The Hydrogen Hoax

Why the "hydrogen economy" is unlikely ever to happen: http://www.planetforlife.com/h2/h2swiss.html
http://www.planetforlife.com/pdffiles/h2report.pdf

In the second, more in depth source above the authors summarize the basic problems with hydrogen as a mass-utilized fuel. They first note that hydrogen is not an energy source itself (eg, coal and oil and windmills are energy sources, they produce energy; electricity and hydrogen merely transmit the energy already produced from an energy source). They then explain that producing hydrogen requires an industrial process that wastes a great deal of energy:
"A hydrogen economy would be based on two electrolytic processes both associated with heavy energy losses: electrolysis and fuel cells. Furthermore, between the conversion of electriciy into hydrogen by electrolysis and the reconversion of hydrogen to electricity by fuel cells, the energy carrier gas has to be packaged by compression or liquefaction. It has to be distributed by surface transport or pipeline, stored and transferred. No matter how hydrogen is ultimately used, in stationary, mobile, or portable applications, the efficiency of the hydrogen chain between power plant and fuel cell output is hardly better than 30%." In contrast "the efficiency of electric power transmission is as high as 90%." Another comparison is to the energy lost by oil and gas in the course of extracting, processing, and distributing them: it is 12% for oil and 5% for gas. Yet, hydrogen is estimated at over 65%! Moreover, most of the hydrogen loss is governed by laws of nature--not technological shortcomings--which means the efficiency of the hydrogen economy would always be poor. The authors estimate that "even in the best attainable case, the well-to-tank efficiency...cannot be much above 50%." That implies a vast wastage of energy compared to other options, and probably more pollution and higher costs. Hydrogen, as the authors note, cannot compete with its own fuel source. In looking specifically at transportation applications for hydrogen they conclude that it is hopelessly impractical for long drives for any type of vehicle (hydrogen tanks would be too large), whereas for intracity driving it would cost four times as much in fuel costs to operate a hydrogen powered vehicle as it would to operate an electric vehicle.
I have encountered similar analyses in other articles written after this one and they reinforce each other--especially on the most important point, which is that immutable scientific laws forever preclude the advent of an efficient hydrogen economy. Unfortunately, most energy and transport companies continue to disseminate misleading information on the realities of hydrogen and its future prospects; the government colludes in this misinformation campaign. I suppose it would be bad business practice to aggressively insist that hydrogen is infeasible. The company would appear to the public as retrograde in its thinking and incompetent in its engineering efforts. Also, the sheer power of the negative vibe would harm the corporate image and its brands. (I read today of a study that found people respond favorably to advertising that expresses positive emotions, but show a neutral reaction to more rational, informative advertising.) Politicians are also worried about their own brand image and do not wish to appear on the "it can't be done" side of an important issue--practically speaking it is more advantageous for them to be wrong and insistent that "it can be done." The result is a massive squandrance of resources on developing hydrogen-related technologies, instead of efficiently allocating these scarce resources to effective alternative energy and energy conservation projects.
I have noticed, however, an incipient revolt against the conventional thinking by various scientific and engineering organizations, especially in Europe. Their perspective is that these hydrogen-promoters are diverting research funds from more legitimate projects and hindering the career achievements of those professionals operating in other energy-related fields. Apparently, the principal European fuel cell conference has dropped hydrogen fuel cells from the agenda as too theoretical a pursuit for a field that faces pressures to deliver practical results in the near term (http://entropyproduction.blogspot.com/, July 23, 2006).
Viewed from a conspiratorial perspective (and I do believe there are some quiet little conspiracies floating around out there), the very inefficiency of hydrogen could benefit the power companies by creating unnecessary and excessive demand for new fossil fuel power plants. I'm still a bit baffled by the auto companies' absurd exuberance. It may just be pure PR and image-polishing, advertising dreams of an ideal auto-future. People tend to like that sort of thing, and if all the other auto companies are at it, competitive pressure may force even the more ethical execs to enter this vicious circle.