The Attached Siemens AG White Paper On Hydrogen

[johnkarls]

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---------------------------- Original Message -----------------------------
Subject: The Attached Siemens AG White Paper On Hydrogen
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Date: Mon, October 21, 2019 11:46 pm MDT
To: Jill [Last Name Redacted Because She Is A Brand-New Reading Liberally Member]
Cc: Art [Last Name Redacted Because He Is Not A Reading Liberally Member]
Attachment:

RL-fa20-SiemensWhitePaperOnHydrogen.pdf

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Dear Jill,

Thank you for deciding to join our weekly Reading Liberally e-mail list.

And for your e-mail which provided a link to the attached Siemens “White Paper” (Siemen’s terminology) on Hydrogen vis-à-vis which you requested my comments.

As you probably know, Siemens AG (an Aktiengesellschaft or AG is a kind of German corporation) has been, over the decades, the German counterpart to General Electric which historically has been America’s foremost manufacturer of industrial equipment.

I am guessing that you encountered the Siemens “White Paper” by Googling hydrogen power following Art’s bringing to our attention the Proton Technologies Corporation announcement of its invention to access hydrogen from oil & gas and from coal while leaving the carbon they contain in the ground.

[The Proton Technologies Corp announcement, which Art brought to our attention, has been posted on our bulletin board at http://discussingliberally-saltlake.org ... 562&t=1838. And our Nov 13 meeting will be focused on one of our Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail Campaigns to protect that technology from potential malefactors, such as Saudi Arabia, which might want to offer an exorbitant price for the technology in order to kill it.]

Many kudos to you, Art, for your conscientious monitoring of technical literature about new technologies that might solve Global Warming!!!

Reur request for comments –

The first thing to realize is that Siemens’ so-called “White Paper” is really a “Marketing Brochure” for Siemens equipment that might be helpful in dealing with many aspects of what might be termed “The Hydrogen Economy.”

Since you only signed up for our weekly e-mail today, you didn’t receive last Saturday’s edition entitled “All Hands On Deck Emergency – Possible Global Warming Solution (Hydrogen Extraction) In Danger Of Being Killed – Proposed E-mail Campaign For Our Nov 13 Meeting” which is available at http://discussingliberally-saltlake.org ... 561&t=1839.]

It is a de facto “Executive Summary” for a 9-page single-spaced “indictment” to which there is a link in the de facto “Executive Summary” – the 9-page “indictment” is available at http://discussingliberally-saltlake.org ... 561&t=1834.]

The reason for mentioning all this is that the 9-page “indictment” has a section that begins with its seventh paragraph and is entitled “The ‘Hydrogen Highway’ in Europe and California 20 Years Ago.”

And that Europe has never given up its dream of a “Hydrogen Highway” and, indeed, a “Hydrogen Economy” -- even though the outlook for accessing huge quantities of hydrogen at economically-competitive prices may have appeared to be a forlorn hope during those 20 years.

BTW, I was not able to ascertain whether the so-called “White Paper” (© 2019) is the most recent installment of an annual “marketing brochure.”

Or whether it was quickly trotted out in the wake of the Proton Technologies announcement, which is NOT mentioned in the “White Paper.”

Regardless, it serves to call attention to “niche markets” that might develop around The Hydrogen Economy.

For example, the “White Paper” calls attention to Siemens’ central role in constructing its fabled windmills and “wind farms.”

Which, of course, produce electricity.

But what if the “wind farms” are in the “middle of nowhere” from which it would not be practical to construct zillions of miles of electric-transmission lines and suffer the tremendous power losses (usually more than 50% for even moderate distances) from transmitting the power in the form of electricity.

Why Siemens claims to have just the solutions!!!

Using the electricity on site for the electrolysis of water to extract hydrogen (2H2O > 2H2 + O2).

The energy can then be transported much more economically in the form of hydrogen.

And either used as hydrogen in factories, homes and automobiles.

Or Siemens even has hydrogen turbines that will convert the power back to electricity.

The reason why I described these possibilities as “niche markets” is the issue of how economically-competitive it would be to locate the “wind farms” zillions of miles from anywhere and then transform the electrical energy into hydrogen for ease of transportation.

Without even considering the massive power losses from transforming the electrical power to hydrogen (not to mention the massive power losses from transforming the hydrogen back to electricity)!!!

My comments – (1) don’t underestimate the power of, say, Saudi Arabia to kill the economic viability of such “niche markets” (as described in our 9-page “indictment”) BUT (2) don’t underestimate the willingness of the E.U. to provide subsidies (including price guarantees) to enable such “niche markets” to exist.

The Siemens “White Paper” describes some even-more-esoteric “niche markets” such as combining hydrogen with biofuels or with carbon compounds that Siemens claims are otherwise unavoidable, to create what it terms “E-fuels.”

Getting into the weeds, Al Gore would tell you that biofuels are a fraud!!!

Yes, if you use blinders to consider, say, growing corn in order to produce ethanol, you may be able to “balance the books” carbon-wise by looking only at the carbon eliminated by the corn but then re-created by the ethanol.

But Al Gore would tell you that you have failed to consider that you could just leave the plants be and use non-carbon fuels such as solar and wind (and nuclear and hydrogen).

In typical Law School 101 fashion of taking a proposition to its extreme to test its validity, Al Gore would ask the corn lobby (and other plant growers for biofuels) that if they think that balancing the carbon elimination of the plants with the carbon creation of the biofuels is such a great idea, THEN WHY DON’T WE LOOK FOR A MASSIVE LAND AREA IN WHICH THE IDEA COULD BE TAKEN TO A MASSIVE SCALE.

THE ANSWER – THE BRAZILIAN RAIN FOREST, OF COURSE, IS ONE OF THE FEW MASSIVE LAND AREAS WHERE THIS COULD BE DONE.

AND THE FRAUD OF THE BIOFUEL LOBBYISTS IS EXPOSED – BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOT TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT THE DISASTER OF DESTROYING THE RAIN FORESTS IN ORDER TO MAKE WAY FOR THE BIOFUELS FARMING!!!

Enough already on biofuels!!! Though it does make my blood boil (as I am sure it also makes Al Gore’s blood boil) to hear such mendacity!!!

[Which is not to say there may be some insignificant niche uses such as, if some government is going to burn trash rather than use it for landfill, then it might as well try to generate some electricity from burning the trash,]

Sorry to digress for so long on Siemens’ discussion of “e-fuels.”

Though the digression demonstrates that the further one gets from using electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen at windfarms that are out “in the middle of nowhere” – Siemens is probably getting into more-and-more-limited niche uses.

BTW, if the Proton Technologies technology is NOT killed by potential malefactors such as Saudi (whether or not it is protected by our proposed e-mail campaign), Humankind may be able to enter “The Promised Land” of “The Hydrogen Economy.” If the hydrogen turns out to be economical or it is adequately subsidized, it should be capable of providing all of our energy needs, EVEN AIRPLANES!!!

After all, all of America's submarines and aircraft carriers have been powered by on-board nuclear reactors for more than a half century.

And the Defense Department in the 1950’s believed that nuclear-powered airplanes would be “the wave of the future” – and the DoD was probably right that nuclear-powered airplanes would have been more efficacious than mid-air refueling of strategic bombers by refueling tankers.

Enough already!!!

Because I could probably go on forever. And if you have read this far, you deserve a medal!!!

Your friend,

John K.

PS – I hope both you and Art will decide to participate in our Wed evening Nov 13 meeting to protect the Proton Technologies technology from potential malefactors such as Saudi which might want to kill it.