't happen.

THE FUTURE IS HERE NOW & IT ISN'T US LEADING IT: In case you think the future of electric cars fueled by hydrogen is many years away, check out this link that indicates the future is here now, http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/03/09/cars.hydrogen.popsci/index.html Honda developed a prototype they call the FCX & it looks very much like a future version of a Honda Accord. It's exactly what I've been talking about for many years (except for the hydride storage cartridges), a fuel cell battery that runs from hydrogen & air, with the electricity driving an electric motor & the by-product of water drains out on the ground. Totally pollution free (assuming that the hydrogen was made from renewable resources). Small quantities of this car will be available to the public in 2008, so once again the Japanese are ahead of us. We can lead the future of the world if we set a goal to do it.