TABLE OF CONTENTS The future of gasification is intimately intertwined with the future of energy and energy policy. It is generally recognized that human development cannot continue to base its economy on fossil fuels in the present manner for ever, even if viewpoints on the timescale do diverge-sometimes dramatically. This viewpoint is put most strongly by the advocates of what is called the "hydrogen economy". There is no doubt that the use of hydrogen in combination with fuel cells as a transport fuel will improve the microclimate of our conurbations significantly through the elimination of CO 2, NO 2, CO, hydrocarbon, and soot emissions from motor vehicles and this is a prospect that could become reality within the next 20 years. However, it is our opinion that those proponents who present the hydrogen economy as a solution to the CO 2 emissions or "greenhouse gas" issue overstate their case. The hydrogen that we will use in our fuel cells is not ready and waiting for us to collect; it is chemically locked into other substances, the principle of which are water and, to a lesser extent, natural gas.
The issue remains, therefore, how to unlock this hydrogen and make it available in a useable form. There are essentially three routes to hydrogen production: electrolysis of water, steam reforming of natural gas, and gasification whereby the fuel for the gasification can be anything from coal to biomass. Thus, as can be seen from Table 10.1, unless the power...
