Clean, Cheap, and Plentiful

A high tech company I am familiar with in Arizona had to shut down some of its manufacturing processes today due to Hurricane Katrina. It seems that the supply of hydrogen gas ran out and the regular just-in-time shipments stopped. The hydrogen gas comes from Texas. There it is made in chemical processing plants from methane. The methane comes from petroleum wells. The methane comes mixed in with the oil and is separated by gas processing plants. It also comes from gas wells. All of this has been affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Methane gas is also plentiful in the Persian Gulf oil fields.

Hydrogen is said to be a clean, cheap, and plentiful fuel, and its use would free us from the oil industry and Middle East fuel dependency. Not today.