Clean Energy for a Greener World

China's independently developed 30-megawatt pure hydrogen gas turbine

by John Maryon

Before the Industrial Revolution got underway the demand for energy was modest. Humans lived within the limits of nature to replenish what they had consumed.  Intrepid sailors were able to sail on their long journeys round the world, without consuming any fuel for propulsion by using the energy of wild and unpredictable winds. Windmills were a common sight grinding corn for their local communities and the new growing towns. Waterwheels had by 1500 become the principal source of motive power and were to make a significant contribution to the coming great era of factory expansion.
Two great inventions however were to lead unprecedented  changes. First the perfection of the steam engine in the 18th century followed by the internal combustion engine at the end of the 19th. The arrival of steam saw coal production rise by 500 per cent between 1750 and 1850. And so began an age of dark mills, blackened buildings, thick fog and congested lungs. With the arrival of petrol and diesel even greater pollution was placed into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide levels began to climb and the planet slowly started to become warmer. The greenhouse effect has become a subject of great concern. It is very real and the evidence is there for all to see. However there are those who through ignorance deny reality and still others who know but keep quiet to appease the fossil fuel lobby. 
Today we do have many answers to the great challenge of the age. If greed, profiteering and selfish indulgence, all symptoms of acute capitalism by the way, can be overcome we may face the future with more confidence. People’s China with its 1.4 billion population and enormous industrial capacity has an urgent need to prioritise carbon reduction. Importantly it has responded with impressive actions in stark contrast to those who preach and condemn while achieving nothing.  China  is able to produce electric vehicles that are superbly innovative, of top quality and at a third of the cost of Western products.  Their impressive high speed rail network continues to expand rapidly and become technically more advanced. China produces solar panels and wind turbines on a vast scale. Impressive dams have tamed surging rivers to provide an abundance of cheap hydro-electric power. 
China is investing heavily in scientific research with the aim of providing practically unlimited amounts of low cost, carbon free electricity, safety and without pollution.  Two of those important areas are worthy of merit. The first is fusion in which energy is released when atoms are fused together, like a miniature sun. In 1958 the Soviet Union became the first country to build a small experimental Tokamak reactor using confinement technology.  The challenge is to contain very high temperature plasma using powerful magnetic fields and to sustain it for an extended period of time.  The fuels for the process are isotopes of hydrogen which occur in abundance and the waste products consist of the inert gas helium, plus tritium. The latter is radioactive but has a much shorter half life than the heavy elements resulting from fission. Compared to conventional fission processes fusion is much less hazardous to the environment and human health. Today China is building a prototype 20MW reactor and is closely collaborating with a number of European states. 
Secondly an intrinsically more safe type of fission device, the Thorium Based Molten Salt Reactor, is being developed.  With thousands of years of fuel supply the technology will be in great demand worldwide. Basically the process works on the Thorium cycle. The safe primary fuel, Thorium232, is bombarded with neutrons to transform it via two beta decays  into fissionable Uranium233. The system can breed more fission fuel than consumed. This fuel is contained in a  molten salt liquid which can be easily drained out in an emergency.  The liquid fuel mixture also  expands as it heats reducing the fission strength of the reactor fuel which reduces the heat output contributing to ensuring greater safety. The technology makes small and portable reactors possible. The United States has considerable technical experience but it is China that is putting the technology to good use. Currently a large container ship with such a power source is being constructed. It will be able to sail the seven seas for decades without refuelling, saving vast amounts of fossil fuel consumption. It would also be able to economically travel greater distances so avoiding sea areas that an adversary could easily block. 
Hydrogen is an excellent fuel that is green and clean at the point of use and can be used for domestic heating, internal combustion engines and industrial processes.  However up to now unless it was produced by electrolysis of water to make oxygen and hydrogen using green electricity most commercial output was achieved by the cheaper process of steam reforming of natural gas.  This method releases emissions of the greenhouse gas Carbon Dioxide.  A new technology plant built in China's Jilin province is hailed  as the world's largest integrated green, Hydrogen-Ammonia-Methonal project. The first phase of the state owned enterprise plant will produce 450,000 metric tons of green hydrogen each year representing 20 % of China's requirement in addition to other green chemicals.  It will save over 600,000 tons of coal annually. The plant makes excellent use solar and wind energy reinforcing an integrated approach that contributes to China's transition to a modern industrial structure.
People's China has shown the way forward towards a world of shared abundance that remains green, sustainable and affordable.  Without vested interests to lobby for denial or a short term approach that neglects essential infrastructure investment the country forges ahead.  In the Western economies people remain cold in fear of facing expensive heating costs while factories close when faced with prohibitive energy prices they become uncompetitive .  A lack of forward planning, years of neglect and under investment within a capitalist market driven by the obsession for maximum quick profits has been fatal.  Matters have been made much worse in Europe due to their sanctions on cheap Russian energy which has created the highest gas prices in the world.  And we should not forget, or forgive, the tragedy of imperialist wars and conflicts that leave desperate families huddled together cold and hungry in their tents while an uncaring elite pretend that they cannot hear the children cry. 
The world needs to wake up before it's too late. Before the rich diversity of plant and animal life is destroyed, crops fail, severe weather events increase and a run away greenhouse effect overheats our planet.  China has been able to demonstrate that socialism can provide both the technical means and  necessary conditions for overcoming the challenges that lie ahead.  We need socialism and we need it now.  So let's step up the class struggle, as we enter 2026, and work together for a better world!