It has been proposed that the United States should strive toward a hydrogen economy. At present, the United States uses about 100 quads (1017 Btu) of energy per year. Suppose that 10% should be produced by 2015 with hydrogen fuel cells. The hydrogen is to be made by electrolysis of water in central stations located strategically. The electric power for electrolysis is to be supplied by nuclear power plants with a thermodynamic efficiency of 33% and a capacity factor of 0.90. Each plant should be of 500 MW capacity and operate on a simple Rankine cycle. Estimate the following:
• The number of plants required.
• The amount of cooling water needed for the condensers (assuming evaporative cooling-2400 kJ cooling for each liter of cooling water).
• The amount of water needed for electrolysis assuming 1500 kJ is used by the fuel cell (i.e., only 750 kJ of energy is provided to the end user for each liter of water fed into the process).
• The total initial capital investment (if the cost of a nuclear plant is estimated at $6000 per kW and that of a fuel cell at $2100 per kW) [18].
• Comment on the viability of using hydrogen as an energy carrier on a global scale/niche application [18].