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.

Quantum Delivers More Hydrogen Hybrids

Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc., (Nasdaq: QTWW) announced that it has shipped eleven hydrogen-fueled Prius hybrid vehicles to Miljobil Grenland AS, a participant and vehicle provider to the Norwegian Hydrogen Highway (HyNor).

The Hydrogen Hybrid package for the Prius includes Quantum's electronic multi-point hydrogen injection system, turbocharger and intercooler, Quantum's compressed hydrogen fuel storage module and hydrogen fuel delivery system, and Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) crashworthy design and validation. The eleven vehicles in this shipment were equipped with an extended range package, which was engineered by Quantum to provide additional hydrogen storage capacity and a resulting 30 percent increase in vehicle driving range between refueling. In addition to performing in specified starting conditions and meeting certain drivability specifications, these vehicles were designed to meet European safety standards, including the successful completion of crash testing to verify the safety of the converted vehicles.

The Norwegian government, industry participants, and the organizations participating in a joint effort called HyNor plan on creating a "Hydrogen Highway" between the capital, Oslo, and western Norway's port of Stavanger.

As part of the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s (AQMD) program to develop and demonstrate hydrogen hybrid vehicles in Southern California Quantum is supplying 30 Prius hybrids; five of them have been delivered to the City of Santa Monica, California and five to the City of Burbank, California.

Air Products and Fuel Cell Energy Building Efficient Hydrogen Generating Station

Air Products (NYSE: APD), and FuelCell Energy, Inc. (NasdaqNM: FCEL), have commenced construction on an advanced hydrogen energy demonstration station designed to address industrial and transportation applications.  The station, funded in part by the United States Department of Energy (DOE), is to demonstrate a tri-generating green energy system capable of providing low-cost hydrogen, electric power and heat from one integrated unit.

The new system will combine FuelCell Energy’s Direct FuelCell® (DFC®) power plants with Air Products’ advanced gas separation technologies.  The DFC system produces electric power and heat for cogeneration, as well as hydrogen for industrial applications and fuel cell vehicles.  The system is designed to produce more than 250 kilowatts (kW) of green power and over 135 kilograms (about 300 pounds) of hydrogen per day. The system could provide hydrogen for smaller industrial users who routinely purchase liquid or gaseous hydrogen that currently must be delivered by truck.  The DFC system could also be equipped to provide daily hydrogen fueling for approximately 35 fuel cell vehicles. 

The tri-generation system is designed to operate on renewable fuel sources, such as anaerobic digester gas from industrial or municipal wastewater treatment facilities, as well as readily available fuels, including natural gas and propane. The overall cost of on-site generation of hydrogen via this process has the potential to be significantly lower than other currently available production options, and thus could provide hydrogen and energy at decreased costs.

Bush seeks to scrap current ethanol standard

Reuters, March 20, 2007 -- The Bush administration has proposed scrapping the current U.S. renewable fuels standard that requires ethanol  ...

Under the legislative proposal sent to Congress on Monday, the new standard would require U.S. ethanol and alternative fuel consumption to reach 10 billion gallons in 2010.

The alternative fuels standard would then slowly rise through 2014, and ramp up the following three years to reach 35 billion gallons annually in 2017. ...

In addition to ethanol, alternative fuels under the bill would include biodiesel and motor fuel made from municipal solid waste, natural gas, hydrogen, coal-derived liquid fuels, electricity and other fuels to be determined by the Energy Department. ... more

The change in definition of renewable fuel requirements from only ethanol to the other listed fuels makes attainment of the 35 billion gallons annually goal by 2017 more achievable, as I have stated previously.  Combined with greater emphasis on PHEVs and BEVs our greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on foreign oil can be greatly reduced. The coal liquids should be required to be produced from coal mined in an environmentally consious manner and the CTL process be required to sequester all emissions.

Hydrogen Made by Methanol Electrolysis Process Saves Energy

Water electrolysis for large scale hydrogen production is unattractive because of its high electricity consumption. But hydrogen produced by electrolysis of methanol as proposed by Prof. Shen, from Advanced Energy Materials Research laboratory of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China uses only 1/3 electricity consumption of water electrolysis. 

