For many years, fossil fuels have been the only and main option and/or choice when it comes to providing heat to various heat engine type operating devices used for the purpose of power generation. Until the present time, there has been no need to be concerned with the combustion products and their environmental impact.

It has been known for years that fossil fuel reserves are large and that the world demand for fuel should be somehow easily satisfied.

Widespread and huge use of fossil fuels contributes significantly to having a constant increase of the ambient temperature as a result of manmade produced CO₂ emissions and released directly in the atmosphere. Now, it becomes an imperative to scale down the amount of CO₂ emissions generation and its release in the atmosphere. This leads to finding ways of having fuels with no carbon as one of the main elements present in the fuel composition.

One of the hypothetical fuels would be hydrogen. Using hydrogen as the ultimate fuel would be beneficial because there are no CO₂ emissions. All of a sudden, one can realize the full potential of hydrogen and consider what the challenges are in having safe, reliable and sustainable hydrogen generation, storage, distribution and use.

In the environment, hydrogen cannot be found as a pure element. Hydrogen is one of two basic elements contained in water. Therefore, it needs to be extracted from water in order to be used. Here is an interesting fact when it comes to dealing with hydrogen, 70% of our planet is made of water. In water, roughly one tenth is hydrogen. Therefore, 7% of our planet consists of hydrogen. The challenge and the question are just how to get to hydrogen from water and get it used as a safe and reliable fuel in order to meet the future energy demand.

When it comes to power generation, currently used technologies require high amount of capital and it takes lots of operation time to fully recover the invested capital. Therefore, the intent of this article is not to make any radical changes to the currently employed technologies that would jeopardize the already made capital investments.

New technologies require even more capital in order to enter the commercial arena of power generation in order to have commercially viable operation. It becomes very difficult and cumbersome to start introducing such environmentally friendly technologies into the commercial operation.

An idea of coupling existing technologies with the new ones becomes a way of moving forward -- enhancing the environmental merit of the technologies already in use with the ones that have environmental superiority, but very high capital requirements. For example, coal fired power plants could get fitted with CO₂ capture and storage technologies in order to make their operation meet the new standards and make them environmentally compliant.

In summary, this article analyzes the current energy mix and how it is structured -- fossil fuel fired/based, renewable energy and nuclear energy power generation -- and what needs to be done in order to have a future energy mix based on hydrogen as the main fuel. In order to accomplish the stated objectives, this article goes over the currently used fuels and evaluate their environmental impact primarily in terms of CO₂ emissions, see how the current CO₂ emissions levels could be reduced by using CO₂ emissions capture technologies that are being developed and see how carbon free and/or carbon lowered levels fuels could be generated, stored, distributed and used in a safe and reliable manner and what possible existing and new markets could be. Finally, a new balanced and sustainable energy mix scenario would be proposed.

In a series of energy conversion issues that are independent of each other, but related to the energy mix structures and issues this article addresses topics such as:

This article puts emphasis on indicating how the future energy mix should be structured in order to be self sustainable. This article objective is not to deal with specific numbers and demonstrate what the costs and revenues would be for the proposed scenarios.

Furthermore, the purpose of this article is to provide initially enough information and ideas so that the AltEnergyMag.com members and visitors can get engaged in a constructive, productive dialog and exchange of ideas enriching the original articles’ content and providing additional ideas and solutions resulting in an achievable and commercially viable and sustainable energy mix. Therefore, the AltEnergyMag.com members and visitors are encouraged to contribute to this article as much as possible in order to shake up the original article and help find the optimum solutions with the shortest development and deployment path for having sustainable energy mix down the road.

When primarily looking at the capability to deliver energy to the end user, it is believed that the present energy mix is pretty good. When it comes to the power generation, the present energy mix consists of coal fired steam turbines that provide base load, nuclear power covers some additional base load while hydro and gas fired gas turbines are used to cover the peak load. Even though renewable energy (wind, solar, tidal) is used to cover peak load is present more and more, its share is still very small. The reliability of the present energy mix is good too.
 

