The Energy Blog

Waste Hydrogen Used to Power Vehicles and Car Wash

CBCnews (Canada) has an interesting story about how the Integrated Waste Hydrogen Utilization Project (IWHUP) uses hydrogen from two chemical plants to power pickup trucks, shuttle buses and a car wash.

The chemical plants produce more than 1000 kg/hr of hydrogen resulting form the production of sodium chlorate and clor-alkali by electrolysis of salt water. The waste hydrogen contains "chlorine, water vapor and other nasties," which have to be removed before it can be used.

Sacré-Davey Engineering saw that the hydrogen was being wasted by venting the hydrogen to the atmosphere and designed a C$18.3 million facility to treat, compress and deliver the hydrogen to two fueling stations— one in North Vancouver and the other in Port Coquitlam, a nearby suburb.

EU Research Shows that Hydrogen Energy Could Reduce Oil Consumption in Road Transport by 40% by 2050

The EU HyWays project has released its main report "European Hydrogen Energy Roadmap" The "Roadmap" analyzes the potential impacts on the EU economy, society and environment of the large-scale introduction of hydrogen in the short- and long- term (up to 2050). A few excerpts from the press release announcing the report follow:

The scientific project HyWays funded by the EU's research program has found that introducing hydrogen into the energy system would reduce the total oil consumption by the road transport sector by 40% between now and 2050. Substantial barriers have first to be overcome, ranging from economic and technological to institutional barriers, and actions must be taken as soon as possible. Following a series of more than 50 workshops the project has produced a Roadmap to analyze the potential impacts on the EU economy, society and environment of the large-scale introduction of hydrogen in the short- and long- term, as well as an action plan detailing what needs to be done for this to take place. The report is published as the Member States are due to give their approval of a new €940m public/private research partnership for the development of hydrogen and fuel cells.

The extensive and high-quality simulations of the project predict that the break-even point would be most likely reached between 2025 and 2035. The HyWays Roadmap estimates that in 2030 there will be 16 million hydrogen cars and the total cumulative investment for infrastructure build-up will amount to €60 billion.

I am still not a convert to the hydrogen economy, especially for use in transport vehicles.  I believe that economical plug-in vehicles and electric vehicles can be produced at less cost before the 2025-2035 time period that is cited and by 2050 should be able to reduce oil consumption by significantly more than 40% with biofuels providing a significant reduction in fuel consumption of light vehicles, which is not an option with fuel cells. The development of a low cost fuel cell for transportation is a major technical challenge in itself, let alone the infrastructure required to distribute the hydrogen. I admit that good progress is being made on these items, but why should we have two major projects going when it is clear that one can be economically developed in a shorter time. The EU certainly can proceed independent of the U.S. and Japan, but it seems such a waste to do so. Hydrogen from natural gas or by electrolysis seem to me to be a waste of fossil fuels and/or inefficient use of electricity. Hydrogen may have a place in power production and other large stand-alone projects where a hydrogen transportation infrastructure does not have to be developed.  This should be the first area that is developed. 

Georgia Tech: CCS from Vehicles with Carbon Recyle = Zero Emission Car

Georgia Tech abridged press release:

The Georgia Tech team’s goal is to create a sustainable transportation system that uses a liquid fuel and traps the carbon emission in the vehicle for later processing at a fueling station. The carbon would then be shuttled back to a processing plant where it could be transformed into liquid fuel. Currently, Georgia Tech researchers are developing a fuel processing device to separate the carbon and store it in the vehicle in liquid form.

Georgia Tech’s near-future strategy involves capturing carbon emissions from conventional (fossil) liquid hydrocarbon-fueled vehicles with an onboard fuel processor designed to separate the hydrogen in the fuel from the carbon. Hydrogen is then used to power the vehicle, while the carbon is stored on board the vehicle in a liquid form until it is disposed at a refueling station. It is then transported to a centralized site to be sequestered in a permanent location currently under investigation by scientists, such as geological formations, under the oceans or in solid carbonate form.