The principle of the electrolysis of methanol is as follows. Methanol is oxidized via dehydration at the anode, the resulting H+ ions diffusing through a proton exchange membrane (PEM) to the cathode chamber where they are reduced to hydrogen gas.

A  promising advantage is that the standard potential is only 0.02 V vs NHE for methanol oxidation compared to 1.23 V for water electrolysis. Additionally the hydrogen generated comes from the methanol as well as from the water, the overall reaction being CH3OH + H2O = 3H2 + CO2.

This process offers potential for lower distributed hydrogen production costs and reducing the infrastructure required for hydrogen distribution. It is too early to assign any costs to the process.  Obviously, the cost of the methanol would deduct from other savings.

Source: Fuel Cell Works

Hydrogen Power, Inc Produces Hydrogen from Water and Aluminium Powder

Hydrogen Power, Inc. (OTCBB: HYDP) has licensed and developed a patented technology for producing hydrogen gas in a process called Hydrogen Now^TM. Hydrogen Now involves a chemical reaction between water, aluminum, and an environmentally friendly catalyst to cleanly and efficiently produce hydrogen on-site and on-demand. Their high energy density AlumiFuel^TM powder, consisting of aluminum and catalyst can be easily transported and stored.

On December 26 the company announced that its common stock has begun trading on the Over the Counter Bulletin Board.

The company claims: the Hydrogen Now technology produces hydrogen on-site and on-demand requiring no energy consumption for the creation of hydrogen. The aluminum “splits” the water freeing the hydrogen and creating a benign byproduct of aluminum hydroxide (non-toxic, non-caustic, and recyclable).  It produces hydrogen free of impurities that can be used directly to power fuel cells or internal combustion engines.

Why a Hydrogen Economy Doesn't Make Sense

Another study, reported in PhysOrg.com reaffirms The Energy Blog's belief that the hydrogen economy is not energy efficient.

In a recent study, fuel cell expert Ulf Bossel explains that a hydrogen economy is a wasteful economy. The large amount of energy required to isolate hydrogen from natural compounds (water, natural gas, biomass), package the light gas by compression or liquefaction, transfer the energy carrier to the user, plus the energy lost when it is converted to useful electricity with fuel cells, leaves around 25% for practical use — an unacceptable value to run an economy in a sustainable future. Only niche applications like submarines and spacecraft might use hydrogen.

Even though many scientists, including Bossel, predict that the technology to establish a hydrogen economy is within reach, its implementation will never make economic sense, Bossel argues. ... more

Hydrogen Storage Using Polymeric Foam as a Hydrostatic Pressure Retainment Structure

Two publications suggest a means of containing hydrogen in a pressure vessel that is conformable, lighter and safer than a simple pressure vessel.  The potential methods of storing in a vehicle are numerous and none have surfaced that are ideal.  This is a rather novel one, but does not strike me as the ultimate answer.  The real answer, in my opinion, if hydrogen is needed at all for cars, is to use it in fuel a cell as a replacement for the ICE in a plug-in vehicle.

Examination of Poylymeric Foam as an On-Board Vehicular HPR Hydrogen Storage Media

Hydrostatic pressure retainment (HPR) is an innovative theory for gaseous pressure vessels. An ideal HPR pressure vessel contains an array of spherical cells arranged in a homogeneous fashion that may be likened to a simple-cubic (SC), bodycentered cubic (BCC), or face-centered cubic packing structure (FCC)

The main advantages of HPR pressure vessels over traditional pressure vessels are threefold. First, because an HPR pressure vessel essentially is a matrix of multiple spherical pressure vessels, the outer shell need not be spherical or cylindrical. Rather, the outer shell may take on a conformable geometry, making it more convenient to have a larger tank volume within an automotive assembly. ....

Hydrogen Storage for Automotive Tanks Using Using Hydrostatic Pressure Retainment (HPR) Microstructure

Gas is stored in small bubbles of a foam matrix, thereby forming a series of small spherical pressure vessels. The resulting stress in the material between the bubbles is in a hydrostatic state of tri-axial tension. ....