In general, it can be said that the current energy mix does its job. However, when it comes to emissions of CO₂ and its impact on ambient temperature and the environment, it cannot be said that the current energy mix is good as initially thought.

With the noticed increase in the ambient temperature due to the greenhouse effect, emissions of CO₂, something needs to be done with the energy mix in order to avoid further increase of the ambient temperature and its potentially bad impact on the environment.
 

The current energy mix was set up long time ago. Coal was picked as the main fuel for base load operation due to its low cost and huge reserves. Therefore, the power generation was built around using coal as the main fuel guaranteeing low net cost to the end user.
 

Over the years, the situation has changed due to the ever increasing demand for energy and generation of more and more emissions of CO₂.

Even before it was difficult to introduce new technologies and have such new technologies get ready for commercially viable operation when competing with already commercialized technologies. Now, commercialization of new technologies gets even more difficult due to the requirement for huge capital investments, fuel price fluctuation, environmental compliance etc.
 

It is believed that hydrogen as the energy carrier needs to start getting ready to help the existing energy mix. Hydrogen is an ideal fuel to power fuels cells that could have various applications at different energy levels.

By introducing hydrogen in the future energy mix, it gets easier to meet the ever increasing energy demand, satisfy the demand for energy on the go and initially contain and over a long run reduce the emissions of CO₂. By having hydrogen present in the energy mix, it speeds up the introduction of the renewable energy in the energy mix -- it is not so easy to integrate directly the renewable energy into the grid type operation because the output is subject to the weather conditions, unpredictable power output.

Under the proposed scenario, the future energy mix would be self sustainable and have many advantages over the presently used energy mix.

In the proposed energy mix, renewable energy (solar, wind and hydro) and nuclear energy would generate hydrogen in a safe and reliable way. Such generated hydrogen would be safely stored, distributed and made available for use. After the successful and safe use, hydrogen would turn in water, when combined with air/oxygen and the hydrogen natural cycle would repeat itself meaning that water and contained hydrogen just cannot get depleted. By using hydrogen more and more, dependence for fossil fuel would start to go away and having less and less emissions of CO₂ would start to bring down the ambient temperature and bring certainty back to the mankind.

Energy mix provides many benefits to the end users and society in general. However, the currently placed energy mix faces a problem of generating too much emissions of CO₂ since it is based on fossil fuels resulting in a constant increase of the ambient temperature and posing a threat to the environment.

Therefore, the current energy mix needs to be changed so that is self sustainable down the road.

By taking advantage of synergy between power generation and computer industries, it is believed that a potentially suitable scenario exists where hydrogen becomes the dominant fuel and meeting the demand for energy on the go, which is the driving force in getting the energy mix have commercially viable operation.

In such a proposed energy mix, power generation technologies and systems could be operational at their optimum and design conditions working 24/7 no matter what the actual load requirements are. When load requirements go down, the power surplus is used to generate more hydrogen that will be used as the fuel when energy demand goes up. For the first time, the mankind could produce environmentally friendly fuel and have it stored for future needs -- such a move would be beneficial when dealing with fuel price fluctuations.

In remote areas that have no access to the centralized power grid, distributed power generation could be the answer. When hydrogen powered fuel cells computer applications become available, the living standards go up immediately for local communities. By having wireless Internet connection, such communities enhance the value of their life in no time -- access to information, education, e-business etc.

Having reduced emissions of CO₂, reverses the global warming effect and potential climate change, resulting in bringing back certainty and prosperity on worldwide basis.
 

Reduced ambient temperature stops the vicious cycle requiring more power generation capacity installed. Actually, it can prolong the life of the already installed capacity before new capacity needs to be installed to meet the demand for new and additional energy requirements.

As it can be seen, positive change spreads through many areas and has a positive impact on all the parties involved.

Sustainable energy mix is very important for the mankind. Synergy between power generation and computer industries is huge and hydrogen can play a big and important role in moving forward and having the new and future energy mix ready for commercial operation.
 

Revenue created from the new energy mix as well as positive experience in dealing with generating, storing, distributing and using hydrogen in a safe and reliable way can be applied to other sectors such as transportation.

