научная статья по теме THE HYDROGEN CIVILIZATION SAGA Комплексное изучение отдельных стран и регионов

Текст научной статьи на тему «THE HYDROGEN CIVILIZATION SAGA»

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одородная экономика

hydrogen economy

История водородной энергетики

History of hydrogen energy

SAGA OF HYDROGEN CIVILIZATION

T. Nejat Veziroglu^

^^ Honorable Editor-in-Chief

President, International Association for Hydrogen Energy Clean Energy Research Institute, University of Miami Coral Gables, FL 33124, USA

After having my elementary and middle school education in Izmir, Turkey, and high school education in

Istanbul, I attended the Istanbul Technical University for one and a half years. Then I entered the Imperial College London to complete my university education, where I received the Associateship of City and Guilds Institute «A.C.G.I.», B.S. Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Diploma of the Imperial College «D.I.C.», and in 1951, Ph.D. Degree in Heat Transfer from the University of London. After my graduation, in Turkey I did my military service in the Ordnance Division, worked at the Office of Soil Products, first as a consultant and then as the Deputy Director of Steel Silos, and in the management of a major construction company.

In 1962, I joined the University of Miami Engineering Faculty as an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering. My first research project involved the Investigation of Two Phase Flow Instabilities in Nuclear Hydrogen Rocket Engines for Travel to Mars. Dr. Alan Stenning, Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, was the Project Director. We discovered three different instabilities in boiling two phase flows, and also the precautions to be taken to eliminate them. This study lasted five years — 1962 through 1967. During that time, I became quite familiar with the properties of liquid and gaseous hydrogen. It was the lightest fuel, and the best fuel for long distance journeys.

In the 1960s, air pollution in cities had become an important issue hurting the health of people. I became interested in environmental issues in general, and air pollution in particular. I started studying possible vehicle fuels, with a view of determining the fuel which would cause little or no pollution. Particularly, I studied methanol, ethanol, ammonia and hydrogen, as well as the gasohols (i.e., mixtures of gasoline and methanol and/or ethanol).

My investigation of fuels for transportation lasted five years, 1967 through 1972. The result was that hydrogen was the cleanest fuel, and it was also the most efficient fuel. It would not produce CO, CO2 SOx, hydrocarbons, soot and particulates. If hydrogen was burned in oxygen, it would not produce NOx either. If it was burned in air, then there would be some NOx produced.

Early in 1973, energy crisis started. Petroleum producing countries in the Middle East stopped exporting oil. The world economy almost came to a standstill. Some factories stopped and/or worked part time. Transportation was adversely affected. There were big lines at gas stations, few cars on the roads, and air traffic was curtailed.

As I always believed that engineers and scientists should strive to find solutions to the problems facing the humanity and the world, in 1973 I established the Clean Energy Research Institute (CERI) at the University of Miami. The mission of the institute was to find a solution or solutions to the energy problem, so that the world economy could properly function and provide all of the humankind with high living standards. It was also the mission of the institute to find clean forms of energy, so that they would not produce pollution and damage the health of flora, fauna and humans, and the environment of the planet Earth.

CERI started work in earnest. We quickly looked at all the possible primary energy sources, including solar, wind, currents, waves, tides, geo-thermal energy, nuclear breeders and thermonuclear energy. They were much cleaner than fossil fuels. They would last much longer than fossil fuels. We began using fossil fuels with the start of the Industrial Revolution in 1860s. First we used coal, and then we started using oil, and later natural

Статья поступила в редакцию 08.01.2008 г. Ред. per. № 199. The article has entered in publishing office 08.01.2008. Ed. reg. No. 199.

International Scientific Journal for Alternative Energy and Ecology № 12 (56) 2007

© 2007 Scientific Technical Centre «TATA»

gas. Petroleum companies expect that most of the fluid fossil fuels (i.e., petroleum and natural gas) will have been used by 2060s. Coal, tar sands and shale oil might last another 100 years, if a solution to CO2 emission problem could be found. However, renewable energy sources will last as long as we have the sun — another five billion years!