Honda: Will Start Leasing FCX in California Within 2 Years

According to a Bloomberg article Honda Motor Co., plans to start, within two years, leasing a limited number of fuel cell powered cars based on its new FCX concept, shown left, in California, taking advantage of the state's plans for a hydrogen-fuel network. Marketing will gradually expand from California to other major U.S. markets.

The new FCX sedan has a top speed of 100 miles an hour and can travel as far as 270 miles when fully fueled, 30 percent farther than the previous FCX. The fuel-cell stack is 40 percent smaller than in the previous version and increases the electrical output to 100 kilowatts from 86 kilowatts, said Yozo Kami, executive chief engineer for Tokyo-based Honda's FCX program.

GM: Fuel Cell Vehicles Viable at 1 Million Units

According to The Korea Hearld, Larry Burns, GM's R&D and strategic planning director, speaking during the company's 'Tech Tour 2006' in Shanghai, said:

the cost of building hydrogen fuel cell cars will not exceed that of making conventional fuel powertrain vehicles once volumes reach 1 million units. "Lack of scale is the primary reason for the high costs of fuel cell vehicles."

GM has announced plans to build 100 fuel celled Cheverlot Equinoxes, shown right,  in 2007. (previous post)

The Korea Hearld article said that GM aims to design and validate a fuel cell system that is competitive in terms of performance, durability and cost at volume of $50 per kilowatt (of power generated) by 2010.

Alternative Liquid Fuels from Nuclear Hydrogen and CO2 Emissions

MIT conducted a study, An Alternative to Gasoline: Synthetic Fuels from Nuclear Hydrogen and Captured CO₂, to determine the extent to which nuclear power can contribute to a transition in the transportation sector.

The study concluded that the concept of alternative liquid fuels produced from nuclear hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide is viable. There is abundant CO₂ for use and the hydrogen can be produced with proven technology.

Combining hydrogen with carbon dioxide captured from fossil fired plants to produce liquid fuel, either ethanol or methanol, is a way of producing fuels that could be used with little modification in the production of vehicles, requires few changes in the infrastructure for distributing fuels and is complementary to the production of ethanol from biosources.

A total cycle analysis revealed that the total reduction in CO₂ emissions will be slightly more than 12% for either ethanol use or methanol use. A second benefit would be to decrease a nation’s dependence on imported petroleum.

Was it Necessary for GM to Annouces Plans for a Home Hydrogen Fueling Station?

General Motors is following the lead made by Honda (previous post) by developing a home hydrogen refueling unit.  GM's unit would use either electricity or sunlight to make the hydrogen.  Developing an infrastructure to supply hydrogen for their fuel cell vehicles, besides making economical fuel cells, is the most pressing task that fuel cell automakers have.  GM and several other auto companies would like to introduce, at least a limited number of vehicles, most likely for lease in the 2007-2011 time period. Wide scale production of fuel cell vehicles is thought by most to be at least 10-15 years away.

Just one week ago GM announced that they would build 100 fuel cell vehicles that would be deployed in California, New York and Washington, D.C. in 2007.  It is highly probable they they would be use in those areas, at least in part, because there are some hydrogen fueling stations located in those areas.

Engineers' magnesium solution to hydrogen storage debacle

According to ferret.com.au, A team of Australian scientists have developed a solid state hydrogen storage technology that is safer, lower cost, and stores a higher density of hydrogen than the gaseous and liquid systems presently used in industry.

It is claimed that the magnesium alloy developed by Arne Dahle and Kazuhiro Nogita from Queensland University’s School of Engineering has seven times the storage density of a standard hydrogen pressure cylinder.

“Any application that uses hydrogen is coming across this issue of hydrogen storage, because with pressurised gas or liquid you just don’t store enough hydrogen safely,” says CEO, Jeffrey Ng of a new company called Hydrexia that has been established to realise the commercial potential of the technology. Ng defined four key things that people look for when it comes to hydrogen storage: safety, hydrogen storage density, low cost and manufacturability. On all of these fronts, Ng says Dahle and Nogita’s new magnesium alloy performs better than the two most common storage methods to date.

