Roadmap towards a sustainable hydrogen economy in Mexico

The fast developing of fuel cell (FC) technologies has open a window to alternative energy sources such as natural gas, methanol, ethanol, or hydrogen. This paper outlines the prospects for a hydrogen economy in Mexico. If we consider a hydrogen economy in Mexico in the near future and if all the national energy could be produced by hydrogen, the country will require 46.5 million tons per year. By 2010, it would have approximately 3300 automobiles with fuel cells. In the initial phase of a “hydrogen economy”, hydrogen could be produced from the current competitive fossil fuels. Hydrogen is a unique fuel with unmatched properties. In the Mexican hydrogen industry, we do not know yet how many tons of hydrogen per year are produced for the different uses of chemical production, oil refining, metal treating or electrical applications. At this moment, hydrogen national resources are 837.7 million tons, which reverts a huge potential in hydrocarbon resources. Hydrogen costs from natural gas are about three times the cost of the feedstock, thus US$ 6 feedstock gas would result in the hydrogen costing US$ 18 per million of Btu, which is equivalent to gasoline costing about US$ 2 per gallon.