International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 31 (2006) 161 – 166

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhydene

Some thoughts about the hydrogen civilization and the

culture development
Tokio Ohta∗
Frontier Information and Learning Organization, 4-8-15 Inamuragasaki, Kamakura 2480024, Japan

Available online 8 November 2005

In memory of: the 30th Anniversary of International Association for Hydrogen Energy; the 31st Anniversary of
Hydrogen Energy Systems Society of Japan

Abstract
Civilization is defined as an aggregate achievement of inventions for realizing lofty human ideas, and culture is defined as
the intellectual side. The realization of human ideas is the sustainable development (SD), and one of these pillars is the energy
system. The main current of the human energy carriers has made the transition from coal to petroleum, and from petroleum to
natural gas. This trend means the transition from the fuels with a larger ratio of carbon to those with a larger ratio of hydrogen.
Ultimately, the main energy current will be converged to hydrogen. The hydrogen civilization is about to emerge today. The
centripetal force acting upon every fuel toward hydrogen has an intellectual analogy to Brownian motion, which is one of the
main topics of the concerned complexity science. Moreover, Ashby’s requisite variety law indicates that the civilization must
wear the cloth of the culture in order to build up the endlessly sustainable civilization.
䉷 2005 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Civilization; Culture; Sustainable development; Hydrogen energy systems; Firewood; Coal; Petroleum; Natural gas; Intellectual
analogy; Centripetal potential; Markov process; Brownian motion; Pioneers; Tradition; Ashby’s law; Hierarchical structure

1. Hydrogen civilization and the culture
Civilization and culture are defined simply as “a devel-
oped or advanced state of human society” and “the intellec-
tual side of civilization”, respectively, in general [1], while
many various theoretical studies have been carried out by
the specialists. Here, we shall refer mainly to theories of A.
Weber, K.W. von Humboldt, D. Bell, and some other au-
thorities, according to whom civilization is the general term
of technological methods which would be endlessly devel-
oping, with global uniformity of civilization progressing.
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 467 246120;
fax: +81 467 246192.
E-mail address: tokiota@ka2.so-net.ne.jp.
Nevertheless, the contradictions between industrial civi-
lization and the people’s lifestyles are increasing, which may
bring unstableness to the human society. Here, we define fi-
nally civilization as the achievement of the aggregation of
material inventions for realizing lofty human ideas; culture
is defined as the intellectual and spiritual side.
Global sustainable development (GSD) is the ideal object
of technologies, so that we define hydrogen civilization as
the “general term of hydrogen related advanced technolo-
gies which are devoted to GSD”, and culture is the intellec-
tual as well as the spiritual side. There exist many kinds of
civilizations in the world. However, it should be noted that
hydrogen civilization is perfectly consistent with GSD.
Now we shall consider the following: What is GSD? New
York’s American Museum of Natural History [2] made a
questionnaire study about the greatest threat to human life

