Yet another perpetual motion machine in the scientific literature involving hydrogen. [View all]

The paper to which I'll refer in this post is this one: Boosting the Hydrogen Production Coupling with Electrochemical Methanol Oxidation to Formate Using Monolayered Layered Double Hydroxide Nanosheets Jing Ren, Lisha Xing, Tianyi Lai, and Yufei Zhao Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 2023 62 (43), 17553-17561.

Once again, the magic word "hydrogen," subject to continuous abuse to encourage the continuous use and expanded use of dangerous fossil fuels via exergy destruction, appears in the scientific literature as the subject of a perpetual motion machine.

I discussed another hydrogen perpetual motion machine recently in this space: Wunderbar! A Hydrogen Based Perpetual Motion Machine.

Let's start here: Electricity is generally not "green." It is the most thermodynamically degraded form of energy in common use.

I have covered the exergy destruction associated with hydrogen in some detail here: A Giant Climate Lie: When they're selling hydrogen, what they're really selling is fossil fuels.

Included in that post is this graphic:



The caption:

Progress on Catalyst Development for the Steam Reforming of Biomass and Waste Plastics Pyrolysis Volatiles: A Review Laura Santamaria, Gartzen Lopez, Enara Fernandez, Maria Cortazar, Aitor Arregi, Martin Olazar, and Javier Bilbao, Energy & Fuels 2021 35 (21), 17051-17084]

I referred to this graphic, and reproduced it previously, discussing a paper in the journal I discussed above here: The current sources and uses of hydrogen.

There you have it: 10% of the hydrogen produced on this planet, almost all of it produced by the use of dangerous fossil fuels (including that produced by electrolysis as a side product of chlorine manufacture, since electricity is mostly produced from dangerous fossil fuels), is used to make methanol. I assume, based on general knowledge, that methanol so made because the general method for making methanol, partial oxidation of dangerous natural gas, produces some formic acid and formaldehyde as a side product, and this is recovered by hydrogenation to methanol. All of these industrial reactions are probably carried out in a Haber Bosch type plant where hydrogen is made by reforming dangerous natural gas.

All of these reactions, including partial oxidation of dangerous natural gas destroy exergy.

So what do these authors propose to improve the disastrous exergy destruction associated with water hydrolysis?

Let's start with the delusional marketing found in the introduction of the paper, about something that doesn't actually exist on any scale that matters, "green hydrogen," a line of bullshit wishful thinking that is drilled into public consciousness by dishonest advertising, including some found here at DU by posters I regard as dangerous fossil fuel marketeers.



The MOR, methanol oxidation reaction, described above, delineates the nature of this approach as a perpetual motion machine. Other species mentioned are also made from hydrogen, notably, N₂H₄ and urea.

Climate change is getting worse faster.

Captive hydrogen can be made from thermochemical cycles which can only be carried out continuously and thus cleanly using nuclear heat. It is, in my view, the only way that the external costs of hydrogen manufacture can be rendered clean and sustainable, and in fact, offers a potential, via process intensification, to increase the thermodynamic efficiency of nuclear energy to unprecedented levels.

In 2011, the late great Nobel Laureate George Olah proposed a closed carbon cycle to address the on going and accelerating tragedy of climate change: Anthropogenic Chemical Carbon Cycle for a Sustainable Future George A. Olah, G. K. Surya Prakash, and Alain Goeppert Journal of the American Chemical Society 2011 133 (33), 12881-12898.

His proposal involved the hydrogenation of CO₂ to methanol and/or dimethyl ether (DME), the latter being a nontoxic wonder fuel capable of replacing petroleum, in particular diesel fuel, gasoline, LPG, dangerous natural gas, coal and even fluorinated refrigerants.

If the methanol is made by partial oxidation of dangerous natural gas (as most of it is), by the way, this paper does not imply a perpetual machine, but rather is an approach to making the already unacceptably dirty use of hydrogen by electrolysis an even dirtier enterprise.

Have a pleasant Sunday. Enjoy the upcoming holiday.