Global Debate on the Future of Hydrogen Fuel Cells as Alternative Generators of Electricity
April 15, 2009, 0730 Eastern Daylight Time
This text will be replaced
National University of Tainan, Tainan, Taiwan, was founded as Tainan Normal School in 1898. Today it is a growing university comprised of five colleges and attracts students and faculty from around the world. I would like to introduce Dr. Yichen Lin, Director of the Graduate Institute of Technology Management, who will tell us a little more about the university and introduce the faculty and students participating in today's debate on the Future of Hydrogen Fuel Cells.
University College - Dublin, was founded in 1854 as the Catholic University with 17 students. Today UCD has over 22,000 students in five colleges and has a global student body representing every continent and most countries of the world. I would like to introduce Nicola Lacey who will tell us a little more about the university and introduce the faculty and students participating in today's debate on the Future of Hydrogen Fuel Cells.
National Technical University- Ukraine was founded in 1885 and is the oldest technological university in the Ukraine. Currently almost 2,000 faculty teach over 20,000 students at the bachelors, masters and doctoral levels. I would like to introduce Dr. Marina Ved who will tell us a little more about the university and introduce the faculty and students participating in today's debate on the Future of Hydrogen Fuel Cells.
University of Hartford - Charles Canedy
Barney Faculty - Andy Hao, Ke Yang, Irina Naoumova and Farhad Rassekh
Barney Students - Vikram Potdar, Davon Roberts, Ramesh Mudumby, Santosh Parmanand, Shifar Yiga, Mark Kozma, Debby Allen and Christian Bergeron
CETA Faculty - David Pines, Cy Yavuzturk, and Thomas Filburn
CETA Students - Tiffany Cartier, Mark Noujaim, and Steven Buck
Debate format
The format for the deabte was as follows:
There were seven issue statements that were distributed to each of the four participating universities. For each issue statement there was a pro statement of 4 minutes, followed by a con statement of 3 minutes, followed by a second pro statement of 2 minutes, followed by a second con statement of 1 minute. These pro and con statements were assigned to each university in advance and each university filled of these roles at least once over the seven issue statements.
7 Issue Statements
- Market economics of electrical power generation will be sufficient to advance widespread adoption of hydrogen fuel cells without economic incentives (government sponsored tax credits, low/no interest loans, grants, etc.) by the year 2030.
- Hydrogen fuel cells will not be widely adopted unless there are specific governmental regulations requiring their use in certain situations or prohibiting the use of traditional energy sources (oil, natural gas, coal or nuclear) as a means of generating electricity.
- Global environmental and ecological concerns will be the primary forces accelerating the adoption of hydrogen fuel cells as alternative generators of electrical power.
- The primary means for generating hydrogen is currently from fossil fuels (e.g., reforming of natural gas). An alternative economical source of producing hydrogen is needed to make hydrogen fuel cells a viable alternative to existing power generating systems. Will technological innovation be able to develop large scale "greener" and economical hydrogen production processes by 2030?
- Hydrogen can be processed, stored, and transported safely?
- The widespread use of hydrogen fuel cells as a means of generating electricity will have a significant impact on the global economy as we transition from oil, natural gas and coal as fuel for power generation.
- In the foreseeable future, the development and adoption of hydrogen fuel cells will either require government subsidy and / or substantial investment by the private sector that only the developed countries can afford. On ethical grounds, these countries ought to share any break-through in hydrogen fuel cells technology with the developing countries at a modest or even no cost. Otherwise, the current enormous global disparity will widen further as the developed countries become cleaner and the developing countries, which would have to rely solely on oil and coal, become more polluted.
A blog has been set up on www.gbiuh.org for continued interested student discussion.
|
