1. Sources of Hydrogen and the Development of a Hydrogen Economy
Matt Woodson
ChE 384
9/29/05

2. Problems with the Fossil Fuel Economy
Rising costs, shrinking supplies
Air/environmental pollution
Greenhouse gases
Dependence on foreign producers

3. Why Hydrogen? A cleaner, more efficient transportation sector
A reduction in pollution and global warming
Reduce economic dependence on foreign producers of fossil fuels

4. Sources of Hydrogen Reforming of fossil fuels
- Use a fuel processor to split the hydrogen from the carbon atoms in a hydrocarbon
Electrolysis of water
- Use electricity to split water molecules to create pure hydrogen and oxygen

5. Reforming Fossil Fuels
Steam reforming of methane:
High temperature steam (700o–1100oC)
reacts with methane yielding syngas
CH4 + H2O  CO + 3H2
Additional H2 can be recovered from the
CO through the lower temperature (about
130oC) water gas shift reaction
CO + H2O  CO2 + H2

6. Electrolysis Currently much more expensive than reforming
High temperature electrolyzers might make these systems more cost efficient
To eliminate carbon emissions, hydrogen should be generated from a renewable source
Solar - concentrated solar energy can
generate temperatures of several hundred to
over 2000oC
Nuclear - High T electrolysis of steam using heat from
nuclear reactors
- Electrolysis using off-peak capacity

7. Other Sources of Hydrogen
Solar Electrochemical Water Splitting (Photoelectrochemical)
-Integrate a semiconducting material and an electrolyzer
into a single device
Solar Biological using Microorganisms
-Photosynthetic organisms absorb light and dissociate
hydrogen from oxygen

8. What will it cost? Hydrogen must be $3/kg to be competitive
Reforming can produce hydrogen at $5/kg under best conditions (2003 technology)
Price of hydrogen from electrolysis is tied to cost of electricity
Hydrogen from electrolysis costs $5-6/kg undelivered (2004 technology)

9. Governmental Policies Relating to Hydrogen
Hydrogen Fuel Initiative
Announced in 2003, Bush pledged $1.2 billion over 5
years
DOE Hydrogen Program
plans to spend $64 million on research projects in the
next 3 years
Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Grant

10. Conclusions
Huge technical advances will be necessary for H2 to replace fossil fuels
A move towards a hydrogen economy requires the acceptance of the marketplace; cannot be driven by government policies alone
It will be several decades before the US has the capacity to produce enough H2 to impact the energy mix