Solar‐thermal production of renewable hydrogen
Solar‐thermal production of renewable hydrogen
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DOI：
10.1002/aic.11810
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发表时间：
2009-02
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Christopher M. Perkins;A. Weimer
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Christopher M. Perkins;A. Weimer
人类在本世纪面临的最大挑战之一是寻找可持续的、可广泛生产的、对全球环境无害的能源来满足不断增长的需求。2004年世界能源需求为18TW，预计到2030年将增长到28TW。1加上对长期使用化石燃料的环境影响的担忧，以及随着时间的推移增加这些燃料产量的能力，这种需求的增加可能会给全球经济带来危机，导致生活水平普遍下降。很明显，我们需要替代燃料，在过去的十年里，氢燃料受到了极大的关注。有许多文章吹捧“氢经济”，其中世界上大部分的能源需求将由这种燃料提供，主要的政府倡议试图使之成为现实。作为一种燃料，氢看起来很有吸引力，因为它在燃烧时只产生水，并且可以用于高效燃料电池。然而，地球表面并没有充足的氢气供应，因此它必须来自其他化学来源，更好地称为“能量载体”。这些来源通常是基于化石的;事实上，今天使用的大多数氢来自甲烷的蒸汽重整。3由于化石资源有限并产生温室气体，以这种方式获得氢作为燃料颠覆了氢经济的许多“绿色”目标。相反，应该探索可再生的氢资源（水，生物质），并将研究转向使用可再生能源技术从这些资源中提取氢。
One of the largest challenges facing humanity in this century is finding the energy sources to meet escalating demands that are sustainable, widely producible, and not detrimental to the global environment. World energy demand was 18 TW in 2004, and it is expected to grow to 28 TW by 2030. 1 Coupled with concerns over the environmental effects of long-term fossil fuel use, and the ability to increase the production of these fuels over time, this demand rise could put a crunch on the global economy that will lead to widespread decreases in standard of living. Clearly, alternative fuels are needed.One fuel that has received a great deal of attention over the past decade is hydrogen. There have been numerous articles touting the ‘‘hydrogen economy,’’in which most of the world’s energy needs will be served by this one fuel, and major governmental initiatives have sought to make this a reality. 2 As a fuel, hydrogen looks quite attractive, as it only produces water when burned and can be used in highly efficient fuel cells. However, no abundant supplies of hydrogen gas exist on the surface of the earth, so it must be derived from some other chemical source and is better referred to as an ‘‘energy carrier’’. Such sources have typically been fossil based; indeed, most hydrogen in use today comes from steam reforming of methane. 3 As fossil resources are limited and generate greenhouse gases, obtaining hydrogen as a fuel in this manner subverts many of the ‘‘green’’goals of the hydrogen economy. Instead, renewable sources of hydrogen (water, biomass) should be explored, and the search shifts to using renewable energy technologies for extracting hydrogen from those sources.