7. Can hydrogen be the solution?
Apart from limiting the growth of population, hydrogen is more and more
regarded today as an attractive alternative to replace fossil fuels in
the future
(Johnston
et al, 2005). Basically it can be produced from water and it regenerates
water after exploitation as source of energy according to the following
scheme: electric energy + H2O → H2 + ½
O2 → H2O + energy. So far, hydrogen is
primarily produced from fossil resources and catalysts. Catalytic
electrolysis will be of particular interest only if the energy needed to
dissociate water in hydrogen and oxygen is produced by low
heat-producing renewable sources of electricity (Gardner, 2009). What is
presently missing to decide whether a source of energy is better than
another relative to AHR is a heat-cycle assessment from cradle to grave,
as it is currently done with life-cycle assessment to compare processes
and materials that impact the environment (Muralikrishna & Manickam,
2017). So far, it seems that no quantitative information is available
relative to heat-cycle of wind turbines and of other
CO2-free sources of electricity in comparison with the
other sources of energy in terms of thermal impact on the climate.
Hydro-electricity may be of particular interest in this regard. However,
one can wonder whether large enough amounts of hydrogen will be
producible from CO2-free sources of energy. It will be
the task of specialists in thermodynamics working together with
climatologists and chemists to make the necessary assessments.