[Also in this issue] [Print this story]
|
 Linking Hydrogen and Renewable Energy Strategies is VitalVenki Raman, President, Protium Energy Technologies Tel: 610-351-2749 e-mail: venki.raman@protiumenergy.com The world simply can not continue on the present “business as usual” path of relying exclusively on fossil resources to provide its rapidly growing energy needs. We are choking ourselves by polluting the air we breathe, we are warming the atmosphere at an alarming rate by emitting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and we are dangerously risking our energy security by our growing addiction to imported oil for our transportation needs. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are increasing at the rate of 0.5% per year, and emissions will continue to rise from 26 billion metric tones (MT) in 2004 to 43 billion MT1 in 2030 with growing energy use. In this same period the demand for oil is projected to increase from about 85 million barrels per day to about 120 million barrels per day. However, a growing number of oil industry players are warning that there may be a practical limit of around 100 million barrels per day to the amount of crude oil that can be produced2 – well short of the demand. This production “plateau” is foreseen due to restricted access to oil fields, spiraling costs of production, and declining production from aging oil fields. With these concerns about looming oil shortages, and the unsustainable nature of current energy production and use, there is no longer any doubt that renewable energy sources will have to play an increasing role in the world’s energy future. It is not surprising therefore that there is a groundswell of interest in alternate and renewable energy sources. Many renewable energy technologies are already cost competitive with oil at $50 per barrel. With current cost of oil at $125 per barrel, many renewable energy technologies are poised to make serious inroads into energy markets. Furthermore the nascent market for carbon emission credits and renewal energy certificates will provide additional financial incentives for the implementation of these technologies world wide. While most of these technologies are supported by government subsidies today, such subsidies should not, and will not be required much longer because the cost advantages and financial incentives will be more than enough to sustain the growth of these technologies. Markets exist today for many renewable technologies. For example, wind power represents more than 1.5% of the total U.S. electricity generation capacity and is growing rapidly. Solar power added over 300 MW in new generating capacity in 20073 . According to projections by the DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA)1, biomass and wind in particular will grow by factors of 4-5. Biofuels - ethanol, and biodiesel - are experiencing a real boom now. Worldwide production is over 16 billion gallons per year (BGY) for these fuels. The U.S. produces about half of this and it represents about 3% of the transportation fuel consumption. Due to strong government incentives and loan guarantees, the number of ethanol plants in the U.S. has doubled from about 60 to 120 between 2001 and 2007. There are also some 165 biodiesel plants in the U.S. with a production capacity of 450 million gallons per year. Currently these fuels are largely made from food crops such as corn, wheat, sugar, soybeans etc. However, in the future they will be replaced by non-food crops and other cellulosic feedstocks such as forest, agricultural, and municipal wastes as advanced biofuel production technologies become commercial. This will lessen the competition between food and fuel uses of agricultural commodities and alleviate the rapid price escalation that has been experienced over the last 2 years (partly due to the demand for biofuels). By 2022 the U.S. has set a mandate of producing 36 BGY of biofuels of which no more than 15 BGY will be corn-based ethanol. The additional 21 BGY will have to come from the so called advanced biofuels processes. New global investments in clean energy technologies—including venture capital, project finance, public markets, and research and development were almost $150 billion in 20075. Global revenues for solar, wind, biofuels, and fuel cells will grow three-fold from $77 billion to over $250 billion in the next 10 years4. Since renewable energy sources are universally available their increased use can mitigate any future energy security concerns. Furthermore since they are either carbon-free or carbon-neutral, they do not contribute to the carbon dioxide problem. However, the most abundant renewable sources - wind, and solar - suffer because they are available only on an intermittent basis and will require adequate and efficient means of energy storage to provide continuous energy supply. Because electricity can be used to make hydrogen via water electrolysis and hydrogen can be readily converted back to electricity, when needed, via a fuel cell, the production and storage of hydrogen would be a potential solution to the intermittency of wind and solar energy. The utility and value of renewable energy is thus significantly enhanced by using hydrogen. Also the production of hydrogen from wind, solar, and biomass energy is a way to enable the use of renewables in zero emission transportation markets. While these synergies between hydrogen and renewable energy should make it attractive to pursue co-development, there are very few cases where the integration of hydrogen and renewable energy is being actively pursued. Even though there is an almost universal recognition of the benefits of co-developing these technologies, they are developed separately and often in direct competition with each other. This is particularly true when it comes to competition for government R&D funds, tax incentives and private investments. This situation must change for the benefit of both. If hydrogen is to play a significant role in the future energy markets, it must be made from carbon-free or carbon-neutral energy sources. If hydrogen continues to be made from fossil fuels, even the best hydrogen delivery and end-use technologies will not solve global warming, or energy security concerns. Carbon dioxide emissions will be further increased, if the overall efficiency, of first making hydrogen from hydrocarbon fuels and then using it in a fuel cell or internal combustion engine, is lower than the direct combustion of oil or gas. An alternate approach to mitigate the carbon dioxide emissions problem is to make hydrogen from abundant fossil sources such as domestic coal while capturing and geologically sequestering carbon dioxide. However, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is largely at the conceptual stage. While there are a few large scale experimental projects underway to study the geological sequestration of carbon dioxide, there is not a well coordinated or sustained effort to develop this technology. According to the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), there are adequate renewable resources to make substantial quantities of hydrogen in the U.S. For instance, there is sufficient wind potential in the U.S. to replace all the current gasoline consumption of 140 billion gals per year with hydrogen5. In terms of biomass resources, the near term potential (at a cost of $50 per dry ton delivered) is over 500 million tons per year which can produce about 50 million tons per year of hydrogen - enough to fuel about 200 million fuel cell vehicles. The long term potential is estimated to be at least about 1.3 billion tons per year. Compared to the other renewable energy industries, the fuel cell industry is small (2007 revenue of $1.5 billion) and has a long way to go before it becomes a significant player in the worldwide energy markets. The efforts to date are largely in the development and demonstration stage. The lion’s share of the development dollars have been focused on hydrogen as an automotive fuel, where delivery and storage are major challenges facing its adoption. Consequently investor interest in this field is relatively low. Most investors in the alternative energy field, view hydrogen and renewable energy as distinctively separate opportunities and fail to see that these are inter-related opportunities with critical links between them. Currently hydrogen is largely an after thought in discussions about alternative fuels. While renewable energy markets can develop with or without hydrogen, it is hard to see any rationale for large scale adoption of hydrogen as an energy carrier if it is not produced from renewable energy. However, by integrating hydrogen production with renewable energy, its utility, versatility and value are improved. Hydrogen could play a critical role in improving the attractiveness of renewable energy technology for stationary power as well as enable zero-emission use of renewable energy in the transportation sector. It is therefore important that there be a greater policy and development focus on integrating renewable energy development and hydrogen technologies to realize the synergistic benefits of each. References
 |
|
| Also in this issue ... |
||
|
|
 The NHA Website had over 125,000 visitors in the first quarter of 2008! Over 50,000 people visited in the last month alone, compared with the 15,692 monthly visitors when the site initially launched in 2001. |
News & Notes is a quarterly publication of the National Hydrogen Association.
1211 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036-2701
202-223-5547
info@hydrogenassociation.org
www.hydrogenassociation.org