A lot of people are talking about moving to a hydrogen economy. Generally it'd probably be a good thing as long as the hydrogen isn't generated from fossil fuels (leaving effects of hydrogen lost to the atmosphere aside as an unknown.)

So the idea is to base wind turbines far out to sea where there's no locals to complain about how unsightly they are (although I think they look pretty good,) anchor them to the ocean floor with cables and potentially add wave power generators. The electricty generated could be run through a cable to the ocean floor where electrolysis generates hydrogen at the surrounding water pressure negating the need for compressors. That high pressure hydrogen can then be shipped to where it's needed.

Obvioulsy there might not currently be a viable business plan, however with rising oil prices it's got to be viable in the pretty near future.
-- scubadooper, Jul 20 2004

very similar Ocean-going_20hydrogen_20economy
I justed noted the datestamps... you have precedence [afinehowdoyoudo, Jan 02 2010, last modified Jan 03 2010]

Wikipedia: High pressure electrolysis http://en.wikipedia...essure_electrolysis
Baked by Mitsubishi [pashute, Dec 09 2012]

I'm pretty sure this is thoroughly baked. <edit> I misread this idea. I recind the nature of that remark and move into a comfy [+-] </e>
-- contracts, Jul 20 2004


I like the compressor though.
-- david_scothern, Jul 20 2004


Not sure that the compressor would really be very practical. If it were realistically more effective than a straight electricity powered compressor I think people would have tried to make use of it. I suspect that the machine to produce the hydrogen would require mainenance. I can't see this improving on the current offshore Windfarms. And in Norway they even have underwater turbines shaped like aerogenerators.

Very Baked. Can't even be bothered to type any more. [M-F-D]
-- PainOCommonSense, Jul 20 2004


I can't imagine a compressor being more efficient, it's probably not been used as Hydrogen generation isn't currently a major industry.

Maintenance should be negligible as it's only a couple of electrodes attached to a cable with a container over the generated hydrogen, ROVs are more than capable of providing all the neccessary maintenance.

Countries such as the UK have a bureacratic problem with off-shore wind farms, in international waters there's no one to complain about them. Vast farms can be developed far offshore with cost efficiencies from scale.
-- scubadooper, Jul 20 2004


Make the cables retractable, thus prevent destruction of the turbines by submersing them.
-- scubadooper, Jul 20 2004


The compressor idea is very slick. Mechanical compressors to liquify hydrogen are complicated and expensive. Compressing a gas creates a lot of waste heat, which is difficult to recover and makes that process energy-spendy. By contrast, your system generates the gas 'pre-compressed'
-- afinehowdoyoudo, Jan 03 2010


Baked in the mid Mediterranean on August 2014, with a farm of 12 turbines as a pilot. Two weeks later attacked and sunk by Greenpeace, only to discover that when sinking them, the last existing living exemplars of an endemic species of clams were crushed and the species is now extinct.

Because of the outcry, the UN funded the rebuilding of these stations, but a war between extremist nationalists who expected to receive control has it stalled.

Both sides claim to have nothing to do with El Qaeda, although the mutual massacre on December 11th, where 113 people were killed on the rig set up nearby and two ships were sunk was all done with arms seized from the demilitarized Egyptian army, now part of the North African Umma Republic.
-- pashute, Dec 09 2012


Yes, high pressure electrolysis is WKTE. And efficient electrolysis units are far from //a couple of electrodes attached to a cable with a container over the generated hydrogen//. And electrolysis of sea water to generate hydrogen is not problem free.

A real world example of accidental mollusc extinction nearly happened in the Murray River. A native snail, which seemed to have disappeared due to habitat alteration, was found to be living inside pipes connected to the river. If maintenance had been carried out as planned, the snail could have been lost. (Source: my freshwater ecology lecturer).
-- spidermother, Dec 09 2012


To increase efficiency you could sell fuel to passing ships rather than pumping ashore. Ships could carry more cargo, less fuel. Hyundai could set this up for their own fleet on shipping lanes and never pay for fuel again. I say your a genius.
-- Brian the Painter, Dec 10 2012



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