Review: Tomorrow's Energy: Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and the Prospects for a Cleaner Planet.

Starting off, the book's style is a bit prosaic.  That put me off and I almost put the book down.  However, the book's sheer volume of information kept me interested enough to keep going.  By the end of the book, I was quite impressed with the enormous volume of information provided.

The book is slightly biased, but not too much so.  It is biased towards the left, with a slight emphasis on big government solutions.  This is not to be unexpected, as the impetus for this subject comes largely from the left's preoccupation with climate change.  For me, this is no big deal, as the energy security angle was my major concern.  Politics need not be a problem, as an opportunity exists to bridge the gap between right and left on this issue.

But it remains to be seen if this opportunity can be seized.  The book did not cover the political aspect of the issue very deeply.  When it did, it focused in on bashing two Republican administrations--- Reagan and George W. Bush--- for not doing more.  Indeed, the book was pessimistic in tone towards the adoption of this technology, citing a study that says adoption of new technologies can take a century.

It is also somewhat biased against nuclear energy.  There was no mention at all about the work of Weinberg and his successor, Kirk Sorensen, with respect to the concept of molten salt reactors using the thorium fuel cycle.

There was also no mention at all of Greg Vezina's work on developing ammonia as an easy way to hydrogen, as Vezina puts it.  Ammonia can be burned in an internal combustion engine.  Thus, it could bridge the gap between the incumbent technologies of internal combustion engines powered by fossil fuels versus the new technology of hydrogen fuel cells also powered by fossil fuels and eventually renewables.

So, despite the enormous volume of information, two clearcut pathways toward the goal of a hydrogen future were not adequately covered.  This was a definite weakness in the book.

Yet, I would recommend reading the book.  I found out something that I didn't know much about--- the Bloom box.  It would seem that there would be something for everyone to learn from this book, even those such as myself, since I have studied and written about this issue for years.

Update:

The review has been cross posted at Amazon.  The link can be found on the left sidebar near the bottom of the page.