Hydrogen fuel?

Question

I've created a truly fantastic way to make hydrogen from saltwater which is both economically and scientifically viable. I want to sell it to an oil company like ExxonMobil or Chevron. How much do you think it is woth? A specific value would be good.

Answer 1

"How much do you think it is woth?"

nothing.  it won't work.

if it could, you could allow 1 utility to use it for free.

that way they wouldn't have to buy coal or oil to burn.

and it would be all the free advertising you'd ever need.

if they're not interested, there's a good reason.  it won't work.

Answer 2

Yes, electrolysis, I think everybody already knows about actually...

Not to mention if you watch the movie "Who killed the electric car?"...

THE LAST THING YOU WANT IS FOR GREEN TECH TO BE SOLD TO OIL COMPANIES!!!

ARE YOU INSANE, MAN?!?? THEY'LL CRUSH IT LIKE THE NICKEL METAL HYDRIDES!

Plus, hydrogen sucks. Battery-electric is where it's at.

Answer 3

The major users of hydrogen are oil companies in refining processes and ammonia producers.  Millions of tonnes per year of hydrogen are produced, mostly from natural gas, so yes the oil companies would be interested right now in a cheap method of producing hydrogen.  The basic thermodynamics of hydrogen separation from water, whether salty or not, make me doubt whether you can in fact achieve what you say, however if you can you should certainly protect your process with a patent as a first step.  You would be very unlikely to get a large amount of money upfront on an unproven idea, the more common approach would be to aim for a small royalty on each ton produced or a license fee for the design of each plant built.  If one looked at the royalty approach and aimed for a royalty of $0.50 on each ton for say 50% of US production (9 million tons per year http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/fu... ) this would be $4.5 million per year.  Of course a cheap method of hydrogen production would increase demand, you might achieve better market penetration and there is the rest of the world to sell to.

Answer 4

Dream on.We need more nuclear power plants to make Hydrogen a viable fuel and to produce it cheaply.

Answer 5

The first thing I would do is go to the patent office and register it.

I would also make sure a copy of your plans are somewhere safe with someone you trust, and that only that person knows about their copy of the plans.  It would not be the first "we don't need oil" invention to "disappear".  You could use a legal firm for this; if your invention is as good as you say, investing in a little protection is well worth it.

I have no idea what value it may hold, but one option could be to approach governments of committed zero emission countries like New Zealand and Iceland / Greenland (one of them, I can't remember which) as they will be more likely to have interest in it than an oil company.

I just can't see the big oil companies going for anything along those lines; they have a stranglehold on the oil situation and in my opinion would not be prepared to admit that we don't need that fuel at all, and that all we need is sea water.

On the other hand you could distribute it over the net (maybe make a website promoting it) and hire yourself out as a consultant...the possibilities are endless.

But I do think that approaching the oil companies will be like pumping a dry well (excuse the pun).

Answer 6

you r so smart im sure u already work for IBM,or exxon,or general electrict...they have programs to help you get your invention. on the market...its got to b worth 100 billion easy..