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Old 06-20-2013, 08:40 AM   #73 (permalink)
Xist
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Not that I am suggesting it (even with carbon sequestration), but I am surprised that I have not heard any claims about steam reforming, except that I doubt that too many people know what it is.

Wikipedia says that it is a no-go at multiple levels:
Quote:
The energy content of the produced hydrogen is less than the energy content of the original fuel
and

Quote:
Hydrogen can be made via high pressure electrolysis or low pressure electrolysis of water. Current best processes have an efficiency of 50% to 80%, so that 1 kg of hydrogen (which has a specific energy of 143 MJ/kg, about 40 kWh/kg) requires 50 to 79 kWh of electricity. At 0,08 $/kWh, that's $4.00/kg, which is with traditional methods 3 to 10 times the price of hydrogen from steam reformation of natural gas. The price difference is due to the efficiency of direct conversion of fossil fuels to produce hydrogen, rather than burning fuel to produce electricity. Hydrogen from natural gas, used to replace e.g. gasoline, emits more CO2 than the gasoline it would replace, and so is no help in reducing greenhouse gases.
Hydrogen economy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I need to stop following this thread...
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