However, combustion of coal and gasoline yields carbon dioxide, which contribute to the “greenhouse effect” and global warming. Thus it is now timely to reconsider the adverse results of using fossil fuels, a fact recognized by the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

A hydrogen gas-powered fuel cell that produced electricity was developed as early as 1839 by Sir William Grove. This type of cell was used in the Apollo space missions in the late 1960s, and during the last two decades hydrogen-based fuel technology has found use in automobiles, small appliances, and as reserve power. A major concern, however, has been the availability and storage of hydrogen. Electrolyzing water produces hydrogen and oxygen, but this requires electrical power. The problem has been finding a primary power source—such as wind, solar, nuclear, or hydroelectric power—that does not use coal or gasoline. A power grid consisting of these renewable energy sources could provide the energy, electrolyze water, and store it in a power house. Hydrogen supply lines to residential and business buildings for heating and electricity would become a “hydrogen-based economy” in contrast to our current “oil-based economy”.

Cooperation among nations and the use of a number of sources and carriers of energy will be required for the global search for energy independence and solutions to the increasing demand for energy. Hydrogen must be considered as a sustainable choice for a fuel and energy carrier that can be employed without any negative environmental effects.

The authors of this book are members of the Rochester Institute of Technology Renewable Energy Enterprise, and they hope that their book will spur new developments in hydrogen-based energy sources for today’s—and tomorrow’s—world. They intend it to raise the awareness for the use of renewable energy and to lead to a work force that will be prepared to meet the forthcoming challenges in the generation and consumption of energy and the commercialization of devices that utilize hydrogen. In my opinion, their book includes everything necessary to achieve their goals.

Chapter 1, Available Energy Resources (37 pp), deals with the need for the use of renewable energy sources, energy carriers, energy storage, energy ethics, and the greenhouse effect. Chapter 2, Chemistry Background (133 pp, the longest chapter), provides the fundamentals required for understanding hydrogen technology such as reversible reactions, equilibrium, acid–base chemistry, kinetics, thermodynamics, electrochemistry, photochemistry, and organic, polymer, and plasma chemistry. Chapter 3, Hydrogen Properties (22 pp), discusses the occurrences, properties, uses, and storage of hydrogen and its application as an energy carrier.

Chapter 4, Hydrogen Technology (30 pp), deals with the element’s production, infrastructure, safety, and technology assessment. Chapter 5, Fuel Cell Essentials (62 pp), discusses the various types of fuel cells and the principles underlying their operation. Chapter 6, Fuel Cells Applications (12 pp), the shortest chapter), reviews the uses of hydrogen in stationary, mobile, residential, military, and micro-power systems. References to articles, books, and Internet Web sites, both professional and popular, some as recent as 2005, are provided along with numerous figures (many in full color), tables, chemical and mathematical equations, structural formulas, reaction schemes, and a user-friendly nine-page double-column index.

I am pleased to recommend this book as a hands-on resource for scientists and researchers working with the emerging hydrogen-based technologies. It can also serve as an excellent reference for students in chemistry, chemical engineering, engineering, basic science, environmental science, and applied science and technology as well as for the general public interested in sustainable energy. It should also be useful to professors in all branches of chemistry and chemistry engineering. In view of the importance of hydrogen technology in solving our society’s energy and environmental crisis, it should also prove helpful to science journalists and should find a place in educational and public libraries.