Better Gas Mileage

Hydrogen gas has the potential to be one of the planet’s most flexible fuels, because there are so many different ways in which to generate it. In a regular plant production setting, producing hydrogen gas can be started with raw materials like coal, natural gas, algae or biological wastes such as natural organic waste material.

Gasification is the act of producing hydrogen gas from a raw material like biomass or coal by a process that involves extreme heating and subsequent cooling of the raw material, separation and purification. The hydrogen produced in this way can then be used to generate electricity or for any regular fuel need. For power plants that are traditionally fueled by coal as a means to generate electricity, using coal gasification to produce hydrogen gas as the fuel source for this electricity results in much lower emissions.

Producing hydrogen gas from water is by far one of the cleanest production methods in terms of environmental concerns. It can be accomplished in several ways, including electrolysis, which uses electrical current to separate the hydrogen gas from water and is the most versatile production method. With environmental concerns to the for, this method can be powered by renewable electrical energy sources such as wind turbines, solar panels, geothermal, and even water driven generators such as water wheels. This method can also be powered by nuclear generated electricity.

Thermochemical Water Splitting involves producing hydrogen gas from water through a chemical reaction between water and certain chemicals at a high degree of temperature. This is basically available at nuclear plants. The difference between High-temperature Electrolysis to produce hydrogen gas and that extracted by electricity is only that in the former, the water is brought to the required temperature by heat that is generated by nuclear power production whereas in the latter, the same is done by using electric current.

Steam Methane Reformation is the name of the technique used to extract hydrogen from natural gas. When natural gas is burned to create steam, a synthesis gas is produced that hydrogen is then extracted from. Ninety five percent of all the hydrogen used in the United States is produced this way; even though it is not as, “green,” as electrolysis.

Hydrogen can also be produced from algae or bacteria found in wastewater using a method called Photo-Biological Production. Using this method the algae are deprived of sulfur, which causes them to stop emitting oxygen and emit hydrogen. This method of producing hydrogen gas is currently receiving a great deal of attention because it is the greenest of all the methods utilizing both renewable and waste material by products as its primary ingredient or “feedstock”.

When compared with fossil fuel production, producing hydrogen gas to be used to power any form of motor or engine seems to be a better proposition going forward. Fossil fuels are a finite resource that has a limited future. As abundant in supply as hydrogen naturally is, it will be an important fuel in the future, no matter how it is generated.

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