Global Warming Hope

A little over three years ago I wrote that while Global Warming was the greatest threat to humanity at present I wasn't that worried.  I based that position on a belief in the advance of technology at a much greater speed than people project, particularly when allied to the opportunities for giant stinking piles of money.  I even projected the possibility of organisms producing hydrogen, or producing fossil fuels that took in more CO2 than they produced.

My prediction was that within twenty years there would be a workable technology that could replace our present fossil fuel system.

Well, a clever man, Bruce E. Logan, has created a working prototype that produces hydrogen using common bacteria, organic material in water (as in sewage), and sea water.  It doesn't require outside power to function.  Now, this is simply a prototype, a small, very expensive device that demonstrates that the process works.  At the moment this is quite some distance away from an industrial level system.  We will not be altering our vehicles to run on hydrogen in the next five years.

However, I want you to think about the internal combustion engine.  From the time of the first patent of a gasoline powered engine to the first reliable four-stroke gasoline engine was a period of 16 years, from 1860 to 1876.  The four-stroke gasoline engine is what is used in the vast majority of modern automobiles.  Now remember, this was in the second half of the 19th century and the four-stroke internal combustion engine is a complicated device.  The hydrogen producing device requires salt water and sewage to be separated by at least one membrane (for osmosis), and the first prototype has eleven membranes, and collection of hydrogen and the other gases (more on this later).  It is a simpler device than the internal combustion engine, but does require what are now very expensive membranes.  Again, think of the computer chip, and the expense of the first prototype computer chip compared to the cost of a modern computer chip.

It therefore seems more than reasonable to expect that a working hydrogen-producing plant, economically viable and powered by sewage and sea water, will be in production within fifteen years.  However, there seems to be a bit of a catch.  Bacteria produce methane and carbon dioxide both greenhouse gases.  Hydrogen burns and produces water, and so the fuel production is greenhouse gas safe.  What should we do with these greenhouse gases?  Well, methane is natural gas, and is used in heating homes.  This produces 30-45 percent less carbon dioxide than coal or gasoline, and produces the fewest of other pollutants among fossil fuels.  So the process produces another fuel, which is cleaner than other fossil fuels.  The result could be huge numbers of localized mini-power plants that produce both hydrogen fuels for vehicles and natural gas for electricity generation and home heating.  This would increase the efficiency of electricity production in the home removing the energy loss from transporting energy long distances.

What to do with the final big problem, the carbon dioxide?  Well, the process feeds on organic matter.  What does organic matter need in order to grow?  Carbon dioxide.  Increased carbon dioxide in plants increases the rate of growth.  So pumping the carbon dioxide into greenhouses of plants for the bacteria to feed on will produce fast growing material for the process to feed on through recycling.

The overall system could quite reasonably produce fuel for vehicles, natural gas for electricity and heat, be partly self-sufficient, have very low CO2 emissions, and could produce locally-grown tasty vegetables in greenhouses.  Seriously.

Remember, this is only one of the possible futures of alternative energy.