The BMW Hydrogen 7

BMW Press release (edited): BMW today announced the introduction of the new BMW Hydrogen 7, the world's first hydrogen-drive luxury performance automobile. The car will be built in a limited series in Europe and driven in the US and other countries by selected users in 2007. It is equipped with an internal combustion engine capable of either on hydrogen or on gasoline and based on the BMW 7 Series.

With all the comforts and amenities of a non-hydrogen 7 Series, the Hydrogen 7 is powered by a 260 hp twelve-cylinder engine and accelerates from 0-62.1 mph in 9.5 seconds. Top speed is limited electronically to 143 mph. The car also features a dual-mode power unit -- controlled at the touch of a button -- that can switch quickly and conveniently from hydrogen to conventional premium gasoline.

Ford Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine

Ford will be the first to deliver a hydrogen internal combustion engine powered vehicle to commercial customers later this year. The ICE will be used in E-450 shuttle buses later this year. Production of the supercharged, 235 hp, 6.8 liter hydrogen fueled V-10 engines has begun; the engine will be tested to same production standards as other Ford engines.

Advantages of hydrogen fueled engines include high efficiency, all-weather capability, and near zero emissions of regulated pollutants and greenhouse gases (CO2).

This engine is specially prepared to burn hydrogen as a fuel but is based on the same modular engine series that powers many Ford products.

A Power Grid for the Hydrogen Economy

An article describing a cryogenic, superconducting "SuperGrid" that would simultaneously deliver electrical power and hydrogen fuel is featured in the July issue of Scientific American.com.

The August 14, 2003 power failure that affected 48 million inhabitants of New York, northeastern US and Ontario and an even more extensive blackout that affected 56 million people in Italy and Switzerland a month later--called attention to the susceptibility of our power grids to failure.  A more fundamental limitation of our grid is that it is poorly suited to handle the relentless growth in demand for electrical energy and the coming transition away from fossil-fueled power stations and vehicles to cleaner sources of electricity and transportation fuels.  The following is but a sampling of the information in the report, which you may want to read, to fully understand the problem and the authors solution.

The authors are part of a growing group of engineers and physicists who have begun developing designs for a new energy delivery system they call the Continental SuperGrid. They envision the SuperGrid evolving gradually alongside the current grid, strengthening its capacity and reliability. Over the course of decades, the SuperGrid would put in place the means to generate and deliver not only plentiful, reliable, inexpensive and "clean" electricity but also hydrogen for energy storage and personal transportation.

Super-Grid links crossing several time zones and weather boundaries would allow power plants to tap excess nighttime capacity to meet the peak electricity needs of distant cities. By smoothing out fluctuations in demand, the low-loss grid could help reduce the need for new generation construction.

The Super-Grid could go a long way, too, toward removing one of the fundamental limitations to the large-scale use of inconstant energy from wind, tides, waves and sunlight.

Fuel Cell Energy's Hydrogen Separation Process

FuelCell Energy, Inc. (NasdaqNM:FCEL), has developed a cost-efficient system to separate pure hydrogen from a gas mixture that then can be sold as fuel for hydrogen vehicles or industrial uses. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded FuelCell Energy $1.36 Million to advance this Electrochemical Hydrogen Separator (EHS) project for use with the company's Direct FuelCell(R) (DFC(R)) power plants.

Unlike other means of separating hydrogen, which rely on compression, the company's proprietary EHS technology has no moving parts. FCEL anticipates that their process to be significantly more reliable and efficient than conventional methods and to save up to one-half of the energy required when compared to conventional compression based-methods of hydrogen separation.

A subscale prototype EHS unit is currently operating at the University of Connecticut Global Fuel Cell Center. The subscale EHS system currently produces 1200 liters per hour of pure hydrogen. With the DoD award, the unit will be scaled up by a factor of 25 and will operate in conjunction with a sub-megawatt DFC power plant in Danbury for testing.

