There is a lot of buzz lately about a hydrogen economy. I have always been a bit of a skeptic about this hydrogen economy, because although hydrogen is a clean burning energy carrier, it is currently produced in a pretty dirty way. Over 85% of the world’s hydrogen is produced by using natural gas in a process called steam reformation. Unfortunately this process is not very green, in fact, for each pound of hydrogen this process makes, it produces 4 pounds of greenhouse gases in the form of carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2). So, the idea of switching an entire economy from one dirty energy carrier (oil) to a little less dirty energy carrier (hydrogen) does not make too much sense to me.

Now the idea of the hydrogen economy is to produce all hydrogen using renewable energy sources, which in theory sounds great. However, typical electrolysis is an expensive, slow, and somewhat inefficient process and this is precisely why steam reformation is the process of choice for producing hydrogen. Simply put, it is cheaper and faster than electrolysis, but in no way is it greener or cleaner.

Until now the electrodes used in the electrolysis process were made of precious metal catalyst materials making them too expensive to compete with steam reformation. A company called Quantum Sphere, Inc. has found a way around this little problem by using an alkaline electrolysis process, which eliminates the need for precious metal catalysts. In alkaline electrolysis, nickel is the ideal catalyst because it can easily be produced at the nano scale and it is far less costly than platinum. The company has also invented a technique, using nano technology, to increase the catalytic surface area of each electrode, giving them 2,000 times more surface area than its predecessors.

QSI has demonstrated that by using a blend of their nickel and iron catalyst materials, they can achieved electrolysis efficiencies exceeding 85%, while achieving production increases of ten-fold over all other previously published data. Keep in mind that electrolysis is a pollution free, non CO2 emitting process. At $1.14 to $4.09 per pound of hydrogen, this drastic improvement in electrolysis efficiency now makes hydrogen an economically and commercially viable replacement for our current fossil fuel economy. With efficiencies like these, we may just see compact electrolysis units inside future automobiles, producing on-demand hydrogen to power on board fuel cells.

There has been a lot of hype about Hydrogen, especially about the new Hydrogen concept cars with integrated fuel cells and the hydrogen economy that will supposedly fuel these cars. Now at first, after watching some of these shows on television, I too was hypnotized by the “Hydrogen as a clean alternative fuel” idea that seems to be so prevalent in the auto industry. However after digesting everything I had learned about hydrogen, energy and economics, a few things began to stand out and some of the logistics were just not working out.

After arguing with a few friends of mine about Hydrogen vs. electricity as a fuel source, it seemed to me that most people believe that the energy output from using hydrogen fuel cells is more than the energy input. Now I’m no physicist, but I did take a few Physics classes in college and this idea seems to be breaking a fundamental law of physics; the Law of Conservation of Energy. In short, the law of conservation of energy states that energy can not be created or destroyed; it can only be changed from one form to another, such as when friction generated from kinetic energy changes into thermal energy (heat).

From this law of physics we can conclude that the energy used to split Oxygen and Hydrogen in water will equal the energy received when the Hydrogen and Oxygen are reunited to form water in a fuel cell, minus any energy loss in the form of heat. This led me to research the fundamental properties and efficiencies of hydrogen electrolyzers. This led me to the Hydrogen Association website where they mentioned that there is a 20% to 30% energy loss when you go from electricity to hydrogen and then back to electricity. This doesn’t even take into consideration all of the energy loss further down the line such as the pressurization of hydrogen into liquid and the transportation of the hydrogen to fueling stations across the country. If all of these efficiency losses are taken into consideration, you are looking at a 75% efficiency loss before the hydrogen even gets put into the vehicle.

Now this doesn’t mean that I think Hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen fuel are bad ideas, on the contrary, I still love the idea of hydrogen as a fuel source, but as it stands now, this “Hydrogen Economy” everyone is talking about will be much worse for the environment than continuing to use gasoline. This is because the way Hydrogen is currently produced is from steam reforming natural gas which is not the most cost effective or environmentally sound technique. The only way that Hydrogen will make sense economically and environmentally is if all Hydrogen refueling stations would use some form of alternative energy to produce the Hydrogen on-site. Norway is a prime example of proper Hydrogen infrastructure with their “Hydrogen highway” peppered with independent solar powered hydrogen fuel stations.

With all of this being said, no matter how you look at it, electric vehicles are more efficient than hydrogen vehicles, simply because you eliminate a process in which efficiency is reduced. Personally I would like to see more research towards electric vehicles and battery system than hydrogen vehicles because they are that much more efficient and better for the environment. Another common misconception is that an electric vehicle using electricity from a dirty electricity plant is worse for the environment than a gasoline vehicle. Although I do not recommend using dirty electricity to recharge an electric car, the fact is, even if an electric vehicle gets all of its energy from a coal burring electrical plant, the net environmental impact for that vehicle will still be far less than an average gas powered vehicle.

