Hydrogen Hype Viv Forbes Executive Director Saltbush Club Australia 15 February 2020 Dr Finkel (Australia’s Chief Scientist) is wrong - hydrogen will never be a “hero fuel source”. Australia has no gas wells producing hydrogen – every bit of hydrogen we use must be generated by electrolysis of water or manufactured from natural gas or coal. These processes consume energy some of which could be recovered by using the hydrogen as a fuel to power cars or generate electricity. We could use solar or wind energy to generate hydrogen, but then they cannot generate electricity for consumers, industry and the millions of electric cars our political scientist also supports. Burning hydrogen fuel is not even a zero-sum energy game – it is a negative-sum game, Dr Finkel. We can never get back the energy used to make the hydrogen. And as for using hydrogen as a fuel for long distance trucks how does he propose to confine this dangerous, elusive, hard-to-handle, explosive gas without a complete replacement of everything in our massive diesel-powered transport industry including service stations, fuel lines, tanks and motors? It will create jobs, but only while the sucker cash lasts. Hydrogen is the fuel of the sun, but not a net source of energy for Earth. Viv Forbes has qualifications in Geology, Chemistry, Physics and Maths and a long history of managing and analysing energy and industrial companies. Viv was raised on a small dairy farm at Wheatvale in Queensland and educated at Wheatvale Primary School and Warwick State High School. He excelled in Science and Maths and won an Open Scholarship and an AusIMM bursary to attend the University of Queensland where he obtained a degree in Applied Science majoring in geology. Post graduate studies included climatology, economics, politics and pasture management. His first paid jobs were sewing wheat bags with needle and twine (for pocket money), picking cotton by hand on contract and hoeing burrs on wages.
1
He completed National Service training in 1958 and served several years in the Citizen Military Forces. He has spent his working life in the resource and pastoral industries of northern Australia, for five years as a government field geologist and then in private industry. He has held almost every job from rouseabout and field assistant to Financial Analysis Manager to Chairman of the board, in metals, oil, gas and coal, and focused on feasibility studies, investment analysis, mine development, lecturing and writing. He has been selfemployed for about 35 years. For many years he gave lectures to school teachers on “Mining in Society” and to students of the Securities Institute on “Mining Technology and Economics”. He has published a short book on exploration economics called: “Will it Make a Quid?” and a book of collected essays: “Our Sacred Land”. He has been studying and writing on the climate scare for twelve years mainly on: www.carbon-sense.com He has participated vigorously in the political arena and has received awards for services to the free society. He and his wife Judy were honored recently for their long contribution to meat-sheep breeding. “As a grass farmer I know the crucial importance of carbon dioxide to plant health. When I heard carbon dioxide described as “a pollutant” I knew there was something wrong. That was eleven years ago; and with no prompting or promises from anyone I have researched and battled this baseless war on carbon dioxide ever since.” Viv Forbes BScApp, MAusIMM, FSIA Washpool, Queensland, Australia
2