Good energy mix is so important for the well being of the society and when successful and sustainable, it can make wonders in terms of additional progress and prosperity. It becomes such a powerful force that provides an overall big push guaranteeing success.
 

Such a new energy mix would allow commercially viable operation of many technologies that have been under development for so many years by both the Government and private industry that just for one or another reason could not take off before.

The success of each society is based on having a sustainable energy mix.

Commercialization of the power generation technologies is one of the most difficult tasks. It can be said that getting ready the power generation technologies to enter the commercial arena of operation is very challenging and time consuming.

Long time ago, when the energy mix was set up and operating parameters defined such as system reliability, availability and net cost to the end user, coal was chosen as the primary fuel for base load operation. In addition to coal, nuclear energy is used for base load operation while hydro energy and natural gas fired gas turbines are used for peak load. Renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal) is slowly entering the commercial arena for power generation.

Due to the pricing scheme, it is difficult to make commercially viable operation of new and advanced technologies. In order to speed up their introduction in to commercial operation, the Government needs to provide incentives and/or breaks. In a way, under the current power generation conditions, technologies end up being pitched against each other in order to be able to achieve commercially viable operation. Advanced technologies do not get to have a fair share and require more and more capital investment up front to compete with the existing technologies that are already in place.

Over the years, since the energy mix is based on coal as the fuel, emissions of CO₂ have become a big problem by themselves. Therefore, the employed energy mix needs to reduce the amount of CO₂ emissions and in other words dependence on the fossil fuels.

The amount of CO₂ emissions can be reduced and mitigated by using CO₂ capture and storage technologies. By doing this it would impose additional costs on the power generation industry. Therefore, a new and innovative way of capturing and storing CO₂ emissions and using fossil fuels with less carbon needs to be found. Using renewable energy to liberate hydrogen from water and couple it with meeting the demand for energy on the go could do it -- hydrogen powered fuels cells could be the answer meeting the commercialization requirements. In such a proposed scenario, hydrogen powered fuel cells applications would operate off the grid resulting in a different pricing scheme. Such a flexible pricing scheme would generate enough revenue to make the operation profitable and commercially viable. It would not require Government incentives and/or breaks and would provide an opportunity for the both Government sponsored R&D work and power industry companies efforts to finally result in commercially viable operation.

Therefore, a complex commercialization effort needs to be put in place capitalizing on the synergy of both computer and power generation industries when meeting the demand for energy on the go. As a result, the mankind would be able for the first time to generate and use fuel/hydrogen that cannot be depleted and when used there are no CO₂ emissions and it is fully environmentally compliant.

In order to make this work, safe, reliable, generation, storage, distribution and use of hydrogen needs to be present under all the conditions all the time.
 

Such commercialization path no longer pitches technologies against each other. It works for the well being of its individual technologies and components and results in providing a superior energy mix that is fully environmentally compliant and commercially viable serving multiple markets and meeting the demand for energy on the go for the first time. It is believed that this is a fast track commercialization approach and it is a win-win proposal when it comes to the new energy mix that needs to be put in place in the near future in order to address the pressing environmental issues.

Until the present time, all energy needs would be provided by the grid. Therefore, as long as consumers are close to the grid, their energy needs are taken care of. For people having to function away from the grid and be on the go, batteries would somehow do the job for them. In summary, until now, there has been just no way of meeting the demand for energy on the go in its entirety.

Since the early 1990s, the computer industry has made a huge impact on the lifestyle. Today, Internet is more and more important and provides a backbone for instant communication on the worldwide basis, news coverage as the stories develop, access to the right information in no time, e-commerce etc. There are all kinds of computer devices -- PCs, notebooks, laptops, iphones, all kinds of electronic gadgets etc. It is obvious that the life standards have risen. It is no longer good enough just to be wirelessly connected to the Internet where batteries, that have a limited up time, are the main source of providing energy. Now, the requirement is to have wireless connection to the Internet on the go for more than just a few hours of operation -- there is a desire to charge once a week and/or even once a month such energy hungry devices.