0360-3199/$30.00 䉷 2005 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2005.04.031
162 T. Ohta / International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 31 (2006) 161 – 166
on 1255 adults in 1994; the result showed that, 36% of it was
from the global environment, 30% was epidemic, 15% was
from nuclear wars, and several percentages each for foods,
water, population, energy resources, and natural disasters.
AGENDA 21, which is a summary of the Rio de
Janeiro—Summit in 1992, also enumerated the important
factors for GSD. According to these affairs, it has been
proved that hydrogen civilization [3] is the most desir-
able human achievement, and this matter has been fairly
evaluated globally in recent days [4].
2. Energy civilization and the transition
Human beings were used to wise energy utilization with
the use of igniting techniques and simple machines (lever,
wheel, pulley) in the Stone Age. Although charcoal utiliza-
tion became serious (because of iron making) and the wa-
ter mill was invented, firewood was the main source of en-
ergy for human, and its share was more than 50% of the
energy resources in 1850. The firewood permeated people’s
lifestyles, and firewood culture was formed and it continued
for almost two centuries. Many novels, fairy stories, and
dramas related to firewood spread worldwide. Firewood as
energy resources together with wood as a building material.
Industrial evolution developed under the combina-
tion of coal energy with ferrous materials. About 75%
of all the energy resources in 1925 were coal. The
coal civilization and the accompanied culture were very
popular.
The energy transition from solid fuels to liquid fuels was
spurred by the discovery of a big oil field in Ghawar. Ef-
ficiency of energy transportation was increased replacing
the batch systems with the pipeline systems, and automatic
combustion systems were put to practical use with dimin-
ishing pollutant gases. Oil was applied not only to energy
systems, but also to every material for living, and we have
entered the “Oil Omnipotence Age”. As oil production in-
creased, the utilization of waste gas which accompanied the
oil welling out, is called oil gas, was industrialized on a
large scale. This is liquefied and transported everywhere in
the world (especially to Japan, Korea) in the name of LPG.
However, it should be kept in mind that oil was ap-
plied as a strategic weapon in the 4th Middle East war
(1973–74). This is due to the maldistribution of oil re-
sources, which is the first disadvantage of oil civilization.
The second is the decreasing resource reserve, which will
be ca. 60 years maximum. The third is the global envi-
ronmental problem, i.e., the global warming by the gas
with greenhouse effect, CO2 , which is emitted by the oil
combustion.
Methane (CH4 ) has minimum carbon rate among all fos-
sil fuels, but still emits CO2 . Therefore, we must apply hy-
drogen fuel, which is produced from water by renewable
energy or D–T nuclear fusion energy. This is the gist of the
formation story of hydrogen (energy) civilization.
3. Hydrogen civilization approached from Brownian
motion
Firewood {(CH2 O)v } and fossil fuel (Cn Hm ) (v, n, and
m are integers) contain carbon C, so that CO2 is emitted
inevitably when they are burned. Fig. 1[5,6] shows the curve
of QH vs. n, where QH =m/(n+m) is the hydrogen quotient.
The upper transverse axis shows a boiling temperature (in
K). For example, QH of coal (charcoal), dry firewood, and
methane are 0, 0.5, and 0.8, respectively. The arrow sign
means the necessity trend from C to H, i.e., from QH = 0 to
QH = 1. After passing the long or short hey days, each fuel
has made the transition toward hydrogen, which is a natural
trend. There seems to exist an attractive force toward the
hydrogen quotient.
Now we shall recall “analogy of intelligence”, which was
emphasized by the famous physicist J. Perin in his well-
known book “Le Atomes” [7,8]. Complex phenomena in the
natural world resemble, sometimes, the social phenomena,
and the study on that similarity has been undertaken and
is applied to economics, business management, and other
social sciences.
What is important is that culture can be studied in terms
of natural science today.
If we assume that fuels such as firewood, coal, heavy oil,
light oil, NAPHTHA, gasoline, petroleum gas, and methane,
are regarded as agents independent of each other and they
can move in random direction at QH –n space (arbitrary hy-
drocarbon can be the target), then the analogy between these
agents and the Brownian particles may come into being.
From this viewpoint, we regard the curve of Fig. 1 as the
normal distribution type (Gaussian) as shown in Fig. 2, and
written as, in the one-dimensional approximation,
1
P (x0 , x, t) = exp{−(x0 − x)2 /(4l 2 t)}, (1)
(4
l 2 t)1/2
where P , x0 , x, v, and l represent the probability of finding
the particle at position x, the concerning position (attrac-
tor’s position), position at time t, and collision frequency
per unit time, and mean-free path, respectively [9,10].
Eq. (1) holds for particles (agents) in any Markov process.
After a complicated computation by the use of the Lebesgue
integral, the following potential can be derived from Eq.
(1), after an infinitely long time [11],


1 d(x0 )
VC (x0 , x) = − , (2)
4
l 2 x0 − x
where d(x0 ) is the element in Lebesgue space.
Eq. (2) means that the potential is a centripetal Newto-
nian type, and d/x0 /(4
l 2 ) corresponds to the electric
(magnetic) charge in the case of Coulomb potential, or to
the mass in the case of universal gravitation potential. It is
important that the centripetal force becomes stronger with
decrease in the mean-free path. The concerned position can
be selected arbitrarily case by case.
 T. Ohta / International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 31 (2006) 161 – 166 163

Fig. 1. Natural trend of main human energy transition from hydrocarbon fuel to hydrogen. QH = m/(n + m) is defined as the hydrogen
quotient. In fossil fuel (Cn Hm )TB (K)—a fuel boiling temperature (in K).

