Hydrogen: Is it the Fuel of the Future?

At the end of my article titled "Control of Energy", I said that hydrogen is a candidate to be the fuel of the future.

I've been hearing about it a lot lately. I was also curious and researched:

What is this hydrogen, what does it do, how is it obtained?

I know hydrogen gas from my high school chemistry class, one of the two main elements that make up water, the water molecule, whose chemical formula we know as H2O, is formed by the chemical combination of two hydrogen and one oxygen atom. In 1766, English scientist Hanry Cavendish obtained hydrogen gas for the first time from the chemical reaction of zinc and hydrochloric acid. Hydrogen becomes the first element of the periodic table published by the Russian chemist and inventor in 1869, it is the lightest element in the periodic table, it has a single proton and a single electron. The hydrogen molecule, which is formed by combining two hydrogen atoms freely, exists in the gaseous state. It is a colorless gas, its chemical designation is "H2". It is a volatile gas because it is lighter than air. It got its name from the Greek word "idrogono" meaning "to make water".

When I was little, I liked to do experiments on my own at home, I think I was in primary school, I must have read in a magazine how to make a flying balloon.

At that time, cezap was used for cleaning in houses. It was always with us. As far as I remember, it was written in the article that if we put zinc in the cerise, we could make a flying balloon. Even though my mother said that my son is dangerous in that bottle, I don't remember where I found it, I managed to make a flying balloon by pouring some acid from the kezap bottle at home into a small bottle with a piece of zinc tin I found.

Of course, I wasn't aware of the fact that the gas coming out of the reaction was hydrogen gas at the time, mine was the enthusiasm of making a flying balloon. Then I remember that I showed off my friends with my balloon in the neighborhood. Flying balloons were not found everywhere at that time. Especially the girls had been pinwheels around it so that we could do it for us too. I also liked this interest.

My experiments and production of flying balloons had ended with a beating from my mother for the misery I had splashed onto the glossy brown finish of the beautiful stove at home.

For years, as I saw that stain, my mother continued to remind me of my fault. I was very sad then too. Now, of course, the stove is no longer a moba, only the memories of the ecstasy that splashed into the stove while pouring it into the small bottle remained in my memory.

Hydrogen, Most Common Element in the Universe:

Yes, hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, scientists say. Almost three quarters of the universe is hydrogen, its calculated ratio is 74.5%, it writes on the internet. I don't know how anyone can do this calculation when there are so many unknowns, but I agree that the calculator made the correct calculation.

Many of the stars, including the sun, are actually a cloud of hydrogen. Our sun, like other stars, generates its energy as a result of the hydrogen bomb that is constantly exploding within itself, that is, the transformation of hydrogen atoms in plasma into helium with a nuclear reaction under pressure. This magnificent energy is released into the universe through radiation. That's why all the stars shine in the sky and our sun is just as bright.

Isn't it so scary? There is a constant nuclear explosion in the star closest to us, and a tremendous energy is constantly being released. The sun is actually a nuclear reactor and its fuel is hydrogen.

By the way, helium, which emerges from the nuclear reaction, is the second element in the periodic table. It has two protons. It is still in the gaseous state in nature, but it is an inert gas, it does not react with any element. Its chemical representation is "He", taking its name from the Greek word "helios" meaning sun. Like hydrogen, helium is a volatile gas.

This is the gas that causes our voices to sound thin by temporarily stretching our vocal cords when we inhale a little. When we take helium, we sound really funny.

If One Day the Sun Runs Out of Fuel:

Anyway, back to the topic, something else that is actually terrifying. Can you imagine that one day the sun will run out of fuel and the sun will die. Now that I think about it, it struck me as more terrifying than the nuclear explosions inside.

Fortunately, it still has enough fuel to last for many years, scientists say it has enough fuel to last 5-10 billion more years. So for now, there is nothing to be afraid of.

But this does not change the fact that one day, of course, we will have to find another place to live. I don't know how many generations from now, our grandchildren will have to continue their lives somewhere outside the world.

If human beings fail to find another world to live in, all life, including human life, will one day perish, that is, the apocalypse will eventually break out in our beautiful world. This is actually very scary. That's why I support space studies. Otherwise, I don't think there would be a place as beautiful as the world to live in, so space studies would seem futile if this were not true.

But now, let's not get discouraged by thinking about this distant future, eventually, of course, there will be a solution in all the remaining time. We didn't go out, we can't lose hope.

Let's go back to hydrogen. Since we have to produce from world resources for now, let's see how much hydrogen is in the world.

Importance of Water:

The rate of free hydrogen in our world is much lower than the rate of free hydrogen in the universe, the rate of hydrogen gas in the atmosphere is 0.00006%, that is, six out of ten million.

However, since most of the world is water, most of the hydrogen in the world is actually in the form of water molecules. In other words, you can think that it is normal for the free hydrogen ratio to be this low.

But still, the hydrogen ratio in our world is much lower than the hydrogen ratio in the universe.

Now let's focus on our cover image. The big blue globe in the picture is a visual prepared by scientists showing how little all the water on Earth, including water vapor, is compared to the size of the Earth.

