Economic Viewpoint
with
Exeviour Shumba
Friday June 13th 2098.The world cup will begin today and every soccer fan across the globe is excited.
People are even more euphoric on account of the fact that there has been a major technological breakthrough that has seen the introduction of a new system of providing energy to power cars. It is an era of the ‘hydrogen economy’
Economists are not in the habit of discussing chemistry and hydrogen is certainly not one of the most talked about terms in economics either. Only when the word ‘economy’ is added to it, is when it becomes appealing to the economic practitioner.
‘Hydrogen economy’ is a term that was coined back in 1970 to describe a system of delivering energy through hydrogen which was proposed by John Bockris at the technical centre of General Motors .
This led to a number of people having cherished desires to see boats, cars and electronic gadgets powered by hydrogen in the future.
A number of ‘hydrogen economy’ pilot projects have been brought into being, with notable projects in the United States (US), the Norwegian island of Utsira and Iceland. The concept is also currently being tested in other parts of the world and has thus far pointed to the high costs associated with such projects. In the past Iceland has reiterated her commitment to becoming the first ‘hydrogen economy’ in the world by the year 2050.
The economy that we live in today can be viewed as the fossil fuel economy. For a very long time, people have been thrilled about the possibility of a new source of energy in the name of hydrogen, a gas and the lightest of all elements in the periodic table. Quite a sizable number of scientific researches in recent times have concentrated on the use of fuel cells to power electric cars. What would the advent of the ‘hydrogen economy’ mean? Reduced air pollution, less environmental pollution and of course global warming would appreciably be curtailed
In examining the state of the Canadian and global ‘hydrogen economy’, Dillan Teckedath (2010) noted that hydrogen “is also a key input in fuel cells, which are capable of producing electricity without harmful emissions — in fact, a hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) emits only water and heat.
Moreover, fuel cells are versatile and can be designed to power everything from a flashlight to a submarine”
He cites cases in Vancouver and the University of Toronto campus where the fuel cell concept was successfully applied.
Judging from the escalating global demand for energy in emerging markets and taking into consideration the fact that the supply of fossil fuel resources in the world is finite, a ‘hydrogen economy’ would be to the benefit of all and sundry.
Just think of the growing energy demand by China and India.
A move into the ‘hydrogen economy’, however, would put pressure on the demand for hydrogen across all sectors considering that it would still be needed for other manufacturing processes.
It is used in the manufacture of fertilisers among other goods. Diverting it to energy production at the expense of fertiliser production would have a negative impact upon the agricultural sectors of different economies around the world. Global food supply would be the first casualty.
The current global hydrogen production is mainly from natural gas, oil, coal and the electrolysis of water. It becomes apparent that trying to switch to hydrogen would be an exercise in futility given that most of the methods of production highlighted above employ fossil sources as inputs which, ironically, the hydrogen is trying to supervene upon.
There is a huge capital outlay involved in setting up a hydrogen production plant as well as the additional costs of setting up the requisite distribution infrastructure.
However, once installed this would consequently yield substantial economies of scale.
The storage of hydrogen has for a long time been a mammoth task for proponents of hydrogen. For it to be stored in a motor vehicle, it has to be pressurised or liquefied. Pressurising would allow for smaller tanks for the car but this expends a great deal of energy.
Owing to a very low boiling point, a hydrogen tank on a vehicle would require specialist insulating material which would corrode it if not properly done.
On the grounds of safety, a hydrogen leak would result in an explosion, leading to serious loss of human life and destruction of infrastructure which is integral for economic growth.
Worse still, it is difficult to detect a hydrogen leak with the naked eye as the gas, by its very nature, is odourless and cannot be detected by smell. Imagine the catastrophic effects on man and the surroundings should a hydrogen-powered car, parked in the basement of a multi-storey building, has a leak.
Safety controls need to be devised before people can talk about a ‘hydrogen economy’
In light of the challenges outlined above, scientists have to surely explore other more effective, efficient and cheaper methods.
For instance, there are other environmentally-friendly sources of energy such as solar power and wind which could be possible solutions although their successes hinges mostly on the atmospheric conditions. They can also make use of bio fuels such as ethanol.
It becomes clear that man has been talking about the ‘hydrogen economy’ for the past four decades without success to the extent that it has remained just that — a talk. Then we have to ask: what became of the hydrogen economy?
- Exeviour Tarisayi Shumba is an economist. He can be contacted at:
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