Hydrogen: The Ecological Fuel for Mexican Future

Abstract

Mexico, as many other countries, needs the substitution of fossil fuels to avoid the environmental and health problems produced by their burning. Hydrogen is an important alternative energy source for the growing energy demand and the answer to the present need of a clean, efficient, and environmentally-friendly fuel. While the proved hydrocarbon reserves in Mexico will last for just some more decades, hydrogen, in counterpart, is the most abundant element in the universe and the third one in the earth’s surface. Burning hydrogen in a combustion engine produces water and a small amount of nitrogen oxides, which can be eliminated in proton exchange membrane fuel cells or in alkaline fuel cells. Fuel cells working with hydrogen are electrochemical devices where the recombination of hydrogen with oxygen produces electricity, heat and water in a silent manner. In the seventies, most countries started in hydrogen research and development due to the petroleum crisis; being Germany, Canada and Japan the most advanced countries in the area. USA announced in 2003 a $1.2 billion Hydrogen Fuel Initiative to develop technology for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells. Iceland, one of the countries with large contaminant emissions, is working to become the first hydrogen based economy. In the other hand, two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, could produce energy for the future through thermonuclear reactions. Mexico needs to include in its energetic program research and development in hydrogen for its use as an energy carrier of the renewable and still non renewable energy sources. Mexico should also explore the possibility of becoming a member of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ITER project, like other countries (e.g. India), to develop a clean energy future.