<![CDATA[Grist - Comment Feed for Timothy Wirth, natural-gas advocate, takes gas industry to task]]> Grist Comment Feed en Comment #1 by Delay And Deny http://www.grist.org/article/2009-07-17-timothy-wirth-natural-gas-advocate-takes-gas-industry-to-task/ Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:01:06 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/2009-07-17-timothy-wirth-natural-gas-advocate-takes-gas-industry-to-task/1 NG has a very low energy density.

However, it can make hydrogen...the only solution to pollution that makes sense.

 

]]> NG has a very low energy density.

However, it can make hydrogen...the only solution to pollution that makes sense.

 

]]> Comment #2 by neosapiens http://www.grist.org/article/2009-07-17-timothy-wirth-natural-gas-advocate-takes-gas-industry-to-task/ Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:52:32 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/2009-07-17-timothy-wirth-natural-gas-advocate-takes-gas-industry-to-task/2 It's much more economical and friendlier to the environment to simply burn the CH4 in the power plants we already have than to build a whole new hydrogen infrastructure and convert CH4 + O2 to CO2+ 2H2, especially if you consider that the CO2 must be stored somewhere and not just released into the atmosphere.  Besides, H2 is the smallest molecule in the universe--it's much too hard to keep it from leaking into the atmosphere where 3H2 + O3 -> 3H2O.  What might happen to the ozone layer if we built a huge hydrogen economy?   Using CH4 as a fuel is only a bridge to buy us some time to come up with better solutions, since CH4 is better than toxic mix that is coal.

]]> It's much more economical and friendlier to the environment to simply burn the CH4 in the power plants we already have than to build a whole new hydrogen infrastructure and convert CH4 + O2 to CO2+ 2H2, especially if you consider that the CO2 must be stored somewhere and not just released into the atmosphere.  Besides, H2 is the smallest molecule in the universe--it's much too hard to keep it from leaking into the atmosphere where 3H2 + O3 -> 3H2O.  What might happen to the ozone layer if we built a huge hydrogen economy?   Using CH4 as a fuel is only a bridge to buy us some time to come up with better solutions, since CH4 is better than toxic mix that is coal.

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