Making Hydrogen

Yes, the feds have written checks adding up to about $7 billion to various research institutes to delve into the mechanics of producing pure hydrogen that can be used to power transportation and processes.  There's lots of combat over who is going to get a fortune in government subsidies and tax breaks for efficient hydrogen production. Combustion of hydrogen doesn't release the dreaded CO2 that's causing the earth to overheat.

The hydrogen can be produced in a number of different ways one of which is demonstrated below: 

 

 

technologystudent.com 

 

An electric current is passed through water and the molecules are divided into their respective atoms. Since electricity isn't free, even if it comes from wind turbines, this makes the hydrogen more expensive than fossil fuels.

This is all very interesting but it turns out that the heating value of hydrogen is far less than that of natural gas, its main competitor.

The net heating value in BTUs per cubic foot of hydrogen at atmospheric pressure is 275. In the case of natural gas in the same conditions the BTUs are 850. Ergo natural gas is not only cheaper than hydrogen, it produces 3 times as much of the real goal, heat, and also more safely.

As an example of insanity, the energy used to produce hydrogen gas comes from fossil fuel powered electrical  generators, which could be and are fueled by natural gas itself.