The most common argument against electric vehicles is the range. Now in this respect I have to agree that many of the electronic vehicles that I have seen to have pretty short ranges. Recently however, I have seen a few electric vehicles that can go about 200 miles on one charge and be recharged in as little as 10 minutes (from high powered recharge stations). Some people will say that 10 minutes is too long to wait for a refill, but I must disagree. The fact is, the average person can use a typical 110V outlet at their home and recharge their electric vehicle (EV) overnight. This essentially eliminates the need to ever go to a recharge station. In the rare event that someone is driving across country (over 200 miles) then why not just take a 10-15 minute break every 200 miles to recharge, get some coffee or food and relax.

Overall electric vehicles are far superior in many regards to their hydrogen counterparts and as the technology gets better I believe that we will see even further ranges and faster recharge speeds. With the integration of solar panels on the roofs of electric vehicles, those sunny days will no longer just make your car incredibly hot, but you can be recharging your batteries while it is parked at work. Batteries are also getting much more efficient and new discoveries are happening every day which will revolutionize the battery industry. With better batteries and more efficient vehicles, the idea of a sustainable automotive industry is quite possible.

In a recent article from MSN, a professor at Purdue University recently invented and patented a way of using an aluminum alloy to produce Hydrogen from water. The alloy is a mixture of aluminum and gallium and when mixed with water, the strong attraction between the aluminum and the oxygen in the water is what actually causes the water to release the hydrogen and create aluminum oxide as a result.

Professor Woodall says that aluminum oxides could then be put through electrolysis using some other form of clean energy thereby recycling the aluminum for reuse. Purdue actually hold the patent to this process and AlGalCo LLC, a startup company, has gotten the rights to go ahead and commercialize this process in the form of a “magic pill”.

Unfortunately, the company and Professor Woodall are hitting a brick wall with the Department of Energy as they seem to be ignoring and/or dismissing his findings. Professor Woodall is not recognized as a “hydrogen” scientist although he was made famous by winning the National Medal of Technology for compound semiconductors.

As always, a new and innovative idea which would help to break our addiction to oil has been put on the sideline. (See Similar Article) It seems to me that our government and its agencies are not looking for true alternatives to energy, but merely wanting to look like they are.

For More details Read The MSN Article.

A company called Krystal Planet�recently put together the world’s first turnkey�alternative energy system. This Hybrid system comes complete with Solar panels, a wind turbine, a hydrogen electrolyzer, hydrogen storage tanks, a huge hydrogen fuel cell, an Oxygen recovery system, inverters, batteries and installation. This is the first time in history that one company is offering a complete sustainable solution for any home owner.

Not only will this system render your home completely energy independent (off the grid), it will also produce enough extra hydrogen to fuel two hydrogen vehicles. You may be thinking… I don’t have a hydrogen vehicle and they may not be out for another couple of years. That’s ok, you have choices, you can convert your car to hydrogen ($6k to $18k), or you can simply sell the excess to a third party.

The hydrogen electrolyzer does produce some waste, but these waste byproducts are very beneficial. For instance, this hybrid system produces about 10 kg of excess Hydrogen(H2) per month, which can either be sold to a 3rd party for about $500 to $750 per month or it can be used to keep two hydrogen vehicles fueled for good. The second byproduct is purge Oxygen which is also bottled up and ready to be sold to a 3rd party or pumped back into your HVAC system. The last byproduct is purified water which is a result of the hydrogen and oxygen atoms combining in the fuel cell to produce electricity. I don’t feel like I need to explain what you can do with purified water, but for those who are not sure, you drink it

Not only can you sell the Hydrogen and Oxygen, but any excess electricity that you generate can be sold back to Utility Company, and usually at a higher rate due to the new “State Buy Back Programs.” Not only that, but there is a $5,000 Federal tax credit available for the electrolyzer and fuel cell and a $2,000+ tax credit for the solar PV. All of these benefits make the high cost very affordable, especially if you finance the system to match your 30 year mortgage.

The Cost is ~$950 per month or $150,000 straight up. If you analyze the monthly cost, and compare it with your current energy cost, it almost balances itself out each month.Cost analysis:

Average miles driven per car per year = 18,000 miles
Average MPG per car per year = 22 MPG
Average MPG per SUV per year = 18 MPG
Average cost of gasoline = $2.78

Average fuel cost of car = [(18,000 / 22) x $2.78] / 12 = $189.54 per month
Average fuel cost of SUV = [(18,000 / 18) x $2.78] / 12 = $231.66 per month
Average Electricity cost = $130 per month.
Average Natural Gas cost = $120 per month.
Total home energy cost = $250.00 per month

Total energy cost of 1 car household = $439.54
Total energy cost of 2 car household = $629.08
Total energy cost of 1 car and 1 SUV household = $671.20
Total energy cost of 2 SUV household = $713.32

If you look at the figures above, the average energy cost of a typical American home is $250 which would be $0 if the same home was using the Hybrid hydrogen, solar and wind system.

