HAS THERE BEEN SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS IN THE COMBINED FIELDS OF HYDROGEN AND OTEC?

 From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

        DAY  USA  WORLD   Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9    1093     4732        1185        246        82

July    22     1205     7128        1293     1120       572

Aug    12     1504     6556        1242       835       130

Sept     9     1208      6222       1136      1168        82

Oct     21     1225      6849         571       703        85

Nov    25      2304    12025        620       518      118

Dec    30      3880    14748      1224       299      465

Jan     14     4142    15512       1151       189      712          

          19       2804    14760      1183        161     839    

          20       4385    17350      1382        152     566

          21       4363    16578      1335        161     647

          26       4045    15879      1206        127     680

Summary:  The expected decline in COVID-19 deaths is beginning to occur.

Wednesday is science day, so I thought I'd bring you up to date on two related fields for the future of the Blue Revolution and Humanity.  To begin, the answer to the above question is no.  Some progress, of course, for researchers continue to build the foundation for the next generation.  But significant?  No, and mostly because the price of petroleum is less than half of what it was a few years back.

Here is a paper I co-authored 18 years ago for the Japan Hydrogen Energy System Society with Kenji Sumida and Stephen Masutani--The Blue Revolution: The Key to Hydrogen from OTEC.

In 2010 the  Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the U.S. Department of Energy, Okinawa Prefecture and the State of Hawaii signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to work together on clean energy, focusing on ocean thermal energy conversion, for both Hawaii and Okinawa had OTEC research facilities.  We have had alternating annual meetings since then, and I helped Guy Toyama (on my left) host the first few.  

Their 11th workshop occurred last week, and you can access information on their web site.  Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki and Hawaii Governor David Ige opened the program.  Alan Oshima (right) gave the keynote address.    Old pals Mitch Ewan of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute talked on hydrogen/transportation and Yasuyuki Ikegami of Saga University reviewed the past 10 ocean energy workshops.

Mind you, if you follow the field of hydrogen, there are always various forms of optimism.  For example, the International Energy Agency, long a proponent of fossil fuels, released a favorable study last year, and I quote:

The report finds that clean hydrogen is currently enjoying unprecedented political and business momentum, with the number of policies and projects around the world expanding rapidly. It concludes that now is the time to scale up technologies and bring down costs to allow hydrogen to become widely used. The pragmatic and actionable recommendations to governments and industry that are provided will make it possible to take full advantage of this increasing momentum.

But the field being what it is, 99.9% of industrial hydrogen come from fossil fuels, adding to climate warming.  In a future posting I will delve into some hopeful renewable technologies for the hydrogen economy.

Also, too, Toyota and Honda continue their hydrogen fuel cell efforts.  It was two years ago at a hydrogen gathering in Kyushu University that I last talked to representatives of those companies:

I asked the Honda presenter, Takashi Moriya, the same kinds of questions, and got some further details, although I'm not sure about the accuracy, because of the language barrier:

• Both Toyota and Honda are losing money on each car sale, plus they are subsidizing the cost of the hydrogen.
• They hope that a break-even point will be reached by 2025.
• Expected profits will not reach any kind of optimum until past 2030.

By then, meaning 2030, it is possible that the price of petroleum could rise to $100/barrel or higher.  Then, with significant improvement in hydrogen production, it is possible that progress can occur.  In any event, as the conference was in Japan, I further suggested they look for innovative ways to produce hydrogen, and recommended they read my Huffington Post article entitled, The Blue Revolution is the Optimal Solution for Japan and even the Antonn Brunn Memorial Lecture I gave to UNESCO in Paris on the subject.

Regarding OTEC, Lockheed and China agreed to work together on building a 10 MW OTEC plant ship.  Nothing seems to be happening, but here is an article only a year old still reporting on the effort.  Similarly, Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation, led by Jeremy Feakins and Ted Johnson, has been operating in the Caribbean, here with me at Orchids.  Another article from a year ago:

• 
  Research continues at the 100 kw OTEC plant (right) in Kumejima, Okinawa and the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority on the Big Island.  Both sites are actually producing a small amount of OTEC power.
• The South Korean government was said to be funding a one MW OTEC facility for Kiribati.  But that was supposed to become operational last year, and I haven't heard anything about what happened.
• Allseas Engineering, a Netherlands company, is planning for a 3 MW OTEC operation in the Caribbean.

However, this is now 2021 and I see no definite movement in the building of any new OTEC test facility.  Nor have I read of any game-changing new method of producing hydrogen from renewable energy.

Yet, I continue to be watchful, and every so often am contacted for information.  The timing of the Blue Revolution depends on their progress.

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