Although, the new primary energy sources would last much longer than the fossil fuels, although they were much cleaner than fossil fuels, they were not practical to use. They were not stor-able or transportable by themselves, except nuclear. They could not be used as a fuel for transportation by themselves, except nuclear for marine transportation. In order, to solve the problem, it became clear that we had to manufacture a synthetic fuel using the new primary energy sources. As a result of my ten years of research and investigation (i.e., 1962 through 1972), I already knew that the best synthetic fuel was hydrogen. It was the lightest fuel, the most efficient fuel, the cleanest fuel, and the best fuel for transportation. I decided to call the resulting energy system «Hydrogen Energy System» or «Hydrogen Economy», since energy is the economy's locomotive. I was quite sure that this was the best solution to the depletion of fossil fuels and the global environmental problems they were causing, such as the global warming, climate change, ozone layer depletion, acid rains, air pollution, oil spills, etc. I was convinced that it was inevitable that the Hydrogen Energy System would replace the present fossil fuel system sooner or later.

In order to inform the scientific community about the proposed solution and get their reaction and input, I decided to organize an international conference, to be named The Hydrogen Economy Miami Energy (THEME) Conference. I went to Washington D.C., and explained my idea at the National Science Foundation. They gave the Clean Energy Research Institute $70 000 to organize the conference. We sent letters and brochures to all the scientists around the world, who were interested and/or would be interested to solve the energy and environmental problems facing the humankind. We worked overtime to organize the conference in the shortest possible time, in about eight months.

The landmark THEME Conference opened at the Playboy Plaza Hotel in Miami Beach on 18 March 1974, with the participation of more than 700 scientists from some eighty countries. At my Opening Address, I described and proposed the Hydrogen Energy System as the permanent solution to the depletion of fossil fuels and the global environmental problems being caused by their utilization. After my opening address, we had a refreshment break. Some ten scientists from around the world came up to me. They said «Dr. Veziroglu, we agree with you, the Hydrogen Energy System is the best possible system to replace the fossil fuels». That evening eleven of us met at the Penthouse of the

Hotel, which was my residence as the Chairman of the Conference.

The eleven scientists, who were later known as «Hydrogen Romantics», represented almost all regions of the World. They were Hussein K. Abdel-Al of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, John O'M Bockris of United Kingdom and Australia, william J. D. Escher of U.S.A., Cesare Marchetti of Italy and Austria, Anibal R. Martinez of Venezuela, Tokio Ohta of Japan, walter seifritz of Switzerland, william D. van vorst of U.S.A., T. Nejat veziroglu of Turkey and U.S.A., Kurt H. weil of Germany and U.S.A., and Robert M. Zweig of U.S.A. At the Penthouse meeting, there was a passionate, yet deliberate debate. It was agreed that the Hydrogen Energy System was an idea whose time had arrived. It was the permanent solution to the depletion of conventional fuels. It was the permanent solution to the global environmental problems. Then, the discussion turned to whether there was a need for a formal organization. It was Anibal Martinez of Venezuela (incidentally the one who took part in establishing the petroleum cartel OPEC), who urged the founding of a society dedicated to crusade for the establishment of what seemed to be to the gathering, and which later proved to be, the inevitable and universal energy system, the Hydrogen Energy System. It was ironic that he was proposing the establishment of an organization, which would make OPEC obsolete. As a result of the Penthouse meeting, the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE) was established by the end of the year 1974. I was elected President of IAHE, William J. D. Escher was elected Secretary, and most of the Hydrogen Romantics served on the Board of Directors.

IAHE started working enthusiastically. In 1975, we published two newsletters. I negotiated with Perganon Press to start a scientific journal on Hydrogen Energy, and CEO of Perganon Press, Bob Maxwell, agreed to be the publisher. The first issue of the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy — of which I became the Editor-in-Chief — published in January 1976. For the first three years, IJHE was quarterly. Three years later, in 1979 it became bi-monthly, and after another three years in 1982 it became monthly. This year IJHE will publish 18 issues. Starting in January 2008, IJHE will become forthnightly, in keeping up with the growing importance of Hydrogen Economy.

In order to provide a platform for Hydrogen Energy scientists from around the world, we decided to organize the biennial World Hydrogen Energy Conferences (WHECs). The first one was held in Miami Beach in 1976. Thereafter the WHEC conferences were held in Zurich, Tokyo, Pasadena, Toronto, Vienna, Moscow, Honolulu, Paris, Cocoa Beach, Stuttgart, Buenos Aires, Beijing, Montreal, Yokohama and Lyon, ever

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