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Fuel 2

The document discusses several problems related to energy and climate change. It notes that burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide which contributes to global warming. It also mentions that hydrogen can be produced from renewable sources without carbon emissions and that a hydrogen economy could help transition to a cleaner future. The document also states that as developing countries like China and India grow economically, their energy demands will increase, putting more pressure on resources. Rising gas prices also motivate the need to consider alternative energy like hydrogen. The concept of peak oil production is introduced as another important factor.

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costi.sorescu
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28 views

Fuel 2

The document discusses several problems related to energy and climate change. It notes that burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide which contributes to global warming. It also mentions that hydrogen can be produced from renewable sources without carbon emissions and that a hydrogen economy could help transition to a cleaner future. The document also states that as developing countries like China and India grow economically, their energy demands will increase, putting more pressure on resources. Rising gas prices also motivate the need to consider alternative energy like hydrogen. The concept of peak oil production is introduced as another important factor.

Uploaded by

costi.sorescu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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So what’s the problem?

Well, the first one is climate change. If you haven’t


already seen Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” it
is a great primer on climate change for evil geniuses
of all ages. The carbon dioxide that we produce
when we burn fossil fuels is one of the gases that
contributes to a phenomenon called “the greenhouse
effect” which produces global warming.
Looking back to earlier in this chapter, you will
remember that there are “clean ways” in which we
can produce hydrogen, without producing any
carbon dioxide emissions in the process. Of
course, at the moment, our technologies and
infrastructure are geared towards a carbon-based
economy. At the moment, most of our hydrogen
available for use in fuel cells comes from carbonbased fuels, however, with future development of
renewable energy resources, the hydrogen
economy offers some attractive prospects for a
world moving toward a cleaner future.
The thing is, it isn’t just the countries that are
already developed that are going to require energy.
While the energy demands of America and Europe
continue to grow, we must also think of developing
countries such as China and India, whose economies
are growing rapidly. With this rapid growth comes
increased demand on resources and energy.
And there’s another reason for looking at
hydrogen: you might have noticed that the price of
gas at the pumps has been increasing significantly
recently. Chances are that from here onward prices
aren’t going to come down significantly for any
long period of time.
A scientist from the American Petroleum Institute,
Marian King Hubbert, made a prediction in 1956
that oil discoveries would follow a bell-shaped
curve. Take a look at Figure 2-19, as we are going to
look through the features of the graph.
y
Peak oil is an important subject to read up on, for
any budding evil genius interested in fuel cell
technology. Wikipedia carry some good articles
on this, which I highly recommend:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubbert_peak_theory

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