Bob said:
I was thinking of producing H2 from water, not petroleum products. Hell,
that's cheating. Gas is practically Hydrogen already.
The "hydrogen economy" is becoming an issue for the next US election.
I expect the usual platform ambiguities: since hydrogen can be
extracted using any energy source there is likely to be broad support
from nuclear, coal, oil, gas, and renewables industries. Using any but
the latter is IMO counterproductive, although centralized reformers
could potentially sequester some greenhouse gases.
What would be nice would be a reversible fuel cell for home use. It
could have roughly the same storage efficiency as a battery, with the
advantage of never throwing away available power by becoming fully
charged. Excess hydrogen could be stored and used for cooking,
heating, transportation, etc. or hydrogen could be purchased to make
up shortfalls. Physical size is not so much an issue for home use, but
a large precious metal content would make the cost prohibitive. Other
chemistries are possible, e.g. there is a US patent for zinc pellet
cells using a separate pellet reconstituter. I would hope any proposed
US Hydrogen Institute would support research into all these types of
fuel cells.