Hydrogen Sources - Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: Advances in Transportation and Power - page 113

leum in refineries. This process converts heavy crude oils into engine fuel
or reformulated gasoline. The annual world production is about 45 billion
kgs or 500 billion Normal cubic meters (Nm 3 ). A Normal cubic meter is a
cubic meter at one atmosphere of pressure and 0°C. About one half of this
is produced from natural gas and almost 30% comes from oil. Coal ac-
counts for about 15% and the rest 4-5% is produced by electrolysis.
Hydrogen production in the United States is currently about 8 bil-
lion kg (roughly 90 billion Nm 3 ). This is the energy equivalent of 8 billion
gallons of gasoline. Hydrogen demand increased by more than 20% per
year during the 1990s and has been growing at more than 10% per year
since then. Most of this is due to seasonal gasoline formulation require-
ments.
HYDROGEN RESEARCH
The U.S. has invested millions of dollars and decades of innovation
in hydrogen energy technology. More than fifty years of direct investment
by NASA and the Department of Defense has created a national ability in
using hydrogen energy. The Department of Energy's National Laboratory
system has contributed greatly in the support technology for the imple-
mentation of hydrogen energy. These National Laboratories are signifi-
cant resources for our energy future. These centers can help in addressing
complex and risky technical questions. Few industries can afford to con-
duct the R&D that is conducted at these labs. Solar hydrogen production
from photocatalytic water splitting is one of these areas.
Hydrogen as an energy carrier has great potential as the founda-
tion for a globally sustainable energy system using renewable energy.
Hydrogen can be made safely and environmentally friendly from water.
The many potential energy uses include powering non-polluting vehicles,
heating homes and fueling aircraft.
One hydrogen research project, part of the Strategic National R&D
Program, includes thermochemical, photocatalytic and photobiological
water splitting for generating hydrogen using sunlight as the primary en-
ergy source.
Solar hydrogen production from photocatalytic water splitting in-
volves the cleavage of water to form hydrogen and oxygen and would be
an ideal source of hydrogen for energy needs. The feedstock is water and
the resulting fuel, hydrogen, burns with little or none polluting products.