It is the opinion of this article that only hydrogen powered fuel cells could fulfill such expectations for energy on the go. In such a proposed scenario, the user does not get energy from the grid and a different price structure can be used and applied in order to make such service commercially viable and successful -- some kind of a convenience fee based pricing structure could be employed.

Actually, today more and more people are willing to go to the nature or just be on the road with no restrictions applied and even work and live without being connected to the grid and are ready to pay a premium price for such lifestyle and availability of the energy on the go. Computer industry allows people to do so and right now the only limitation for not doing so is not being able to get their hands on energy on the go.

On the other side, this is a perfect opportunity for the energy people to fully commercialize and deploy new technologies that have been under development for many years and which just cannot enter the commercial arena of operation because of the too high capital investment and cost to the consumer when compared with already commercialized technologies. As people say, a new demand and/or service that needs to be taken care of provides an opportunity for a technology that just cannot be commercially viable in the traditional operational environment.
 

In a way, the timing is perfect. Computer industry is reaching a maturity point in terms of what it can offer to the users and it has been on the market for quite some time. When it comes to power generation, environmental issues are getting more and more public attention. Such a synergy would speed up the introduction of hydrogen powered fuel cells and surely and slowly start changing the energy mix resulting in being less dependent on fossil fuels and having less price fluctuations etc.

For an energy professional as well for an end user such scenario looks promising and encouraging.

Here is a final though that needs to be spelled out. There is a big difference between transportation and computer energy requirements. The computer industry requirements are not as demanding as the ones of the transportation industry. There is no need to build an entire new supply infrastructure. For the computer industry needs, hydrogen contained in cartridges can be sufficient to provide such lasting energy source. Such cartridges can be bought in advance and/or delivered by express mail. Therefore, such approach is less capital hungry providing lower risk and better and faster return on investment having to serve a huge market on the large and worldwide scale.

When it comes to energy conversion, hydrogen could be very important for engineering applications down the road and help come up with a sustainable energy mix.
 

For example, one of the hypothetical fuels could be hydrogen. Using hydrogen as the ultimate fuel would be beneficial because there are no CO₂ emissions. All of a sudden, one can realize the full potential of hydrogen and consider what the challenges are in having safe, reliable and sustainable hydrogen generation, storage, distribution and use.

In the environment, hydrogen cannot be found as a pure element. Hydrogen is contained in water. Therefore, it needs to be extracted from water in order to be used. Here is an interesting fact when it comes to dealing with hydrogen, 70% of our planet is made of water. In water, roughly one tenth is hydrogen. Therefore, 7% of our planet consists of hydrogen. The challenge and the question are just how to get to hydrogen from water and get it used as a safe and reliable fuel in order to meet the future energy demand.

Hydrogen can provide heat required for heat engine operation -- combustion process. Also, hydrogen generates dc when in an electrochemical process in a presence of the electrolyte. Furthermore, hydrogen is the first element in the Periodic Table. It is a very precious element and could have a huge impact in engineering application for the purpose of the power generation industry. In engineering applications, it could change the ways of being used as the fuel and serving different energy markets with specific needs.

Before hydrogen starts being used in the energy mix, it needs to be demonstrated over and over that it can be generated, stored, distributed and used safely and reliably with no serious threat to the public and its safety. Such a demonstration on large scale is very important for the purpose of the new and future energy mix that needs to be based on wide use of hydrogen resulting in being fully environmentally compliant and having commercially viable operation.

 

Benefits of such an energy mix would be huge resulting is less fossil fuel dependence, less emissions of CO₂ and less fuel price fluctuations.

Hydrogen as the fuel has the potential to serve different energy markets and just cannot be depleted. It brings certainty to the mankind and prosperity.
 

Therefore, the timing is perfect to start introducing hydrogen and its engineering applications in the commercial arena so the energy mix can be self sustainable and fully environmentally compliant.

Hydrogen as the fuel brings hope to the power generation industry and mankind. It brings together power generation and computer industries and makes it very easy when it comes to the commercialization of hydrogen power fuel cells engineering applications. It pulls all sorts of renewable energy technologies and makes their commercialization much easier. Hydrogen storage and distribution technologies also get a push. Overall, it creates a positive and powerful chain reaction in the power generation and computer industries resulting in being fully environmentally compliant.

