Australia as a Major Exporter of H₂ Hydrogen
- questions that need to be addressed

Australia as a Major Exporter of  H₂ Hydrogen
     - questions that need to be addressed

Australia aims to be a major exporter of H₂ hydrogen.

see also :Hydrogen Energy in Australia – Green or Fossil Fuel ? and Our Hydrogen Future

We are talking of vast quantities of hydrogen exported, to be used as a fuel.
Publically sourced objective information is difficult to find,
yet this is a bipartisan government declared / government subsidised major initiative that will affect all Australians
.

Hydrogen gas  is described by colours depending on how it is made

• White hydrogen - naturally occuring from rare underground sources
• Brown hydrogen - from conversion of coal
• Grey hydrogen – extracted from oil and natural gas producing greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
• Blue hydrogen – is as above but the carbon emissions in the production process are captured, sequestered, or repurposed so that they do not contribute to global warming.
• Turquoise hydrogen - experimental - from natural gas (methane) at high temperatures producing hydrogen and solid carbon
• Pink hydrogen- from nuclear energy
• Yellow hydrogen- electrolysis from a mix of renewable and non-renewable electricity sources.
• Green hydrogen – is produced from zero-emission renewable energy by electrolysis of fresh water

In current thinking, in Australia, there are two economically viable methods to produce hydrogen. Depending on the type of energy input, both methods may produce carbon dioxide waste either directly or through using fossil fuels to provide the electricity. 

• Hydrogen H₂ produced by the electrolosis of clean, fresh water H₂O
     -->  Green Hydrogen is produced if the electricity comes from renewables or...
     --> Yellow Hydrogen if electrticity is wholly or partially from non-renewables
• Hydrogen H₂ produced from Methane CH₄ "natural gas"
    --> Grey Hydrogen is produced if not all waste CO₂ is contained and/or electricity from fossil fuels is used in hydrogen production or...
    --> Blue Hydrogen if CO₂ from extraction, processing, transport and any non-renewable electricity is totally sequestered.

If fresh water is used, as a dry continent, with municipal and agricultural acitivities periodically affected by drought, large scale Hydrogen production sourcing surface and near surface fresh water appears problematic.
If fossil fuels are used in the short term or long term directly or indirectly in the production of H₂ hydrogen then questions need to be addressed as to what happens to the resulting CO₂ carbon dioxide pollution both in the short term and in perpetuity.

So in addition to hydrogen production itself, questions need to be addressed regarding CCS Carbon Capture and Sequestration

Our ethical assumption is that this hydrogen production will not directly or indirectly result in additional atmospheric pollution now or at any time in the future.Some questions need to be addressed, the answers made clear to the public before large scale production begins.

Questions about Hydrogen H₂ produced by the electroloysis of water H₂O

1. What portion of export hydrogen production will derive from the electrolysis of fresh water?
2. Australia is one of the driest continents on the planet historically and frequently subject to prolonged drought. At 100% efficiency it takes about 9kg of water to produce 1 Kg of hydrogen gas. So where are we going to obtain the necessary vast volumes of clean fresh water and will this new use for fresh water affect domestic / agricultural supply?
3. Large amounts of electricity are necessary to produce hydrogen H₂ via electrolysis from water H₂O. From the outset is the electricity to come from renewable or non-renewable sources.?
4. If electricity from non-renewable sources contemplated how will the carbon dioxide pollution be permanently dealt with?

Questions about hydrogen H₂ produced from processing methane CH4 "natural gas"

1. At a theoretical 100% efficiency 16Kg of methane CH₄ will create 44Kg of carbon dioxide CO₂ waste and produce 4Kg of hydrogen . So the ratio by mass of waste to product is 10:1, how is this large mass of waste captured and dealt with?
2. After processing the Hydrogen retains 15% of the energy from the source Methane. Where does the other 85% of the energy go?
   
