How are we going to handle the oxygen pollution?

Question

When we finally go into industrial production of hydrogen to power our vehicles we will be producing 8 tons of oxygen for every ton of hydrogen. Simply venting this to the atmosphere as industries are wont to do will produce serious hazards around the production plants, ranging from increased fire danger to plant toxicity to animal toxicity, depending on concentrations. Depending on diffusion and wind to dissipate the oxygen is the same mistake we've made throuought history with airborne pollutants.

I know that burning H2 and O2 produces water, so the net global effects are nil. That's supposed to be the attraction of H2 technology. We will eventually be forced to use electrlysis, since all other methods produce worse pollutants. I have no idea what DMHO silliness is, and, from context, don't wish to learn. The problem of large local imbalances remains.

Answer 1

Industrial production of hydrogen is almost invariably from fossil fuels (steam reforming). Production of hydrogen by electrolysis is, and is likely to remain prohibitively expensive so oxygen will not be produced. There are schemes to sequester the CO2 produced in underground oil reservoirs, at the same time enhancing the recovery of oil. Production from fossil fuels with CO2 sequestration is likely to be the way to go for a very long time to come.

Even if pure oxygen was produced in large quantities reasonable care in venting would allow adequate dispersion with jet mixing effects and air currents. Some other pollutants are dangerous in ppm levels whereas oxygen is not. Further more the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere is already getting on to 30%, much greater than the hundreds of ppm of CO2 so it is much harder to upset the balance in a significant way.

Answer 2

it will have the same effect increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have "NONE" We should really be worried about running out of water since electrically splitting Hydrogen and Oxygen will use up all the worlds water. The oceans will dry up and all the poor lil fishies will croak.

Answer 3

Ummm... Are you kidding? The Oxygen recombines with the Hydrogen to produce power in the engine/ fuel cell/ whatever.

Answer 4

The small amount amount of additional oxygen added to the atmosphere will not be enough to counteract the amount of CO2 and other stuff we put into the atmosphere. We should probably be thankful for the extra oxygen. Please...no more DHMO silliness.

Answer 5

The oxygen will combine with other elements which will oxidize faster, so things will rust faster. Fires will burn hotter, people will have more energy from breathing better air. It will also be absorbed into the lakes and seas creating H2O2 aka heavy water and will sink harmlessly to the bottom where it will make the fish grow bigger.