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Properties | Sources
| Production | Storage
| "Hydrogen Economy" |
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Water
 Water
is the ash you are left with after you burn hydrogen or run it
through a fuel cell. It always takes more energy to release
hydrogen from water than can ever be recovered by using that hydrogen
as a fuel. Water is unique as a hydrogen source in that you end
up with what you started with. You use energy to turn the water
into hydrogen (and oxygen), and you get the same amount of water
and some of that energy back when you run your fuel cell using
the produced hydrogen. The big question is where the energy comes
from. For the "hydrogen economy" to have a significant,
sustainable impact on carbon dioxide emissions, global warming
and energy security, the energy used to produce the hydrogen must,
to the greatest extent possible, come from renewable sources such
as wind, hydro, geothermal, or nuclear.
In a fully implemented renewable hydrogen economy, virtually
all hydrogen will be produced from water using renewable energy,
and fossil fuels and the carbon dioxide emissions that result
from their use will be completely removed from the loop.
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| Methane
(CH
4
- primary constituent of "natural gas", "biogas")
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| Methanol
("wood alcohol" - CH
3
OH - made from natural gas and biomass)
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| Ethanol
("drinking alcohol" - CH
3
CH
2
OH - made primarily from corn and other grains) |
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| Gasoline
(refined from crude oil, a mixture of many different
hydrocarbons, most difficult to reform)
[top of pg] |
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| Synthetic
Fuels (conversion of natural gas
to diesel-like liquid fuel)
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| Fuel Comparisons
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