Now if you sell the H2 for ~$600 per month and get rid of your $250 monthly energy cost your net out of pocket expense would be about $100. After selling the Oxygen and any excess electricity that gets pumped back into the grid that last $100 is almost completely eliminated.

How is that for affordable sustainability?
You can add a $150,000 value to your home, eliminate its carbon emissions and keep your monthly cost from rising.

This will make your home Carbon Neutral which is a 400 ton per year co2 reduction. That is equivalent to taking over 60 SUVs off of the road or planting over 1000 trees every year.

Cons:
There are a few negative sides to this system and that is the size. Because of all of the components, you will need to have adequate spaces for these items. The fuel cell, batteries, inverter bank and hydrogen storage tanks will need a dedicated room or rooms. This will require that the home owner add an additional room to the house or include extra space in the design of the house before it is built. Fortunately a garage will do just fine for the mentioned components and the electrolyzer and oxygen recovery system can be installed outside.

The other negative is the high initial cost. Of course this can be offset by financing the system over a 30 year period which brings the cost down to about $950 per month. Still some may not be eligible for such a large loan; however Krystal Planet does do high risk financing for those individuals with “questionable” credit. Of course the high risk comes with a cost, that being a higher percentage rate.

The only other negative side I see is the maintenance. Even though the $150,000 cost does include the initial installation, it does not cover maintenance cost over the life of the components. Although each component does have certain warranties and guarantees, there will be some unforeseen maintenance cost just as you would for any complex component such as a car, AC unit or gas heater.

Conclusion:
The benefits of Krystal Planet’s complete hybrid system greatly outweighs any negative objections. The system will produce a healthy productive household by creating pure drinking water and fresh oxygen while creating no harmful emissions. The 30 year high risk financing option makes this hybrid alternative energy system a very afford option to any home owner.

A good friend of mine just sent me toUnited Nuclear’s website the other day to have a look at their new conversion systems for late model cars. n my opinion this is a fantastic breakthrough in the alternative energy world as they have found a way for us to produce and store hydrogen safely using Hydrides.

The systems works by using hydrogen in a typical (slightly modified) internal combustion engine and instead of burning hydrocarbons it burns the hydrogen. This of course almost eliminates all emissions aside from a small amount of nitrogen oxides which can be easily filtered out.

The genius in this system is that fact that it comes with a solar powered hydrogen generator which you can use to generate your own hydrogen at home. In a nutshell this will allow you to never have to buy gasoline again. Even though the small hydrogen generator will generally take about 2 day to generate enough hydrogen to fill a small canister, you should still be able to always have enough on hand to never buy gasoline again.

Now there will be times where you will need to use gasoline, and this system allows you to switch back and forth between gasoline and hydrogen with a flick of a button, so those long trips are still an option.

THE NEGATIVE:

Unfortunately, due to the fact that Hydrogen gas burns so much faster than Gasoline, engines with compression ratios greater than 9.5 to 1 are very susceptible to damaging pre-detonation (engine knock). For this reason, Hydrogen conversions are not recommended for vehicles with turbochargers, superchargers, or compression ratios greater than 9.5 to 1. Also, because of the higher compression, different ignition system, and host of other factors, the Hydrogen Fuel System will not work on diesel engines.

Now of course with any good system and great idea which saves money and gasoline comes the “Big Business Conspiracy”.. “The Man”. According to Cryptogon.com‘s website, here is the latest news about United Nuclear:United Nuclear Raided by U.S. Government :

Inventors can’t be allowed to provide viable alternatives to hydrocarbon derived gasoline directly to the public. It just can’t (and will not) be allowed. If you try it, men wearing black ski masks will show up, point guns at your head and steal your plans, records and computers.

They hate us for our freedom!

People who make jokes about “conspiracy theories” should try this one on for size:

Instead of moving forward with our research, 100% of our time and money is now being spent on fighting a legal battle with the U.S. Government.

Some time ago, the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) recruited the SWAT team and other Government agencies to raid our facility confiscating all papers, plans and computers.

They are attempting to block all sales and use of the chemicals used in our Hydrogen storage system.

The materials in question are common Oxidizers and have never been illegal to own or purchase and are not even classified as hazardous materials.

Isn’t that just a shame?

Well until they are up and running again, there are other viable options like thisOxy-Hydrogen Generator. It’s not a total sustainable solution, but hey it gives you 28% better fuel economy.