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conferenceseries
.com
Volume 8, Issue 10 (Suppl)
J Earth Sci Clim Change, an open access
ISSN: 2157-7617
Climate Change 2017
October 19-21, 2017
CLIMATE CHANGE
October 19-21, 2017 | Rome, Italy
4
th
World Conference on
Hydrogen and electricity (Hydricity): The
essential
currencies to escape climate catastrophe
David Sanborn Scott
University of Victoria, Canada
A
lbert Einstein advised, “
Everything should be kept as simple as possible, but not simpler.
” Following Einstein’s wisdom, the
following energy system chain shows services, technologies, sources and currencies within five
functional groups
. The role
of
energy currencies
in energy systems is analogous to the role of financial currencies in financial systems. Neither is a
source
of
energy or wealth, yet both are essential for facilitating energy or financial transactions. Each step, from left towards the right,
is a demand-supply step. So where is carbon dioxide emitted?
Service technologies
emit CO
2
when the
currencies
they use
contain carbon.
Harvesting technologies
emit CO
2
when the
energy for harvesting
is carbon based—like fossil-fueled mining
machinery. So to develop a carbon-free system we must evolve towards using only carbon-free energy sources and carbon-
free energy currencies. There are many carbon-free sources—hydraulic, tidal, solar, wind, nuclear and so on. In contrast,
there
are only two carbon-free currencies
. The first is the
electronic
currency, electricity. But electricity is a poor candidate for free-
range transportation, such as cars, trucks, ships and especially aircraft. That’s why we also need a
protonic
(material) carbon-
free currency. A
protonic
currency must contain only elements found in atmospheric abundance—otherwise when the fuel
is burned, the emissions will be environmentally intrusive. Therefore, any candidate fuel can contain
only
oxygen, nitrogen,
and hydrogen. Ammonia (NH
3
) satisfies this compositional constraint. But practical issues like low energy mass- density
and toxicity make it troublesome. So we’re left with hydrogen as the only practical carbon- free fuel that can be universally
employed for all tasks that today use carbon-based fuels. Hydrogen can also be used as a clean, efficient substitute for many
material-harvesting tasks, such as using H
2
rather than coke for reducing iron ore in steel making. A hydricity world will be
cleaner, systemically more robust and more efficient. It will bring cleaner environments, and is essential to any chance we have
to escape climate catastrophe.
Biography
David Sanborn Scott, PhD, DSc (hon.), DEng (hon.), is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. Formerly, Chair of Mechanical Engineering, University
of Toronto, Scott then travelled west to become Founding Director of the University of Victoria’s Institute for Integrated Energy Systems. Dr Scott is the author of
Smelling Land; The Hydrogen Defense Against Climate Catastrophe. He chaired Canada’s Federal Advisory Group on Hydrogen Opportunities that produced the
report
Hydrogen: National Mission for Canada
ESBN 0-662-15544-0. Dr. Scott is currently Vice-President (for North America) of the International Association for
Hydrogen Energy. In 2006, he was honored with the IAHE Jules Vern Award for ‘Outstanding Contributions to Hydrogen Physics, and Hydrogen Energy Sociology
and Philosophy.’
davidsanbornscott@scottpoint.caDavid Sanborn Scott, J Earth Sci Clim Change 2017, 8:10(Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2157-7617-C1-036