If we express it as a volumetric ratio, it corresponds to 0.12%, that is, 1.2 per thousand! Can you perceive how little water we actually have?

When you look carefully at the picture, there is another small blue sphere next to the blue sphere, see? It is a visual representation of the fresh water found in all lakes, rivers and underground in the world. It's so small that it wouldn't make any sense even if I expressed it as a proportion. As it can be seen from the picture, it seemed to me more correct to call it a tiny drop, or even a speck of water.

Therefore, I think we all understand that this image is a striking display, as it reminds us how little fresh water we actually have while polluting our rivers and lakes.

I think it would be beneficial to print this image as a huge poster and hang it in a place where our eyes will always see it. Or maybe we should take a screenshot since everyone uses a cell phone nowadays.

Let's appreciate our waters!

Yes, our subject is not actually water, but the element hydrogen. In this case, hydrogen actually exists in a very low proportion in the world.

Use of Hydrogen as Fuel:

Now that we're considering using hydrogen as a fuel, what do we do?

Well, since we can't go to the sun and bring the hydrogen we need, hydrogen actually seems like a very valuable fuel to be wasted. In other words, we must use the world's hydrogen resources carefully.

Although, there may be another solution in the future. Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is actually a hydrogen cloud. It has been calculated that its structure contains hydrogen and helium gas in the same proportions as the sun. Jupiter is said to be 88% hydrogen and 12% helium. So if we could get to Jupiter there's no place to land the spacecraft. We can only travel in the cloud and come back. Since there was not enough pressure in the center of mass, a nuclear reaction like the sun could not start. So it wasn't a star. If it could, maybe we could have two suns. But it, like the earth and other planets, continues to revolve around the sun for now. But it's a truly magnificent hydrogen tank. Maybe one day, if space technology advances enough, we'll find a way to bring hydrogen from Jupiter. Then we may have more than enough fuel.

But until that day comes, if we are going to use it as a fuel, we need to obtain hydrogen from world resources.

Although it is very small in proportion, there is nothing to be afraid of if it is produced from the waters of the world in an amount that will not disturb the ecological balance, since it is actually only a carrier in the energy cycle.

As a natural substance, it is a clean enough fuel, and when burned, it becomes water again. Therefore, there is no need for such a large amount of fuel. It is enough if we can produce as much as we need with a continuous cycle.

So what stage are we at in hydrogen production? What is our situation?

Currently, 95% of the world's production comes from fossil fuels. Hydrogen is chemically abundant, not only in water, but also in organic molecules, that is, in fossil fuels. Currently, the amount needed in the industry is mostly obtained by oxidation of natural gas and methane gas or by coal gas separation. In this regard, the main producer in the world is the Russian Federation with its rich natural gas resources. I don't know how its production is at the moment due to the war, but this is how it is recorded as the biggest producer. The remaining 5% of the production was obtained either by electrolysis or other chemical means.

In the 2021 hydrogen report of the World Energy Council, it was written that around 90 million tons of hydrogen were produced for industrial use worldwide in 2020.

The main problem is that 900 million tons of carbon dioxide has been released into the atmosphere in order to carry out this production.

In other words, while we want to use hydrogen as a fuel to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, even our hydrogen production infrastructure is already dependent on fossil fuels.

If this situation does not change, it will cause more than enough global warming.

However, it is written in the report that about 350 projects are being worked on on a global basis for the production of hydrogen by electrolysis method. In the last five years, the capacity of plants that can already produce hydrogen by electrolysis has doubled, that is, over 300 megawatts. It is planned to increase the global capacity to 54 Gigawatts by 2030. However, even if all these ongoing projects can be implemented, the report states that hydrogen production by electrolysis will reach a maximum of 8 million tons in 2030. However, this value is just one-tenth of the 80 million tons of hydrogen fuel that should be produced in 2030 according to the plan made to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The rest again has to be produced from fossil fuels. 90 million tons of hydrogen have already been produced for ammonia and other industrial needs in 2020, even if we accept that this need will remain the same in 2030, if the plan is adhered to, the total need will be at least 170 million tons. In this case, it seems that there is no other way to meet the hydrogen need from fossil fuels. In other words, it seems that it is very difficult to prevent global warming for now.

Hydrogen, which is a nuclear reactor fuel for the sun or stars, cannot yet be used as a nuclear reactor fuel, since such a pressure and temperature environment cannot be created under world conditions. I think there are some studies on this subject in China, but no useful results have been obtained yet.

All other work on hydrogen at present is chemically based on using hydrogen as a fuel.

Conclusion

Although there are technological developments on the hydrogen fuel cell for direct electricity generation, I think that in this case, it should be focused on hydrogen production. There are huge investments that need to be made.

If the future is hydrogen, our country covered by sea on three sides means an energy store. In this regard, we must start the necessary investments before it is too late. Otherwise, as always, we will have to pay for the world and buy hydrogen.

I hope this will draw the attention of visionary managers.

Love and regards from Moscow