While I retain a fair degree of skepticism about the possibility of a hydrogen-fueled economy, power  plans were unveiled this week by Hydrogen Energy International—a joint venture of petrochemical giant BP and mining company Rio Tinto—that could have a dramatic impact on the world’s clean energy future. The plant, which will produce hydrogen fuel from an oil refinery byproduct, will be the first power plant to employ carbon sequestration on an industrial scale.

Richard Muller, a professor at UC Berkeley and author of “Physics for Future Presidents," regards sequestration—the idea that heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions can be captured and safely stored before entering the atmosphere—as something like a modern Apollo Program. As Muller recently told NPR’s On Point “People say ‘we haven’t done it yet,’ but the engineering I regard as straightforward, it’s almost certainly going to work, and early tests will show us whether it’s going to work or not.”

If successful, this plant operation would provide a major stepping-stone toward the hydrogen economy so famously touted by President Bush. On-site carbon capture would all but eliminate the carbon footprint of industrial hydrogen production. Combined with improved fuel cell technologies and longer-range fuel tanks, this is a major step towards overcoming the technical challenges of creating a viable hydrogen-powered vehicle to replace today’s gas-guzzlers. 

It’s also worth noting that the same carbon sequestering technology applied here could also be used to capture pure carbon-dioxide from almost any single industrial source, including coal power plants and coal gasification plants also capable of creating hydrogen gas fuel.  

I’ve never been a fan of the notion that coal is America’s best choice for solving its current energy crisis, but coal power does have some impressive and obvious positives. First, considering price alone, it’s extremely inexpensive, generally selling at well under five dollars per kilowatt hour. Part of this low cost is due to the fact that the United States has tremendous coal resources, meaning less time and energy required for transport, a lower chance of price fluctuations, and more income flowing back into the domestic economy.

So, if Professor Muller is correct, and sequestration attempts will prove their worth after only limited viability testing, then this plant reflects a tremendous development in providing the world with a clean, reliable energy source.  Failure means a quick redistribution of research funding into other solutions, and success is a tremendous victory for humanity against the specter of global warming, though other negative aspects of fossil fuel use, such as groundwater contamination and habitat destruction, will also still need to be addressed. 

Related articles:

DOE Awards $126 Million For Carbon Sequestration
U.S. Investing in Costly Coal Carbon Sequestration
Can Sequestration Save Our Carbon-Heavy Lifestyle?
CO2 Sequestration Boosted by $100 a Barrel Oil

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