The inference that the centripetal force fC in Eq. (3) means that coal can hardly be affected by the hy-
Fig. 2 originates from the Newtonian potential in Markov drogen trend; it would belong to another civilization system.
random process may be reasonable. Recently, some Next, we must note that the Brownian particles that are
economists have studied the movement of stock mar- most appropriate to the pool liquid must be chosen, at the
ket by using the intellectual analogy with the Markov given temperature and pressure, in order to realize clearly the
process. said phenomenon. Namely, in the intellectual analogy, the
Referring to Fig. 1, the centripetal force acting upon each agents that are most sensitive to the attracting system must
fossil fuel toward hydrogen can be written as be arranged. In other words, unless the workers engaged
even in the hydrogen businesses do not perceive hydrogen
1 civilization development, they can hardly be affected. The
fC = const 2 , (3)
n worker’s perception is important.
where we applied relationships x = 0 and x0 = n.

4. Hydrogen culture approached from Ashby’s law of

requisite variety

Hydrogen civilization is alike worldwide and provides the

most advanced technologies. However, “Hydrogen culture”
can hardly be formed by civilization alone, because the as-
sociated culture has to have the characteristic features of
the society, and tradition must be firmly rooted in history.
Table 1 shows the ten basic founding elements of hydrogen
civilization and culture. The first seven elements contribute
to the formation of hydrogen culture (big events and the pi-
oneers), while the latter (modern) three elements do not. We
should notice that hydrogen culture has a long, deep-rooted,
and popular tradition.
The conditions that strengthen civilization and culture are
as follows:
(1) Sustainable civilization must be consistent with GSD
and must wear the splendid cloth of culture.
(2) Civilization accompanies culture, and culture must have
Fig. 2. Normal distribution curve (Gaussian) of Brownian particles variety with high complexity (for example, the hierar-
in one dimension. chical structure).
164 T. Ohta / International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 31 (2006) 161 – 166

Table 1
Historical and modern civilization and culture are defined as material achievements of science and technology and as the intellectual side
of civilization, respectively, due to mainly Weber, and von Humboldt

Cultural and civilization elements

(1) Discovery of “A combustible air” by H. Cavendish (1766), Discovery of novel chemical element, properties and applications
which was named “Hydrogene” by Lavoisier (1787)
(2) Liquefaction of H2 (J. Dewar, 1898) Cryogenics, Dewar vessel
(3) Development of electrolysis (M. Faraday, 1833) Water electrolysis, origin of H2 -production
(4) Invention of fuel cell (R. Grove, 1840) PEMC, secondary batteries, on-site power generation
(5) H2 -absorption by Pd (T. Graham, 1866–1869) Metal hydrides
(6) Prediction of future use of new energy carrier—hydrogen (Jules The basic idea of hydrogen energy is in prospect
Werne, 1870)
(7) Explosion of Hindenburg airship (1937) Safety systems
(8) Hydrogen Romantics conclusion (1974) Hydrogen energy systems time had arrived!
(9) Appolo project of NASA (1981) Liquefied H2 , F.C., H2 -combustion
(10) Petroleum industry and H2 (today) Methanol, ammonia, oil-refining, desulfurization, semiconductor
manufacturing
(11) H2 -car by PEMFC (today) Energy saving, global environment
(12) Conception of future hydrogen civilization (today) The basic idea are conceived [3]
(13) D–T reactor (future) Next innovation of H2 -production

This example of the substructure in QH vs. n formation

shows that the trend goes toward the hydrogen fuel (energy)
systems, boundary of which (with high n value) overlaps
material systems. Hydrocarbons with high carbon numbers
must never be burned. They will serve human beings as ma-
terials for products. Fuels should be limited to hydrocarbons
with few carbons. It is an important principle of transition
to hydrogen [13,14].
We have learned that hydrogen energy culture is com-
posed of high variety and will be stable. A unified body of
hydrogen civilization and hydrogen culture will be secure
and sustainable.
At the end of the discussion it should be mentioned that
Rifkin [15] has described enthusiastically the current of hy-
drogen economy, and Goltsov and Veziroglu [3] for the first
Fig. 3. Fine structure of kerosene.
time have formulated and analyzed planetary aspects of the
transition of mankind to the era of hydrogen civilization.