In the long-term strategy, the carbon dioxide will be recycled forming a closed-loop system, involving synthesis of high energy density liquid fuel suitable for the transportation sector.

Georgia Tech settled on a hydrogen-fueled vehicle for its carbon capture plan because pure hydrogen produces no carbon emissions when it is used as a fuel to power the vehicle. The fuel processor produces the hydrogen on-board the vehicle from the hydrocarbon fuel without introducing air into the process, resulting in an enriched carbon byproduct that can be captured with minimal energetic penalty. Traditional combustion systems, including current gasoline-powered automobiles, have a combustion process that combines fuel and air — leaving the carbon dioxide emissions highly diluted and very difficult to capture.

Hydrogen From "E. Coli"

A professor in Texas A&M University's chemical engineering department envisions "E. coli" as a future source of energy, helping to power our cars, homes and more.

By genetically modifying the bacteria, Thomas Wood, a professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, has "tweaked" a strain of E. coli so that it produces substantial amounts of hydrogen. Specifically, Wood's strain produces 140 times more hydrogen than is created in a naturally occurring process, according to an article in "Microbial Biotechnology," detailing his research. . . .

As might be expected, the cost of building an entirely new pipeline to transport hydrogen is a significant deterrent in the utilization of hydrogen-based fuel cell technology. In addition, there is also increased risk when transporting hydrogen.

The solution, Wood believes, is converting hydrogen on site.

If this process works out it might change my view on hydrogen.  How about a little fermentor in your house or at the local "hydrogen station?"  Of course there is the other little problem about fuel cell costs.

Hy-Drive to Install Systems on 100 Trucks with Data Monitoring System

Hy-Drive Technologies Ltd., Toronto, (TSX-V: HGS), has launched its Integrated Product Team (IPT) Partnership Program under which it plans to install 100 Hydrogen Generation System (HGS) units of its Clean Burn Technology(TM) on selected partner trucks by year-end. The IPT program has been initiated to maintain an existing market penetration momentum and generate a controlled case study to serve as a verifiable reference. The program will involve a series of existing customer fleet operators already familiar with the company and technology, as well as a number of new IPT partners.

Under the program, each unit installed will be equipped with a PeopleNet(TM) system. This system is capable of tracking mileage to the tenth of a gallon and controlling the data for variables such as excess idle times, truck speed, and elevated RPM's. Monitored results will provide the Company with a significant level of statistically verifiable field data on HGS performance. . . .

Hy-Drive is an energy technology firm that has developed a proprietary, patented hydrogen generating system. The Hy-Drive system generates and injects hydrogen gas into a regular internal combustion engine.

A previous post described similar technology, hydrogen fuel injection (HFI), being developed by Canadian Hydrogen Fuel Company (CHEC).

Perhaps PRV Performance, previous post, should incorporate hydrogen injection into its product, they are working on adding water injection, which might use a similar configuration.

New Hydrogen from Aluminium-Water Reaction Develeoped at Purdue

It seems that there are a never ending number of processes for producing and storing hydrogen. This one, from Purdue University, stands out as one of the most promising.  It potentially can create hydrogen on demand in a container small enough to be placed in a vehicle.  It does produce byproducts that must be recycled, but there are standard, economical methods to do this. While referred to as a pollution-free energy source, that refers to the only to the process of producing hydrogen, some pollution would from the recycling process.

Researchers at Purdue University have further developed a technology that could represent a pollution-free energy source.

Aluminum is well known for a large negative free energy for the formation of its oxide. Hence, Al has the thermodynamic ability to split water. As such, were it not for its passivating oxide, Al would be a contender as a safe, economically viable material for energy storage, transport, and the generation of hydrogen.

The technology produces hydrogen by adding water to an alloy of aluminum and gallium. When water is added to the alloy, the aluminum splits water by attracting oxygen, liberating hydrogen in the process. The Purdue researchers are developing a method to create particles of the alloy that could be placed in a tank to react with water and produce hydrogen on demand.