Thanks to hydrogen and its potential, the future does look bright and sky is the limit when it comes to the possible engineering applications and benefits.

Hydrogen could play a very important role in having a sustainable energy mix. In addition to many excellent features that hydrogen has, hydrogen does not exist in free form – it is contained in water. Therefore, in order to get to hydrogen, it needs to be first liberated from water and then it needs to be safely stored and distributed before it could be used and after usage returned to its initial form, being contained in water.

In the transitional period, hydrogen could be generated by reforming natural gas -- methane. Also, it could be generated from coal. However, the best way of generating hydrogen would be by using renewable energy (solar -- photovoltaics, wind and hydro) and nuclear energy to liberate hydrogen from water.

When it comes to solar energy -- photovoltaics, there are many ways how it could be structured to lower the financial burden for capital investment on the utilities. Home owners could help as well as commercial building owners by installing the solar panels on top of their homes and buildings. In such a proposed arrangement, they get free electricity from the utilities and offset the need for the capital investment on the utilities part. The utilities use the surplus of electricity to generate hydrogen on the spot and get a chance to sell it in a higher cost energy market when meeting the demand for energy on the go. Private industry’s and Government buildings can participate in similar programs as well. The more roof and general land areas get covered with solar panels, the better for everybody.

Need for capital investment when installing solar panels is huge and this idea would help bring down and spread across the society the capital investment requirements.
 

When it comes to storage and distribution of hydrogen, two possible ways can be applied. One by just compressing hydrogen in storage tanks and/or containers and then transporting such compressed hydrogen through a pipeline and by using compressed tanks and/or containers. The other approach is more sophisticated. It is based on absorbing hydrogen in a sponge type material without requiring significant compression and transporting it like that to the final destination.

When it comes to the use of hydrogen, it can be used for combustion in heat engines -- gas turbines, cylinder type engines etc. -- or in fuel cells, direct energy conversion.
 

A good plan needs to be put in place what the stakeholders would do and what their roles and responsibilities would consist of when dealing with hydrogen generation, storage, distribution and use. A cost plan needs to be defined so that everybody’s needs are satisfied and that everybody’s is making some kind of profit and/or having a reasonable return on their investment.
 

Again, the process of hydrogen generation, storage, distribution and use needs to be safe and reliable with no potential harm to the public and its safety. Only when such requirements are fully satisfied and demonstrated over and over, full hydrogen commercial use can start.
 

One can see that it is not easy to come with hydrogen full scale commercial use over night, but when successful such a new energy mix is superior over the existing one -- no more fossil fuel dependence, less emissions of CO₂ and less fuel price fluctuations. Full environmental compliance is guaranteed.

Once again, certain components of such an energy mix may not have the best characteristics, but when tied into a unique system structure, the resulting structure is far superior over the presently used energy mix. For the first time, the mankind can generate hydrogen, fuel, and even create a surplus for the future use!

There will be many challenges in hydrogen generation, storage, distribution and use to be solved, but there is no doubt that both power generation and computer industries are ready to move forward and have more than enough resources, experience, knowledge and technologies to get such an energy mix up and running.

In summary, good days are ahead of us and the future does look bright.

In general, increase of the ambient temperature on the power generation industry and environment could be huge and have catastrophic consequences.
 

For example, as the ambient temperature increases, it means that the heat engine thermal efficiency decreases. This indicates that additional power generation capacity needs to be brought online in order to satisfy the same demand for energy.
 

Since the present energy mix is based on fossil fuels, more emissions of CO₂ would result in further increase of the ambient temperature resulting in a requirement for further addition of power generation capacity. It becomes a vicious cycle requiring more and more power generation capacity due to dealing with fossil fuels and emitting more and more CO₂ in the atmosphere.

Increase of the ambient temperature has bad impact on the atmosphere too. As a first indication, one can notice that both north and south poles would start melting and shrinking and as a result worldwide sea level would start to go up causing all kinds of problems to the worldwide population -- potential damages are unbelievable.

