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Old 07-02-2009, 12:43 PM   #20 (permalink)
NeilBlanchard
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Hello,

It seems to me that the lowest carbon emission method for getting hydrogen is to use electrolysis with a renewable energy source, like solar and/or wind power. The method recently published by MIT that is nearly 100% efficient at getting hydrogen this way would seem to be a big help. The only significant carbon used/produced is in making the solar panels and/or the wind turbines.

A big side benefit of electrolysis mentioned by Mr. Wool (in the Science Friday podcast linked at the beginning of this thread) would be to also use the released oxygen to burn coal; making the resulting gas almost completely carbon dioxide -- which makes it easy to capture, at least.
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