Pierre F. Burollet¹
(1) CIFEG, Forcalquier, France

Abstract: What about hydrogen?

Since the 1980 International Geological Congress in Paris and its Colloquium on Energy resources, a lot of researches on atmospheric pollution have highlighted the greenhouse effect and its consequences. So there were global discussions about reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide.

The French way with a large nuclear production of power is limited by the problem of waste disposal. Hydroelectric power has reached its limits in the consuming countries.

There was a modern tendency to shift progressively from coal to oil and from oil to gas. The gas is attractive as it has a ratio of just one carbon for four hydrogens. In the long run, the ultimate progress would be suppressing this last carbon and using only hydrogen.

For the time being hydrogen’s storage and transportation are very difficult. It is just a matter of technology. In order to clean our planet a large effort ought to be devoted to these technical processes.

At the present time the production of hydrogen needs a great amount of electric power. However, in some industrial countries, there is a surplus production of electricity at some particular seasons or at various hours. This power could be used to make hydrogen and to stabilize it as hydrides for a later use be cars.

For massive production the best would be harnessing the main tropical rivers. The liquefied hydrogen would be exported by specialized tankers. As an examp0le of such an exploitation, the Amazon and its tributaries could supply extensive revenues to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Brazil.

A joint venture of oil and gas companies with utility services of the industrial countries might carry out research first and then, industrial developments. It would be not only a very large source of profits but also the realization of a moral duty to mankind.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90914©2000 AAPG Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana