Book Review

Tomorrow’s Energy: Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and the Prospects for a Cleaner Planet

By Peter Hoffmann
Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2001.
301 pages; $32.95 hardcover; $16.95 paperback.

Reviewed by Jonathan E. Blaine.

People who have been waiting for someone to provide a detailed presentation of what the idea of the "hydrogen economy" is all about can rest easy. For more than three decades, Peter Hoffmann has promoted the transition from carbon to hydrogen as the primary element in the derivation, transfer, and storage of energy in order to keep our air clean and stem the tide of global warming. He has now written a book that does an admirable job of bringing the issue into focus. Tomorrow’s Energy neatly and coherently describes the concepts, history, technological considerations, and economic impediments to the development of a cleaner, hydrogen-based system of energy transfer for the 21st century.

Hoffmann’s analysis of the "hydrogen economy" begins with a reasonably detailed position piece lauding the benefits of and necessity for detaching ourselves from fossil fuels as the primary means for meeting the energy needs of modern society. For the enlightened, this introductory chapter might seem to be exercise in preaching to the choir. For the skeptic or the neutral, however, it is the equivalent of a scientific hypothesis that Hoffman posits, and then uses the rest of the book to prove.

The following three chapters cover the chemical characteristics and history of hydrogen as a potential source of energy. Hoffmann delves into the potential for hydrogen use in a variety of different contexts, includingelectric generation, transportation, aerospace, utility applications, and non-energy uses. Carefully inserted amidst this topical evaluation (following the electric generation and transportation chapters) is a discussion of the development of fuel cells, the current problems that hinder their progress, and their necessary place in the transition from fossil fuels to renewable hydrogen as the basis for our energy needs. Hoffmann presents each topic in terms of past and present, and each are sufficiently self-standing so as to allow the reader to focus on one topic without having to read the book cover to cover in order to obtain valuable insight into each topic.

On the whole, Hoffmann’s presentation of the prospects for a hydrogen future is engaging and will satisfy anyone who has an interest in the topic, either as a proponent or a skeptic. In the end, the book makes an almost indisputable case for the position that hydrogen is an idea whose time has not only come, but is vital to the survival of modern society.

Jonathan E. Blaine, Esq is co-chairman of Hartford-based Robinson & Cole's Alternative Energy Group, and has been involved with the siting, permitting, and financing of energy facilities since 1995.