How cheaply could hydrogen be mass produced?

Question

Could it replace natural gas for heating, for electricity production? Could it be cheaper than natural gas? Coal? Petroleum? I know it is dangerous in cars but the same odor they put in natural gas they could add to the hydrogen to make it a little safer for the home. And what about electric companies that use natural gas to produce electricity could they use hydrogen? Would it, could it be cheaper?

Answer 1

Unlike natural gas, there is no "hydrogen gas" reservoir one can drill into and then use.  Hydrogen gas must be produced by principally two methods, one is "steam reforming of natural gas", the other is "electrolysis of water".  Both are energy intensive.  

Hydrogen has been talked about because it can be adopted as a transportation fuel (fuel cell) with zero emission.  In essence we are shifting the pollution.  For example, we burn coal in a power plant to generate the electricity to drive the electrolyzers to produce the hydrogen.  

Hydrogen is a very flammable gas, much more than natural gas, so there are a lot more safety concern with it use.

Answer 2

Almost all hydrogen produced today is made FROM natural gas. That hydrogen is more expensive than natural gas, because of the work to make it added to the cost of the gas. Making hydrogen any other way, including by electrolysis of water, is even more expensive. And hydrogen is harder to store and transport than natural gas. So I can't see hydrogen ever being cheaper than natural gas, as long there is any natural gas left in the ground to tap. Even after that, the main component of natural gas, methane, is produced by all kinds of organic matter decaying. You can collect it from sewage treatment plants and land fills. And that is being done today. So natural gas or methane is just a way better fuel, except for special cases like rockets where the low molecular weight of H2 is enough of an advantage to outweigh its many disadvantages.

Answer 3

It can be produced for free using solar power.

If we set up a mass transit system, the vehicles can operate on hydrogen generated from water that has been cracked by power supplied from solar cells attached to the tracks of the mass transit system.  Extra solar power can be sold or donated, and extra hydrogen produced can be sold or donated.

There are companies that are prepared to do this now, and I talked to one guy who is setting one up for Detroit.  The company name is The Interstate Traveler Company LLC and their link is below.

Answer 4

expected to be expensive air cars are much cheaper to mass produce and alot simpler check out ConvertToAir.com for information on how air cars work

Answer 5

Hydrogen can be generated from natural gas with approximately 80% efficiency, or other hydrocarbons to a varying degree of efficiency. The hydrocarbon conversion method releases greenhouse gases.

Biohydrogen can be produced in an algae bioreactor. In the late 1990s it was discovered that if the algae is deprived of sulfur it will switch from the production of oxygen, i.e. normal photosynthesis, to the production of hydrogen.

Production is now economically feasible by trespassing the 7-10 percent energy efficiency (the conversion of sunlight into hydrogen) barrier.

Other methods include Electrolysis and Thermochemical production, but these require high energy input which increases cost. Although, in 2003, steam reforming of natural gas yielded hydrogen at $1.40/kg but as gas prices increase, so does the cost of the Hydrogen/kg.

Although if the electricity required for room temperature electrolysis was produced from renewable energy, this would reduce costs and the carbon footprint of production.

Hydrogen combustion in a conventional engine would produce very high levels of NO.

However, for a project in Abu-Dhabi Hydrogen gas is going to be used to fuel gas turbines and generate 420MW of low-carbon electricity. The CO2 from the reaction is going to be pumped into a producing oil field to maintain pressure, currently natural gas is used, with CO2 replacing this, the natural gas may be exported or used elsewhere.

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