Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the visible universe, is the primary fuel of the stars, undergoing nuclear fusion to form helium and release vast amounts of energy. With current knowhow, the hydrogen to helium conversion cannot be reversed. Helium is a noble gas; it is very unreactive because its outermost (and only) electron shell is completely filled. Thus, the helium floating in the universe is a byproduct of hydrogen fusion with no known specific purpose or function. Accordingly, absent an unknown mechanism that continually creates hydrogen on a human timescale, its fusion mode is not considered a renewable form of energy. Hydrogen is also the lightest element in the periodic table, with the simple atomic structure of one proton and one electron. It is considered an energy carrier because it stores, transports, and delivers energy produced from primary sources like fossil fuels, solar, biomass, and wind power. Most of the Earth’s hydrogen is held within its mantle and core. The core is estimated to contain four or five global ocean’s worth of hydrogen, and the mantle two global ocean’s worth of hydrogen. However, currently this internally stored hydrogen is commercially inaccessible. The vast majority of the ocean’s hydrogen is locked in water molecules. Recent (as of June 2024) and ongoing advances in direct seawater electrolysis make it increasingly feasible to produce hydrogen directly from the ocean.

Types of Hydrogen

Hydrogen is classified by its isotropic composition (protium, deuterium, tritium) and by its production method, which uses color codes:

• Green Hydrogen: Is produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis using electricity generated from renewable energy sources like solar, wind, or geothermal. The sun and the ocean are readily available and inexhaustible on a human timescale. Better yet, so far no one has successfully claimed to own them; therefore, at least for now, they’re still free. Accordingly, subject to physical limitations, any country with direct access to the ocean and endowed with abundant renewable energy could theoretically produce any amount of green hydrogen; and the profits would be theirs alone to keep. Currently hydrogen is more expensive than fossil fuels. One reason is that the costs of the damage caused by anthropomorphic climate change, including health issues, environmental harm, and extreme weather events are considered “externalities” not added to the price of fuels. Recognizing these costs would likely boost inflation and health and real estate insurance premiums; and create new taxes to generate the revenue the government needs, and will need, to effect widespread repairs from worsening environmental disasters. Since political opposition to all of the above is nearly universal -and to understate it- extraordinarily strong, chances are it won’t happen any time soon. Unsurprisingly, as of 2023 only about 0.15% of global hydrogen production is green. Green hydrogen is projected to achieve price parity with blue hydrogen (see below) by 2030.
• Indigo Hydrogen (suggested): Generated at high temperatures (typically 45-80 degrees Celsius) by thermophilic hydrogen-producing bacteria inhabiting deep-sea hydrothermal vent fields. These bacteria are of interest for potential biohydrogen production and waste treatment.
• White Hydrogen: Found in underground geological formations. While naturally produced and combustion-neutral, it is a relatively rare and currently insignificant source of fuel. These “wells” resemble fossil fuels to the extent that they are in specific locations. Not all countries with access to the ocean and renewable energy sources have white hydrogen reserves. As a result, rights to the wells would be vested in a small minority of the population; that would exacerbate inequality within and among nations.
• Blue Hydrogen: Derived from fossil fuels, most commonly natural gas, but with the significant addition of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to trap the carbon dioxide produced during the process.
• Grey Hydrogen: Made from natural gas via steam methane reformation, similar to blue hydrogen, but without the capture and storage of the resulting CO2, making it a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.
• Black and Brown Hydrogen: Produced from black (bituminous) or brown (lignite) coal, respectively, through processes like coal gasification. These are the most environmentally damaging types due to their high carbon emissions.
• Pink/Red Hydrogen: Produced using electricity from nuclear power. Pink hydrogen typically uses nuclear power for electrolysis, while red hydrogen might use nuclear power to fuel the grid, which then powers electrolysis.
• Turquoise Hydrogen: A newer method that involves methane pyrolysis, where methane is split into hydrogen and solid carbon, avoiding CO2 emissions.

The Hydrogen/Water Nexus

The Earth is quasi-spherical and its axis of rotation and orbital motion are such that the entire planet is eventually exposed to sunlight. Approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. Of that, about 96.5% is saltwater and 3.5% freshwater, with 68% of the latter frozen in Greenland and Antarctica. That leaves only 1.1% in usable surface water, and some of it is frozen a good part of the year. Furthermore, freshwater is not evenly distributed. For example, the North American Great Lakes contain approximately 21% of the world’s surface freshwater; in contrast, the Sahara Desert, an expanse slightly smaller than the entire Lower 48 United States, has only 1% of the world’s freshwater.

The natural water cycle does not favor the world’s arid regions; in fact, since most of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, it follows that most natural precipitation falls directly on the ocean. In addition, anthropomorphic climate change is exacerbating droughts and water insecurity: roughly half of the world’s population already experience severe water scarcity for at least part of the year. What’s worse, a feasible coordinated global effort designed to counteract the water shortage simply doesn’t exist; at least it’s not publicly known to be on any multinational agenda.

Importance of Green Hydrogen

Hydrogen alone has the unique property to make water (as steam) when it’s burned. As long as renewable energy is available, the hydrogen/water dynamic is a perpetual cycle. Fossil fuels, nuclear fission, and other renewable forms of energy can’t and don’t do that. As for fusion, which consumes 4 hydrogen protons to make one atom of helium-4, it in fact permanently reduces the existing volume of hydrogen with which to make water. In other words, given humanity’s fertile imagination and insatiable lust for power, in due course new energy-hungry applications and weapons will undoubtedly emerge that may eventually irreversibly deplete the ocean just as we have depleted the aquifers. Another Mars.

Unlike fossil fuels and fissionable elements, which must be mined and transported from wherever they are found to centralized plants, oceanfront countries that choose to produce hydrogen would be free to extract it without paying royalties to intermediaries and to become, at their sole discretion, energy (green hydrogen) self-sufficient and/or exporters. At that point a formula could be created and adopted by simple majority consensus of all recognized sovereign nations to replace the International Money Fund’s (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket of privileged fiat currencies. The new formula would determine the relative value of all currencies based on national per capita production and use of green hydrogen.

Individual nations would retain complete fiscal control and be fully responsible for their respective sovereign debts; but countries that choose to overprint money would be unable to export their inflation. One practical ramification of this built-in anti-spending discipline (famously espoused by Thomas Jefferson) might be to nudge all nuclear powers to actually abolish nuclear weapons as specified in Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, before said weapons abolish us.

There is nothing on the horizon to combat extreme wealth inequality within and among nations and its consequences; and nowhere is it steeper than in the United States. This chart vividly illustrates the difference in gross domestic product (GDP) and population density between the American East and West.

The remarkably similar American and Chinese pattern of nightlights is intrinsically linked to the availability of water. This empirically implies that a prerequisite for higher GDP is, in fact, abundant water. The conclusion is therefore obvious: to boost GDP water must be available where and when it’s needed. Since the natural water cycle fails to do that, it’s up to humanity to literally create a source that does. What’s more, the new infrastructure should be specifically designed to distribute future growth equitably to counteract the catastrophic impact that artificial intelligence (AI) and automation (robots) combined will likely have on the labor market and society at large. Only green hydrogen, by virtue of its unique ability to literally make water in inland areas far from any shore, where desalination is impractical or impossible, can effectively replace fossil fuels and nuclear fission to power such industries as green metals, cement, glass, plastics, fertilizers, shipping, aviation, heavy transportation, leisure and hospitality, among many others. And we’re running out of time.