Ashby [12] proposed “Requisite variety law”, which states

that only variety can destroy variety. If a cultural friction
5. Conclusions and the adaptive complexity subjects
occurs between two cultures, the culture with more variety
will defeat the culture with less variety.
5.1. Conclusive summary
Let us investigate the case of hydrogen-containing fuel.
Each fuel from the viewpoint of hydrogen quotient vs.
We have discussed hydrogen civilization and the forma-
carbon number relationship has its own fine structure. In
tion of the associated culture from the viewpoint of com-
Fig. 3, an example is shown in the case of kerosene.
plexity science, and learned some lessons, which are sum-
Kerosene, being a popular fuel for oil stove, is a mixture of
marized as follows:
mainly (1) paraffin hydrocarbon (H.C.), (2) naphthene H.C.,
and (3) aromatic H.C. The carbon number varies widely (i) It is useful to approach social phenomena from the
from 3 (cyclopropane, C3 H6 ) to 10 (decane, C10 H22 ), and analytical methods of complexity science in view of
the hydrogen quotient is about 0.7, 0.6, and 0.5, respec- the intellectual analogy.
tively, for paraffin H.C., naphthene H.C., and aromatic H.C. (ii) The civilization which is consistent with GSD is
A.I.P. gravity [Appendix A] is defined by 44.5. strongly desired.
 T. Ohta / International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 31 (2006) 161 – 166
(iii) The global environment is one of the most important
GSD items.
(iv) Only civilization wearing the cloth of culture is end-
lessly sustainable.
(v) Culture with more varieties will defeat the culture
with less varieties in the culture friction, and win the
evolution.
(vi) In order that hydrogen culture permeates steadily into
the lines of citizen’s media cultures are necessary.
(vii) Culture has some subcultures and this is hierarchi-
cally constructed.
(viii) The attractive central force acting upon the hydrocar-
bon fuels by the hydrogen energy systems is propor-
tional to the reciprocal of square of the carbon num-
ber n.
(ix) Hydrocarbons with large carbon numbers should not
be used as fuels but they must be adopted as materials.
(x) The trend to a civilization will be commenced only
when the workers in the society related to technolo-
gies and businesses perceive the very direction.
These conclusions are derived from only a few complex-
ity subjects: Brownian motion, hierarchical structure, and
Ashby’s law of requisite variety. We enumerate, in the fol-
lowing, other important subjects of complexity science that
are to be adapted to analyze social phenomena, such as civ-
ilization and culture, and hope that some scientists would
study the analogical methods in future.
Very recently, encouraging notices were published con-
cerning the formation of hydrogen culture [16].
5.2. A touch to the keywords of complexity
Autopoiesis: the process where the component elements
produce the elements by themselves.
Behavior science: science of culture. Dynamics of the
microscopic elements of culture.
Biodiversity: meta-population is the aggregation of each
species, and each aggregation makes a weak interaction.
Cluster: atomic system composed of a finite number of
atoms shows a feature different from both the isolated atom
and the system with nearly infinite number of atoms.
Cognitive science: systematic study of the intellectual and
spiritual behaviors of human beings.
Cybernetics: feedback control systems.
Emergent system: evolution or development which is not
predictable from the initial conditions.
Fractal: natural pattern takes after a scientific law
even in the random systems.
Fluctuation: (1) white power spectrum, (2) 1/f 2 , and
(3) 1/f .
Holism: the whole cannot necessarily be explained by
the simple sum of its components.
Homeostasis: keeping the inside stable against the
change of the negative feedback.
165
Invisible hand: rules hidden in complex (statistical) phe-
nomena, for example, Brownian motion.
Le Chatelier–Brown’s law: changing a state variable in
an equilibrium state, the new equilibrium state will emerge
in order to cancel the change. Conservatism of the nature.
Meme: the unit of culture transfer. Culture is a transfer
of information, which is the copy of information elements.
DNA is copied in a gene, while meme is copied in culture.
Meme is equivalent to DNA in the analogy [17] and im-
portant for the scientific understanding of culture, but is not
materially endorsed yet.
Neural network: disperse and parallel network. Electric
power systems and hydrogen energy systems may be ana-
lyzed by the neural network.
Resonance: the frequency distribution for resonance sys-
tem, for example, light absorption by a crystal, is Lorentzian.
Strength of the resonance is expressed by the quality factor.
Frequency proper to the system structure.
Self-organized structure: the ordered structure of a sub-
stance, which can hardly be predicted by the interactions
between the component particles.
Simon’s natural system: (1) holism, (2) self-sustainability
against the changing environment, (3) autopoiesis, and (4)
hierarchy.
Synergy: close cooperation which yields more than the
sum of the isolated agents. Co-operation between technology
development with culture is a good example [7].
5.3. Meaning of culture defined by complexity science
The essence of civilization is the invention and the dis-
covery (I&D) of the advanced technologies. The I&D are
due to the endeavoring process (x) around the aim (x0 ). This
situation (some existing types of “Trial and error”) is simi-
lar to the random walk (x) around the concerned point (x0 )
in Brownian motion. The winning probability {P (x0 − x)}
is determined by “How far is the distance (x0 − x)?” [Ref.
Eq. (2)].
The factors that determine the distance are mainly (1)
serendipity, (2) intuition, (3) endeavor, and (4) ability, among
which (1) and (2) may originate from the individuals and
the local features [Ref. Requisite variety], while (3) and (4)
are common worldwide. Therefore, culture would be formed
mainly by (1) and (2) after a long time (history), which is
the so-called traditional culture.
This new meaning may pave the way to approach the
entity of “meme”.
5.4. Application to company culture formation
In order to make sustainable development, the company
must develop not only advanced technologies, but also form
its own culture.
Ohta [18] published a paper treating the culture forma-
tion of an energy distribution company in Japan, in which
he emphasized the historical background, the distinguished
166 T. Ohta / International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 31 (2006) 161 – 166

