"sodium chlorate is used in pesticides and bleaching - but it is not clear if that hydrogen would otherwise have been wasted"

At first it would seem like industrial processes that produce undesirable products are ideal hydrogen sources if they also produce hydrogen as a byproduct. It can be thought of as getting something good out of something bad. The problem is that selling the hydrogen may actually make the sodium chlorate cheaper, which would likely in turn increase its use. Whenever we begin investing large amounts of money to implement a new technology, we need to analyze the impact and move forward with caution.

Good thinking, Dan.

Hopefully the use of sodium chlorate is regulated enough that making it cheaper won't mean that much more of it is used.

"We wonder how many other industrial processes create hydrogen; Until we can clean them up or eliminate them..."

Ah, typical treehugger neo-luddism. Why do you automatically assume that such industries need cleaning up or eliminating?

Because the purposed served by many of these processes (pesticide, bleaching) can be done (or worked around) in other more environmentally friendly ways.

All chloro-caustic production facilities produce huge amounts of pure
hydrogen as a byproduct of electrolysis. Typically the by-product
hydrogen is either run into an industrial furnace or steam boiler,
both relatively inefficient devices in contrast to a fuel cell, or
the hydrogen may be sold, either by direct pipeline or by the truck
load, to nearby refiners. Refiners feed the pure hydrogen into
distillation "crackers" to turn benzene ring based hydrocarbons into
straight-chain molecules that are less toxic and have a better octane
rating as a fuel. As explained in a previous TreeHugger posting, this
refinery bound hydrogen could in general be diverted to feed fuel
cells of all types, not just in transportation uses. Dow Chemical, in
partnership with a stationary fuel cell maker, has done exactly this
at a Texas facility, and in doing so obtains clean electricity, which
in turn opens the possibility of lowering the facility's carbon
dioxide emissions profile, also good for emissions trading purposes.
Such choices are simply pragmatic instead of luddite.

This post and my comment, above, lead to another topic of broader
significance. The electricity produced in the US Pacific Northwest
and British Columbia has a very high renewable component due to the
bountiful hydroelectric facilities common to the region. As a result,
a minority of the electricity used by the region's aluminum smelters
and chlorine producers ( both extremely energy intensive industries)
comes from fossil fuel, meaning that the "Olympic Hydrogen" is made
mostly from a truly renewable energy requiring no further capital to
develop. The amount of carbon embodied in the hydrogen production is
therefore very low. Putting it to use in a fuel cell means that the
life cycle C02 emissions burden of the fuel cell is optimal. This
is a natural choice, given the goal of making the Olympics as
objectively green as possible.

John,

You point out a very interesting fact that I've been repeating for a while; not all electricity is as dirty as in the US!

Most people, when they talk about plug-in hybrids or battery-powered cars mention coal and such, but here in Quebec pretty much all our electricity comes from hydro and wind.

This just means that we must be careful about blanket statements and dig a little deeper to find the specific characteristics of each region.

Electricity in the US comes from different sources in differenct regions. For instance, In Seattle, WA it's largely hydro, but in Portland, OR, it's largely coal. It's not "dirty" across the board.

I think it's a great idea but I'm conserned more about the World Ocean pollution and not too much is done about it.

hi everybody
I think that this site's feed could be quite interesting for you:
www.gommunity.tv
there is an interview and some podcast and xml feeds about the hydrogen olympics in Turin and what is happening in Italy now in the alternative energy field.
regards