Title: Long-term global vision of nuclear-produced hydrogen

Authors: Cesare Marchetti

Addresses: IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria

Abstract: Nuclear energy is the number one candidate to provide the backbone of primary energy procurement for humanity in the present century and beyond. Uranium fuel is abundant, and could become unlimited in the scheme proposed here, making nuclear energy sort of renewable. However, the only vector of nuclear energy now is electricity, which may finally consume half the primary energy input. The market that is not covered by electricity has to be provided with a chemical vector of appropriate transportability and flexibility, a description that fits hydrogen. In this paper we map this escalation in hydrogen penetration, where nuclear energy provides increasing shares of the energy, finally carried by hydrogen, culminating in the long-term icon of the Energy Island with an energy-generation capacity comparable to that of the Middle East.

Keywords: hydrogen production; nuclear energy; thermochemical processes; energy islands; energy generation; nuclear power.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNHPA.2006.009864

International Journal of Nuclear Hydrogen Production and Applications, 2006 Vol.1 No.1, pp.13 - 19

Published online: 20 May 2006 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article