contribution of the founder, the consistency of the com- [3] Goltsov VA, Veziroglu TN. From hydrogen economy to
pany’s sustainable development with GSD, and the percep- hydrogen civilization. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2001;26:
tion of the workers. The study was undertaken based on the 909–15.
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The USA President address, February 2003; Evien Summit
Issue, June, 2003.
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Proceedings THEME conference, 1974.
[6] Ohta T. In: Ohta T, editor. Introduction—a review of the scope
The author would like to express his cordial thanks to in solar hydrogen energy systems. Oxford: Pergamon Press;
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Appendix A. API gravity Science; 2000.
[11] Ohta T. In: Ohta T, editor. Energy systems and adaptive
complexity in energy systems: adaptive complexity. Oxford:
The API gravity is defined as
Elsevier Science; 2000.
141.5 [12] Ashby WR. An introduction to cybernetics. Boston: Chapman
API = 60F (,oil)
− 131.5 & Hall; 1956.
D60F (,water) [13] Ohta T, Veziroglu TN, Energy carrier and conversion systems
with emphasis on hydrogen. In: Ohta T, Veziroglu TN, editors,
and Knowledge for sustainable development. II. Oxford: EOLSS
60F (oil) D(60F, oil) Publishers; 2002.
D60F (water) = ,
D(60F, water) [14] Ohta T, editor. Solar–hydrogen energy systems. Oxford:
Pergamon Press; 1979.
where D means the specific weight of oil (water) at 60 ◦ F. [15] Rifkin J. The hydrogen economy. New York: Jeremy P.
Tarcher/Putnam; 2002.
[16] Cherry RS. A hydrogen utopia?. Int J Hydrogen Energy
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