THE EDITOR, Sir:
I write in response to Mr. Edward Seaga's article in The Sunday Gleaner of December 4, under the title 'The replacement of Oil Part II'.
Mr. Seaga is entirely correct when he emphasises that more effort should be devoted to research in the fields of solar energy and hydrogen as the fuel of the future. Solar energy has been with us for centuries and will be with us for the foreseeable future. It is inexhaustible and it remains for man's ingenuity to exploit it for the future.
Hydrogen is very different. If we want to use it as a fuel for our own benefit, we must manufacture it. Here is the problem. If we manufacture it from hydrocarbon sources such as methane, we produce greenhouse gases. And these we want to eliminate. We can produce hydrogen by electrolysis but this requires electricity, and technology suggests that the energy required for electrolysis is more than the energy available in the hydrogen produced. This does not look good for hydrogen technology.
The answer may lie with an
article published in the BBC News Online by Jo Twist quoting Dr. David Auty, CEO of the British firm Hydrogen Solar. Dr Auty claims that his firm has developed a tandem cell technology which can capture energy from sunlight and can convert this to hydrogen with an efficiency of eight per cent. He claims in five years, he can increase this efficiency to 10 per cent and at that time they will be able to market hydrogen at a price which is competitive with oil and coal.
This may be wishful thinking but it is an indication of the way to go. There is a lot of work to be done before hydrogen becomes an
efficient fuel for motor vehicles or power stations but Dr. Auty says " If we look five years ahead and we have a few square miles of hydrogen farm in a desert, we think we could produce hydrogen that is competitive with coal and oil."
If there is any substance to these claims, then an attack on the twin problems of greenhouse gases and global warming could be possible in the future. Let us hope that the United Nations and the developed nations will give all possible support to those working on these problems.
I am, etc.,
DOUGLAS AITKEN
5, Ivor Drive
Jacks Hill
Kingston 6
