Can NASA technology spin off developments help clean up Earth's environment?

Yes

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by Roy C Dudgeon

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Bringing Space Age Technology Down To Earth

Can NASA technologies help to clean up the Earth's environment? Absolutely yes. In fact, NASA technologies form the cornerstone of an emission-free energy system known as the hydrogen economy. Emission-free, you say? Yes, meaning no CO2 emissions, no nitrogen oxides, no particulates, no ground level ozone. And what does that imply? Quite simply, no greenhouse gas emissions or global warming, no acid rain, no nutrient pollution and no smog.

The center of the hydrogen energy economy, as the name implies, is hydrogen fuel. NASA's rockets have run on hydrogen fuel from the beginning. Why? Because it contains more energy per pound than any other fuel, and they want to minimize the weight, or payload, which they are lifting into orbit. In other words, it is the most efficient fuel available.

When it comes to sustainability, hydrogen is also the perfect choice. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and one of the most abundant on earth.

There are two potential sources of hydrogen and two methods of creating it already available. The first, known as "steam reformation" is the one currently used by NASA to obtain fuel. It uses steam to split natural gas (CH4) into carbon and hydrogen. This implies releasing that one carbon atom into the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming just as combustion of fossil fuels or any of the other biological fuel does (ethanol, biodiesel).

The other source of hydrogen fuel is electrolysis-the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen with electricity. The technology is painfully simple. I recall splitting hydrogen and oxygen from water using a 12 volt battery, some wire, a beaker and a couple of test tubes in high school chemistry class some 30 years ago.

Ironically, steam reformation is currently cheaper. Why? Because natural gas is so cheap that no one has bothered to invest the money in commercial electrolysis production on a large scale.

The perfect technology for implementing hydrogen fuel was also developed by NASA. This technology is known as a "hydrogen fuel cell." They've been used to provide electricity on the space shuttle for decades now.

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device, similar to a battery to which you add fuel (hydrogen). The fuel cell recombines the hydrogen fuel with oxygen from the atmosphere to produce three things: waste heat (just like an internal combustion engine), electricity, and water vapor (the only emission). Otherwise fuel cell powered vehicles (which are already being developed and tested) operate much like an electric car.

Combined with electrolysis using energy from clean and sustainable energy sources-such as solar and wind power-hydrogen and fuel cells can create a completely emission free and completely sustainable energy cycle. Photovoltaics (or solar panels) were also pioneered by NASA. They convert sunlight directly into electricity, and they currently power pretty much the entire satellite communications system. Like wind, they are also emission-free, making both wind and solar excellent sources of electricity for hydrogen production.

Here's how the hydrogen cycle works. First you split water. You store the hydrogen, while oxygen (which we all need to survive anyway) is released into the environment. When the hydrogen is utilized through a fuel cell it recombines with the same amount of oxygen to create the same amount of water. Nothing is ever used up in the process because the "fuel" is not combusted. It creates a continuous cycle like other cycles in nature. A continuous cycle of reuse.

Pairing hydrogen production with solar or wind power also solves one of the problems with these perfectly sustainable and emission-free power sources. Both are intermittent sources of power. That is, the sun doesn't always shine, and the wind doesn't always blow. But hydrogen fuel produced during peak generation periods can not only be stored for use in transportation, but for use in a back-up generator as well (a larger fuel cell).

So why isn't hydrogen technology, and the larger hydrogen economy of which it is a part, being implemented more rapidly? We already have the technology and the knowledge to make it work. In other words, it is already feasible at a technical level.

The first reason is that it is currently more expensive. In other words, while it is feasible it is not "economical." This could easily be changed by diverting the billions of dollars governments in Canada, the United States and elsewhere continue to put into subsidizing oil exploration, and diverting those subsidies into hydrogen technologies.

Any new technology is expensive to develop. There are research and development costs, and marketing expenses. The development of manufacturing facilities and other infrastructure are necessary. But once technologies and markets are established the price of new technologies tends to come down. (Think of personal computers, compact disk players, high definition televisions. It's a common pattern).

The second reason is that there are very powerful vested interests in the petroleum industry which oppose the transition. This is not surprising because once people realize it is possible to produce your own fuel in the garage using a wind turbine, an electrolysis machine and your local water supply, they stand to lose billions of dollars. And where is the profit in a system where the average person is no longer dependent on an energy supply which they can centrally control?

The main reason for the slowness of the move towards a hydrogen economy, then, is not feasibility but a lack of political will.

During the Cold War, for example, it was feasible for NASA to send men to the moon and return them safely to Earth. It is also clearly still feasible to do so now. Why don't we then? We lack the political will which the Cold War provided historically. It was very important to the West at the time to beat the Soviets to the moon, and this provided the political will to invest the necessary money in order to do so.

It is exactly the same situation with hydrogen technologies today. The technology already exists. A hydrogen economy is feasible. If we are willing to pay the price.

And it's time to bring space-age technologies down to Earth. Where they belong.

Suggested readings/references:

Seth Dunn, "The Hydrogen Experiment," /World Watch/ November-December (2000), pp. 14-25.

Richard Rosentreter, "Oil, Profit$, and the Question of Alternative Energy," /The Humanist/, September-October (2000), pp. 8-13.

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