As a result of ambient temperature shift, there would be a big movement of people as well as animals looking for acceptable living conditions -- big migrations would take place. Certain species just would not be able to cope with it. This would create a total chaos on a worldwide scale.

However, it is believed that mankind does have sufficient resources, tools and technologies to deal with the above depicted challenges and potential problems and/or damages.
 

It comes down to using the available resources, knowledge, technologies and synergies between power generation and computer industries and start servicing new markets in a commercially viable way in order to successfully solve the newly created problems.

As people say, when there is a problem, use it as an opportunity to bring to light a better and improved energy mix that would be superior to the one already in place -- be less dependent on the fossil fuels, emit less emissions of CO₂ etc.

It is believed that the timing is perfect and that the challenge imposed by an increase of the ambient temperature can just bring the best out of the technologies that are about to enter commercial arena created by the synergy between power generation and computer industries. Hydrogen fuel would be the primary fuel in the new energy mix relying heavily on the renewable energy to generate hydrogen that could be used to power widespread fuel cells applications.

It is worthwhile to notice that the coal and gas fired power plants should be fitted with CO₂ capture and storage technologies. Once the ambient temperature gets under control, it might be crucial to have both coal and gas fired power plants present in the new energy mix as well as have access to the stored CO₂ quantities in order to offset potential additional decrease of the ambient temperature. Plants of all kinds need CO₂ and the mankind needs to be able to have control over the amount of CO₂ present in the atmosphere -- equilibrium of CO₂ needs to be present at all the time.

Having a sustainable energy mix in place is not an easy task and especially having one that is based on large use of hydrogen as energy carrier. Therefore, a well thought and defined plan needs to be put in place so the energy mix stakeholders and players can know what their roles and responsibilities are so that a reliable, safe and efficient operation can be present all the time under all the conditions.

It is believed that the Government is the largest stakeholder in putting in place such a sophisticated energy mix.   The Government’s role is to come up with a good plan where the roles of all other stakeholders are precisely defined and spelled out including all the safety and reliability measures. Initially, the Government and the private industry can participate in a cost sharing program, while later when the proposed energy mix becomes sustainable only the private industry takes over and gets financially responsible for developing, maintaining and expanding such energy mix -- the Government becomes a passive player overseeing the actions taken and making sure that the rules are followed and applied.

When developing such an energy mix, it is important that the timing, when particular components become available, is fully honored -- making sure that there is no major time slippage. Also, it is important to have contingency plans in place so that proposed energy mix can move forward with less sophisticated components ready if the ultimate design of such components is not ready and having passed successfully crucial demonstration and safety testing.

All legal and safety measures need to be considered so that in case there is some kind of malfunction, any kind of litigation can be avoided or kept at the minimum possible level.
 

Furthermore, the Government’s role is to make sure that the proposed energy mix complies with all the safety and environmental requirements and laws.

Again, it is the Government’s role to make sure that all the bases are covered and that such an energy mix moves forward and gets fully deployed and is ready to enter commercial arena of operation. In a way, there is not much time left before such an important energy mix gets in operation to help cope with environmental issues that need to be addressed.

Also, the Government’s role is to make sure that such an energy mix is regulated to some degree due to the overall importance of the energy mix and that pricing at various levels is determined up front before selling and buying takes place. For grid operation, it is a pretty much fixed price scenario, while when it comes to dealing with the demand for energy on the go market, the price scenario is not so strictly fixed because it is an off grid operation. However, the Government needs to define the playing conditions and always try to make sure that the consumers’ rights are protected.

An energy mix of such importance and spanning over multiple industries has never been put in place before what requires caution and due attention.

Getting such energy mix developed and put in place will require lots of effort, but if done correctly it will pay off for many years to come. Such experience gained could be proved to be very beneficial when dealing with similar future projects of similar nature and importance for the mankind.

I would like to thank the AltEnergyMag.com for providing me with this opportunity and space on its web site so that when it comes to having a sustainable energy mix I could share some of my thoughts on the subject matter with the AltEnergyMag.com members and visitors.