The hydrogen alternative
You can learn a lot by looking at what nature has to offer and has done with the resources at hand. In the four billion years that life has been on our planet, it has been able to create and sustain an environment that has been perfect for life, no matter the changes and the challenges that have come. How did life do this? Not with fossil fuels, wind power or tides. Life was able to harness the power of hydrogen.
The lowly hydrogen atom has a lot to recommend it. It is the most common element in the universe, is in plentiful supply on the earth, if you know where to look for it. It is highly reactive, meaning, it makes an excellent fuel and component for life’s building blocks.
Very early on in the earth’s history, life deciphered and patented the method for utilizing the sun’s radiation to provide the energy for getting energy out of the hydrogen economy. Something called the mitochondria was invented and ever since been part of the photosynthetic process for getting at pure hydrogen to fuel life through the sun’s radiation. We could learn a lot from these wonderful little fuel cells that algae, plants and so many microbes employ, which, in fact, forms the bedrock for all other life. You could even say that those of us who do not employ photosynthesis are scavenging and parasitizing the rest of the kingdoms that do.
People, in sharp contrast, base their energy needs on the carbon economy, and because of that are threatening to destroy the environment upon which we are all dependent. So how do we get at the hydrogen economy and what makes it so good? It’s a long story to tell completely, but in a nutshell it goes like this.
Hydrogen is the ultimate clean fuel. And we have it in almost inexhaustible quantities. All you need is water and an electrical energy source to separate the hydrogen and oxygen. You can get that from solar cells, wind power or fission reactors. Once you have the water separated into hydrogen and oxygen, discard the oxygen into the air. It won’t hurt anything, besides you will need it later when you burn the hydrogen. Then store the hydrogen and use it for your car, airplane or heating your house, office or store. The wonderful thing about hydrogen is that it is light, burn releasing huge amounts of energy and is totally none polluting when it is burn, because all you get back is water!
The real question now becomes, what took us so long. How is it that dumb plants and algae and microbes figured it out and we didn’t, haven’t or won’t. Who’s looking dumb now?