A solar-hydrogen economy for U.S.A. [View all]

The paper to which I'll refer in this post is this one: O'N. Bockris, T.N. Veziroǧlu, A solar-hydrogen economy for U.S.A., International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Volume 8, Issue 5, 1983, Pages 323-340.

In case you missed it 41 years ago, here it is. None of this "hydrogen economy" bullshit is new. The cult reappears every decade or so.

Back then, as is the case now, the "plan" for a "hydrogen economy" was basically an effort to greenwash fossil fuels, destroying exergy as they planned to go (and still do), since the hydrogen was supposed to be made using fossil fuels, with a little nuclear energy squandered on the side. One way to greenwash fossil fuels is to pretend, in defiance of reality, that the source of electricity is so called "renewable energy." Overwhelmingly on this planet, it isn't. The paper asserted that we would run out of fossil fuels. As of today, regrettably, we haven't. We are burning more of them than ever and dumping more of the fossil fuel waste from them directly into the planetary atmosphere. Destroying the exergy of fossil fuels to make hydrogen makes things even worse.

A graphic from the paper:



Simple, isn't it? As easy as pie...

How it's working out:

The paper was received for publication on August 3, 1982, early in the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, the proto-Trump, who died from Alzheimer's disease 20 years ago, not that the popularity of senility has gone away. If anything it's worse.

In the week of beginning August 1, 1982, the week the paper was received, the concentration of the dangerous fossil fuel waste was 340.97

As of this morning, it was reported thus:

Week beginning on December 15, 2024: 424.96 ppm
Weekly value from 1 year ago: 422.40 ppm
Weekly value from 10 years ago: 399.32 ppm
Last updated: December 22, 2024

Weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa

It would seem that 41 years of hydrogen bullshit, (on and off as people recognize it's bullshit and then forget that it's bullshit) did very little to prevent increases in the concentration of fossil fuel waste by almost 84 ppm. Of course now, - now the fossil fuel sales people looking to rebrand their product as "hydrogen" always show Potemkin vast landscapes trashed with solar cells to pretend their product is "green." It's not. It isn't. It's a fossil fuel product.

A Giant Climate Lie: When they're selling hydrogen, what they're really selling is fossil fuels.

Solar energy, in the United States and everywhere else on the planet, remains, 42 years after the bullshit fantasy was first handed out, a trivial form of energy that has nothing to stop the planet from bursting into flames.

And let's be clear, almost none of the electricity in the trivial "electrolysis" pie slice in the graphic below comes from solar or other so called "renewable energy." Almost all of the electricity on this planet is generated by the combustion of dangerous fossil fuels. Electricity is a thermodynamically degraded form of energy, and wasting it to make hydrogen degrades it even further.



The caption:

Progress on Catalyst Development for the Steam Reforming of Biomass and Waste Plastics Pyrolysis Volatiles: A Review Laura Santamaria, Gartzen Lopez, Enara Fernandez, Maria Cortazar, Aitor Arregi, Martin Olazar, and Javier Bilbao, Energy & Fuels 2021 35 (21), 17051-17084]

I referred to this graphic, and reproduced it, discussing a paper in the journal I discussed above here: The current sources and uses of hydrogen.

Have a nice weekend, Happy Holidays, and good luck with all the shopping for consumer items, hopefully not to include home electrolyzers, even if a fossil fuel pusher suggests helping him, her, or they greenwash fossil fuels and recommends buying one. Hydrogen is a dangerous material that should only be handled by highly trained chemical engineers or other qualified types.