Tomorrow's Energy: Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and the Prospects for a Cleaner Planet
Author(s): Peter Hoffmann (Author), Tom Harkin (Author)
Publisher: Mit Pr
Publication Date: September 1, 2001
Edition: First Edition
Language: English
Print length: 320 pages
ISBN-10: 0262082950
ISBN-13: 9780262082952
Book Description
The author of Forever Fuel: The Story of Hydrogen traces the evolution of hydrogen fuel cells, a technology touted by some as the answer to the world’s current energy problems.
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
The word hydrogen conjures images of devastating bombs and burning zeppelins (the Hindenburg) for most of us, but it inspires visionaries like Peter Hoffmann to picture clear skies and safer roads. Hoffmann’s book Tomorrow’s Energy traces the history of the volatile gas and explores options for its use as fuel. Though the author can’t avoid using some technical language, his writing should still appeal well beyond the community of automotive and power-plant engineers. His coverage, though fairly balanced, tends toward the positive efforts made by government, corporations, environmentalists, and scientists to promote hydrogen as a clean, relatively safe, and potentially cheap alternative to carbon-heavy fuels.
Party-line Greens may gasp at some of the suggested schemes, which include using limited nuclear power to generate hydrogen from water. But Hoffmann convincingly assures the reader that ultimately, the planet will be better off this way. Many will be surprised at how far hydrogen has advanced since serious research restarted during the 1970s fuel crisis: the range of cars, planes, and power networks using the gas for power storage is impressive and underreported.
Though he makes his case for hydrogen as a means of powering our lives, Hoffmann also shows off its uses in medicine, agriculture, metallurgy, and other fields. Using economic data, he shows that we can expect to live in a hydrogen economy sometime midcentury; if so, we can all breathe a collective, CO2-laden sigh of relief. –Rob Lightner
From Library Journal
Editor of The Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter and author of The Forever Fuel: The Story of Hydrogen, Hoffmann chronicles the worldwide progression of hydrogen energy from a niche market to a viable commercial product. Arguing that fossil fuels will not be cheap to find in the future and that renewables are becoming less expensive, he advocates the use of hydrogen as a nonpolluting form of energy for fuel cells and as an energy storage medium. Hoffmann thoroughly details the history of hydrogen projects worldwide from experimental fuel cell vehicles produced by the major auto makers to research into the use of hydrogen as airplane fuel, the application of hydrogen in utilities in Germany and China, and a few experimental hydrogen-powered houses in the United States. Hoffmann frankly explains the pros and cons of the hydrogen debate, including safety issues, economics, and the difficulty in moving our national energy policy away from fossil fuels. Because there are so few books on this energy source, academic and public libraries that have a strong interest in alternative energy materials will want to purchase for informed readers. Eva Lautemann, Georgia Perimeter Coll., Clarkston Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Wow! eBook
