A proposal by US Fuel Cell Council executive director, Robert Rose to the 2004 Fuel Cell Seminar
Open Access Article Originally Published: December 04, 2004
"Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime," Robert Rose began his acceptance speech as the 2004 Fuel Cell Seminar award recipient, quoting theologian and social activist, Reinhold Niebuhr, "and nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone."
In his address, he proposes a plan to fund the research needed to make possible the hydrogen economy. But he first spoke of the need for mobilizing the fuel cell industry, which is still relatively young.
"The opportunities are enormous, but the challenges are great", he stated, noting that his remarks were his alone and not those of the US Fuel Cell Council or the Breakthrough Institute.
"It's time for plain talk and bold action," Rose soberly remarked as he carefully spelled out the rationale for his plan. "Our industry faces opposition from entrenched interests and also from some people who should be our friends. Our nation faces determined and clever enemies who see energy dependence as a fundamental vulnerability. The community of nations faces a world shaped by the geopolitics of oil and the consequences of carbon-based fuels.
"The world economy is addicted to oil. Oil demand exceeded 82 million barrels a day this summer in the face of rising prices. And the Energy Information Agency of the US government projects demand will reach over 120 million barrels a day by 2025. Most of that demand will come, largely, from nations that have missed out on the benefits of the oil century, and that's good. They want and deserve their share of human comfort and affluence."
What happens, Rose asked the nearly 3,000 attendees at the opening plenary session in San Antonio, Texas, just a block from the historic Alamo, when supplies begin to run short or price competition becomes too aggressive? For this and many other valid reasons, Rose believes the only logical course of action is to look to hydrogen, recognizing that there are hurdles that must be surmounted and will require extraordinary, but not unrealistic financial resources, though certainly more than is currently being expended by government or industry today.
To listen to the entire 17:30 minute address, use the Flash-based MP3 Player at the right, or feel free to download the file to your computer's hard drive for transfer to your favorite MP3 device. EV World wishes to thank the Fuel Cell Seminar and the U.S. Fuel Cell Council for permitting use to record and then share Mr. Rose's address.
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4 comments so far...
09-Dec-2004
5599
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I don't know how many barrels of oil would be needed to make a barrel of hydrogen, but at 82,000,000 barrels of oil per day, say maybe about 114,800,000?
Sure, fuel cells are possible! But once the Age of Oil and the Oil Wars have passed -- then what?
On my desk I have a baby's pacifier. Isn't the fuel cell car just that, a pacifier for the public?"
Posted by: Charlie MacArthur
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10-Dec-2004
5611
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I think all these questions of how much energy it takes to produce a equivilant amount of energy in Hydrogen as compared to a gallon of gasoline will prove to be beside the point in in the end. When oil is no longer readily available and much more expensive, we will simply have to do what it takes
to produce alternative fuels. If we have to pay a premium for a gallon equivilant of Hydrogen or whatever it is we want to run in our transport as a portable power supply, that will be what we will have to do. We will have to contrive to do things alot differently then we are doing now with less then 30 percent of the power being utilized to drive oversized, overweight, high drag vehicles from stop light to stop light and at excessive sppeds on the open roads."
Posted by: john Gilkison
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11-Dec-2004
5624
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As many independent scientists and experts already pointed out: the hydrogen economy is a dead-end concept and nothing but an oil and car companies' wet dream. Hydrogen is not going to solve a single problem, let alone energy independence, exept when your problem is having too much energy that needs to be wasted along the way of producing, compressing, transporting and eventually burning/oxidizing hydrogen again.
The real solution is simple and proven: batteries.
With electricity there is no need to build new infrastructure, cause it's already there: the power grid. Power lines have an efficiency of 92%. Todays batteries store energy at 95% efficiency.
Why waste electric energy on hydrogen? Several studies showed that a FC vehicle needs 3 to 4 times as much energy as a pure EV with otherwise identical specs.
The so-called hydrogen economy faces so many problems on all fronts, it would need not one, but several miracles to work out, and it would still never reach the efficiency of pure electricity. In contrast, there is just ONE challenge with the latter: better batteries.
So, all that is needed is a fraction of those billions of dollars wasted on hydrogen research, to use on research on even better batteries and chargers than there already are. And voila, problem solved - as far as oil- and emission-free mobility goes.
Energy independence requires new sources of energy: renewables, preferrably, but that's a no-brainer anyway, isn't it? Is Hydrogen an energy source? NO! It needs to be produced and in the end only yields 25-30% of the energy you put in.
So Hydrogen is supposed to end the energy dependency and oil addiction? Could there be anything more STUPID?
Ending energy addiction by wasting more?
On thing is clear. Hydrogen is about making money. But since those Fool Cell proponents only like profits and not costs, they first need trillions of dollars from taxpayers, who in turn can then be turned into hydrogen addicts and who will then readily buy the hydrogen at a premium (as stated in the address). After all, oil companies need to sell something at gas stations, once there is no gas left to be sold.
Consumers, who still think hydrogen is a good idea need to wake up now! The hurricanes in Florida are only the beginning of the host of natural desasters that global warming is going to bring upon us. We simply don't have 50 years to waste on a mindless hydrogen experiment."
Posted by: Ingo Tributh
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15-Dec-2004
5675
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[sarcasm]Think of all the job that will be create to
supply all that hydrogen [/sarcasm]"
Posted by: dursun sakarya
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