History of green hydrogen
First Posted: 2020.10.17, Last Revised: 2020.10.17, Author: Tom Brown
Last thread on history of renewables + hydrogen (promise):
TL;DR:
- Idea of using electrolysis of water & storing hydrogen is almost as old as electrolysis (1789)
- Already a lively debate in 1863 about combining variable renewables with electrolytic hydrogen to replace coal
Figure 1: Jevons pouring cold water on green hydrogen
The above quotation is from Jevons' (he of paradox fame) marvellous 1865 treatise "The Coal Question":
https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/317#Jevons_0546_346
(h/t @physicspod)
and refers to an exchange in The Times of London in 1863, started by this letter on page 10 of the 2nd Sep 1863 edition:
[Keyworth is refering to William Armstrong's 1863 Address to the 33rd Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science]
G.A. Keyworth of Hastings followed up a few days on 16th Sep 1863 later with an elaboration of his ideas:
It was poo-pooed a few days later on 18th Sep later by some sceptics, with Q reported by Jevons to be "Dr. Percy of the School of Mines" (OMG did I uncover the identity of Q?!):
Already in 1840 the "alternate decomposition and recomposition of water" was talked up in Dr. Dionysius Lardner's "The Steam Engine Explained and Illustrated" as something on "every mind":
The Steam Engine Explained and Illustrated
https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/jevons-the-coal-question#Jevons_0546_306
Jevons poured cold water on all this electricity hype in his 1865 book:
"Electricity, in short, is to the present age what the perpetual motion was to an age not far removed"
https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/jevons-the-coal-question#Jevons_0546_307
The ideas resurfaced in the 1890s in Denmark (h/t @ruth mottram) with Poul la Cour's experiments to tame the wind with electrolysis:
Poul la Cour's experimental mill at Askov
And in fairly full/modern form in J.B.S. Haldane's Daedalus essay in 1923:
In 1923 J.B.S. Haldane foresaw an energy system based on wind turbines, with surplus power used for hydrogen production by water electrolysis.
Hydrogen would be stored underground and "expended for industry, transportation, heating and lighting".
Sound familiar?
Figure 2: Haldane on hydrogen storage in 1923
"Among its more obvious advantages will be the fact that energy will be as cheap in one part of the country as another, so that industry will be greatly decentralized; and that no smoke or ash will be produced."
Links:
http://bactra.org/Daedalus.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._B._S._Haldane#Hydrogen-generating_windmills
So why did it never take off? In a way it did: there was a rash of 100+ MW electrolysis projects starting in the late 1920s using hydroelectric power to make green ammonia: Nothing new about electrolytic hydrogen
But they were out-competed in the end by fossil ammonia and other demands for electric power.
This was purely a matter of economics: electrolysis of water can only compete if there is abundant low cost power.
With abundant low-cost wind and solar power coming our way, hydrogen may return for sectors unreachable by a combination of efficiency measures and direct electrification as we decarbonise the economy.
It's been a long road!
/end