Hydrogen - The Decarbonization Problem
The Great Simplification #63 with Paul Martin
This Week…
There are many ‘Fuels of the Future’ about which the media likes to create hopeful and seamless narratives, one of the currently popular of these being hydrogen. But is it as infinite and ‘green’ as we are led to believe? Today, chemical engineer Paul Martin joins me to talk about all things hydrogen.
Paul Martin is a Canadian chemical engineer with decades of experience making and using hydrogen and syngas. As a chemical process development specialist, Paul offers services to an international clientele via his private consultancy Spitfire Research. He is also co-founder of the Hydrogen Science Coalition, a nonprofit organization providing science-based information about hydrogen from a position free from commercial interest.
Where does hydrogen come from and what do we already depend on hydrogen for? How can we think about hydrogen from a systems perspective to determine if it is really an energy solution - or an energy problem? What does this mean for the design of global supply chains entering into a simplified material future?
In case you missed it…
Last Friday, in Frankly #26 shared some context about how I think of recent global banking and financial market news regarding SVB and Credit Suisse. What might world financial market reactions indicate as we move closer to The Great Simplification? One thing I’m pretty confident of: world governments and central banks “are gonna need bigger boats” as more and more entities require bailouts and guarantees. Eventually that ‘boat’ may become so large that it will be “Too Big to Save”.
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There was a "listening session" today in the city of Chester, Pennsylvania, about plans to build a hydrogen plant. Chester is an EJ community, already hosting a horrid incinerator. I missed the listening session, but replied to the announcement with a link to the Paul Martin interview and a brief summary. The others had only been concerned about keeping hydrogen out of Chester, but after seeing my link & summary, began questioning hydrogen entirely.
One person replied with a link to an article about & video of Mike Strizky, https://www.sustainabilitynow.global/2021/05/16/hydrogen-micro-gridsclean-power-for-the-future-now/ and https://youtu.be/ci8HjpWLLk0?si=S784EDoUyM6o2FeR respectively.
Mr. Strizky has produced an impressive number of prototypes of hydrogen systems, is working on a patent, and is selling some of his constructs. His hydrogen hype is very smooth. But he never addresses any of the negative claims from Mr. Martin about EROI, secondary greenhouse effects, and leakage. I doubt that Mr. Strizky fits in with the kinds of guests you invite onto your show, but it sure would be interesting to see him in conversation with Mr. Martin, and see how he responds to Mr. Martin's claims.
P.S. Together with another member, we have been growing your audience within Transition Town Greater Media. Thank you again and again for speaking truth to power.
Nate, I watched your amazing talk to CHSD on YouTube today! I highly recommend it to everyone of your substack readers and hope they in turn recommend it to others. It seems to me to be the most comprehensive talk I’ve heard you give to date and the slides must be extremely helpful to the “uninitiated.”👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