The gallium is a critical component because it hinders the formation of an aluminum oxide skin normally created on aluminum's surface after bonding with oxygen, a process called oxidation. This skin usually acts as a barrier and prevents oxygen from reacting with aluminum. Reducing the skin's protective properties allows the reaction to continue until all of the aluminum is used to generate hydrogen, said Jerry Woodall, a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue who invented the process.

Low-Swirl Combustion Cleans the Air

A unique type of clean-burning combustion technology called, low-swirl injection (LSI), for fuel-flexible near-zero-emission gas turbines, developed by Robert Cheng and David Littlejohn of Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division, along with scientists from San Diego-based Solar Turbines. The technology is now entering the marketplace after years of research and development.

LSI  technology, recently won a 2007 R&D 100 award for 2007 from R&D magazine as one of the top 100 new technologies of the year.

LSI is a technology that significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions and pollution from gas turbines used to produce electricity, or from any stationary combustion system in which it is incorporated.  Burners using this technology produce 10 to 100 times lower emissions of nitrogen oxides than conventional burners, making it easier and more economical for industries to meet clean air requirement.

In the 1980s, new combustion technologies reduced nitrogen oxides (NOx) from more than 100 parts per million (ppm) to the current standard of less than 25 ppm. Now, the low swirl Injector emits less than 2 ppm. It is the only technology that can affordably reduce NOx emissions to this near-zero level.

FutureGen Engineering and Construction Management Firm Selected

The FutureGen Alliance has selected Washington Group International (NYSE: WNG) to provide architectural, design, and engineering support services for the FutureGen initiative. The $1 billion project is an approximate 275-megawatt Integrated (coal) Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant that will will generate hydrogen to produce electricity while capturing and permanently storing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, deep underground.

The project includes development of a large-scale engineering laboratory and research platform for evaluating and testing new technologies for the conversion of coal to fuel gases, for the capture of carbon dioxide, and for the clean production of power.

The initial technology selection, design, and engineering work is scheduled for completion in March 2008.

As the engineering and construction management provider, Washington Group International will assist the Alliance in the evaluation and selection of technologies for coal gasification and for gas and power generation, as well as integrate the selected technologies and packages for the processes across the facility.

The FutureGen Initial Conceptual Design Report, May 2007, describes the project’s objectives and the conceptual design for the entire FutureGen project, including the technical activities that will lead to design, construction and operation of the plant, and the management approaches that will direct and fund those technical activities.

Site selection has been narrowed down to two sites in Illlinois and two in Texas with final site selection scheduled for late 2007. 

The facility is scheduled to go online by 2012.

My previous post "About IGCC Power Plants" has a more detailed description of IGCC power plants.

Sustainable Fuel for the Transportation Sector

Purdue University scientists Rakesh Agrawal, Navneet Singh, Fabio Ribeiro, and Nicholas Delgass have proposed a hybrid system of hydrogen and carbon that can produce a sufficient amount of liquid hydrocarbon fuels to power the entire U.S. transportation sector. The H2CAR process uses carbon produced by biomass and hydrogen supplied from carbon-free energy. The following is summarized and paraphrased from the online publication of their report cited above.

The process has several advantages:

• The land area needed to grow the biomass is <40% of that needed by other routes that solely use biomass to support the entire transportation sector.
• Prior known processes were estimated to be able to produce 30% of the United States transportation fuel from the annual biomass of 1.366 billion tons, while the H2CAR process shows the potential to supply the entire United States transportation sector from that quantity of biomass.
• The synthesized liquid provides H2 storage in an open loop system.
• Reduction to practice of the H2CAR route has the potential to provide the transportation sector for the foreseeable future, using the existing infrastructure.

Structures Designed with Reticular Chemistry Store Voluminous Amounts of Gases

A press release from UCLA outlines how chemists at UCLA have designed and developed a class of materials for the storage of very large quantities of gases which could be used in alternative energy technologies.

The research, to be published on April 13 in the journal Science, demonstrates how the design principles of reticular chemistry have been used to create three-dimensional covalent organic frameworks, which are entirely constructed from strong covalent bonds and have high thermal stability, high surface areas and extremely low densities.