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Hydrogen cell technology may damage the ozone?

bignickel

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bignickel
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Holy cow! On toast! I can't believe I'm the first one to start this thread!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030612/ap_on_sc/hydrogen_environment_6


Widespread use of the hydrogen fuel cells that President Bush (news - web sites) has made a centerpiece of his energy plan might not be as environmentally friendly as many believe.

Scientists say the new technology could lead to greater destruction of the ozone layer that protects Earth from cancer-causing ultraviolet rays.

Researchers said in a report Thursday saying that if hydrogen replaced fossil fuels to run everything from cars to power plants, large amounts of hydrogen would drift into the stratosphere as a result of leakage and indirectly cause increased depletion of the ozone.
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Take a look-see. The researchers are estimating that the leakage would be 10-20 percent!

What do you think? Isn't that a wee bit on the high side? Even for a gas?
 
bignickel said:


Take a look-see. The researchers are estimating that the leakage would be 10-20 percent!

What do you think? Isn't that a wee bit on the high side? Even for a gas?
Click to expand...

I think light gases like hydrogen are more prone to leakage. That's why helium balloons don't stay floating for more than a day or so.
 
Sure, but 10-20%? What kind of industry loses 10-20% of it's product transporting/refining it?

Notice I said transporting/refining: I know that a certain amount of oil/natural gas gets lost when they pull it out of the ground. But since we're not pulling hydrogen out of the ground...
 
There is a reason that H2 isnt a very common gas.

This just sounds like a pile of crap to me.

Scientists say the new technology could lead to...
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Scientists say.....!! what, all of them? two of them?
 
What kind of industry loses 10-20% of it's product transporting/refining it?
Click to expand...
No industry.

Two points.

1. This is just an "estimate" by a group of researchers, which probably has very little correlation to the thing we call "reality". Look at what they actually said:
researchers at the California Institute of Technology raised the possibility that if hydrogen fuel replaced fossil fuels entirely, it could be expected that 10 percent to 20 percent of the hydrogen would leak from pipelines, storage facilities, processing plants and fuel cells in cars and at power plants.
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Look at the waffling--"Raised the possibility", "if", and "could be expected"--and then they pull a figure out of their pockets ("10% to 20%") without explaining how they came by that figure--this is all standard practice for researchers issuing a press release in the interests of securing further funding for their research.

And look at the huge disclaimer towards the end:
John Eiler, an assistant professor of geochemistry at Cal Tech and one of the article's authors, acknowledged that the concerns raised in the study might eventually be resolved when more is learned about the hydrogen fuel cycle.
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This is known as "CYA", so your research team doesn't end up looking like total Chicken Little "The sky is falling!" idiots when further research turns up proving that there was no danger to the ozone layer at all.

2. By the time hydrogen fuel cells become a mainstream fuel cell, I can guarantee you that the hydrogen fuel cell industry will have solved their leakage problem, if it even exists. Your instincts are correct--visualize Shell Oil with 10% to 20% of its gasoline simply leaking away at some point, or McDonalds having 10% to 20% of their french fries getting lost between the truck and the freezer. No way the hydrogen fuel cell companies would put up with 10% to 20% of their marketable product simply disappearing.
 
Well, it depends on what your time zone is set for. I have mine set on Central Time, and I show your thread as starting at

06-13-2003 10:57 AM

and his at

06-13-2003 07:14 AM


Anyway, it's not a big deal, I just thought it was funny. :D
 
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