3. What is the current efficiency of methane and carbon dioxide containment at the wellhead and in transport to the conversion facility?
4. What is the current industrial scale efficiency of methane to hydrogen conversion?
5. What is the current industrial scale efficiency of carbon dioxide capture from methane to hydrogen conversion?
6. "Natural gas " at the wellhead may contain about 10% carbon dioxide plus other atmospheric pollutants such as sulphur dioxide. How are these waste wellhead gases removed, captured and dealt with?
7. How are leaked methane and carbon dioxide from joints, faults, fractures in the geological strata, from around the wellhead, around old wellheads or in transmission to the conversion facility captured?
8. The process of separating the hydrogen from carbon requires high-pressure steam, presumably heated by burning some of the mehtane. How is the carbon dioxide from this burning dealt with.
9. For export the hydrogen is converted and compressed to ammonia NH_4. How is the carbon dioxide produced by large amount of energy required for conversion ; get captured and dealt with?
10. What is the current overall industrial scale efficiency of Carbon Capture Sequestration from all the above sources in the conversion process?

Minimum conditions necessary for a geological. structure to be considered for CCS Carbon Capture Sequestration

• a suitable geologicallly stable structure must an extensive, flat lying continuous layer and remain so in perpetuity
• the layer of "host rock" must be at a minimum depth of about 2 kilometres so that overlying crustal pressure keeps the  carbon dioxide waste liquiified
• free of folds, joints, faults, fractures, deformation (so there can be no CO₂ leakage vertically)
• that terminates on all sides by thinning out to zero thickness essentially "pinching out" (so there can be no CO₂ leakage around the periphery).
• the "host rock" should havewith lots of  space between the grains (porosity) and
• lots of connectivity between the spaces (permeability)
• it must be overlain by at least one extensive continuous  another continuous sealing "cap" rock layer above to keep the heated (50-60 degree Celsius) pressurised liquid carbon dioxide from expanding and migrating upwards.
• the structure must be able to contain the carbon dioxide waste forever so it must occur in a perpetual depositional environment and not an erosional environment

The analogy often given is a bottle of hot carbonated soft drink.
The glass bottle is the"host" rock.
The metal cap the "cap" rock.
The hot soft drink fluid, the contained and pressurised carbon dioxide.
Like in the analogy, if the cap gets ruptured, the pressure is released and the carbon dioxide rapidly bubbles out

The elephant in the room in all of this is that in order to contain the vast volumes of pressurised carbon dioxide, the "host" and "cap" rock layer must remain intact in perpetuity.

• longer than the pyramids
• longer than it takes high grade nuclear waste to decay to a safe level
• longer than it took Australia to drift at a couple of centimetres per year from South America
• the cost of monitoring and maintaining the pressurised for millions of years  must be factored into the cost of the hydrogen fuel

Run away carbon dioxide leakage post sequestration would have catastrophic results from local to global scales
for example:

• if on land suffocation of all oxygen life -->particular concern, people, crops and animals
• creation a lethal environment in which to affect a repair of the leak
• if in water, acidification of the water resulting in death of marine life --> of particular concern fish
• at scale the potential for run away very rapid greenhouse effect in a very short time frame, at a rate unprecedented in human history
• loss of containing pressure in the rock layer for example from an earthquake would likely result in explosive expansion of liquid to gas
• CO₂ leakage up a fault or joint into a populated area, could have catastrophic results. For example : Lake Nyos is a crater lake in the Northwest Region of Cameroon that gives off periodic deadly explosive bursts of CO₂ that resulted in the suffocation of people and animals

Questions about CCS Carbon Capture Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide CO₂

1. Is the cost of sequestered CO₂ monitoring in perpetuity factored into the cost of the export hydrogen?
2. Has the cost of maintaining the integrity both land based and ocean based wellheads in perpetuity been facored in to the export price?
3. What legislation is envisaged to ensure monitoring and oversight, safety and immediate funds to deal with emergencies  are maintained in perpetuity?
4. Will this Legislation be retrospective to cover CCS that has already taken place.
5. Does the Constitution require changes to prevent future governments from negating the legislation? - we are looking at thousands of years
6. Does technology and methodology exist to seal and contain CO₂ blowouts and will fast reaction teams be available on standby in perpetuity?
7. What procedures are in place to assure that blowouts do not endanger the public?
8. Who is liable (in perpetuity) should a catastrophic event occur on land or in the sea?
9. Currently sequestration is taking place near methane extraction points. When that is not feasible how will the carbon dioxide be transported from the site of production to distant sequestration sites?

Lots of questions - few answers - page will be updated when public information of sufficient depth becomes available






TOP