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PREDICTIONS – 10 Years Later - Santa Fe Institute

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7. COMPETITION IS THE CREATOR AND THE REGULATOR<br />

HYDROGEN CONTENT OF THE PRIMARY-ENERGY MIX<br />

FIGURE 7.7 The black dots indicate the evolution of the hydrogen-content percentage<br />

according to the energy mix of Figure 7.6. The thick gray line is an S-<br />

curve fit to the black dots over the period 1860-2008. The gray area reflects the<br />

amount of hydrogen that needs to be provided from non-fossil types of energy.<br />

contributed by nuclear energy, if we want to continue the wellestablished<br />

natural course.<br />

Nuclear energy can indeed do that in a number of different ways.<br />

For example seawater can be split into hydrogen and oxygen via electrolysis<br />

or by direct use of nuclear heat. It must be noted that nuclear<br />

energy is not indispensable for the natural path to be maintained. There<br />

is enough hydrogen in the fossil-based energies, so it suffices to simply<br />

adjust the mix differently. At the end, the ceiling of the S-curve in Figure<br />

7.7 being around 80 percent could be achieved by using only<br />

natural gas and nothing else. Alternatively, nuclear energy could be<br />

replaced by solar, wind, hydroelectric or a combination thereof, but<br />

these technologies are still responsible for insignificant contribution to<br />

the energy picture worldwide. Moreover such scenarios would introduce<br />

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