New, Inexpensive Process Converts Sugars to Hydrogen

The Aqueous Phase Reforming (APR) process, invented by J. A. Dumesic and co-workers at the University of Wisconsin, is a unique process that can produces carbon-neutral hydrogen, fuel gas, liquid fuels or value added chemicals from a wide range of oxygenated compounds, such as ethylene glycol, biomass-derived glycerol, sugars and sugar-alcohols.  Specifically, Virent, a company founded by Dumesic and others is developing a system to generate hydrogen from aqueous solutions of these compounds in a single step reactor process as compared to the three or more reaction steps required for hydrogen generation via conventional processes that utilize non-renewable fossil fuels.

In January the company announced that in a system purchased by Madison, Gas & Electric (MGE), it has successfully started up a demonstration system capable of directly converting sugars and glycerin into power. The system (see schematic below) has demonstrated the ability to deliver a minimum of 10kW of clean power to the MGE grid since its startup at the beginning of 2006 The system is utilizing the waste heat from the ICE to provide the limited amount of process heat required for the reactor.The system currently operates on pure glycerin. In the future, the Company will use a lower grade of glycerin that is generated as a byproduct of the biodiesel production process.

The process (US. Patent No. 6,699,457) will enable localized production of hydrogen using readily available sugar-based feedstocks effectively eliminating hydrogen transport, storage and safety roadblocks that impede adoption of hydrogen fueled power systems. Due to the low temperature operation of APR, the economics are scalable to small home and office use applications. Depending on the feedstock, the process is capable of producing green hydrogen at a total cost of between $1.80-$4.00/kg. This is dramatically less than alternative renewable sources, such as wind and solar, and very competitive with mature, capital intensive hydrogen production methods such as natural gas reformation, coal gasification or electrolysis.

Hydrogen from Coal Technologies

This post is being made to 1) explain the technology that is being proposed to produce and distribute hydrogen and 2) to help both my readers and myself understand whether the hydrogen economy is the right choice for our future energy requirements or whether some alternative technologies would make a better choice.  The material has been taken from the two resources noted at the end of the post, with very little editing, except to use only the pertinent excerpts.  The Program Plan is a very long document and I have tried to use only the portions that will help us understand the technology. Please also see my comments at the end of the post.

There are many long-term options for providing hydrogen as a fuel of the future, but coal is the leading contender to provide a hydrogen source in the near term. In his remarks on the Department of Energy’s (DOE) hydrogen research activities at the National Hydrogen Association Annual Conference in March 2005, Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman stated “The progress that DOE and the automotive and energy industries have made so far has us on the path to an industry commercialization decision in 2015. If our research program is successful, it is not unreasonable to think we could see the beginning of mass market penetration by 2020.”

"While someday we may be able to produce hydrogen by breaking up water molecules in association with the high-temperature heat from nuclear power reactors, or through renewable energy technologies," said Chris Shaddix, principal investigator for clean coal combustion at Sandia, "right now the most cost-effective way to produce hydrogen is with coal."

Two approaches to burning coal now are under study. The first, oxy-combustion, combines coal with pure oxygen. The second, gasification, burns coal only partially to create a fuel gas.

Oxy-combustion is driven by concern over emissions of CO2 and other pollutants. Burning coal in oxygen is a near-term solution that can produce exhaust streams that are close to pure CO2, Shaddix said. Harmful pollutants like nitrogen oxides, sulfur compounds and mercury are virtually eliminated.

Companies in Japan, Canada, Germany and elsewhere favor oxy-combustion and are building pilot plants.  U.S. companies tend to favor gasification technologies, which offer higher efficiency and low pollution formation. Gasification technologies are the only ones described in this post.

Biological Fuel Cell Development

A team of researchers at the University of Oxford have developed an enzyme based biological fuel cell that takes oxygen and hydrogen from an atmosphere to power electrical devices. The enzymes used were isolated from bacteria that evolved naturally to use hydrogen in their metabolic process.  The enzymes are highly selective and tolerant of gases that poison traditional fuel cell catalysts.  The advantage is that the enzymes are a cheap and renewable alternative to expensive platinum catalysts normally used in fuel cells.

Professor Fraser Armstrong and his colleagues built a fuel cell consisting of two electrodes coated with the enzymes in a small gas tank containing air with a few percent added hydrogen. The fuel cell was used to power a digital watch and the researchers believe that this development marks a milestone in the development process to improve the power density and lifetime of the enzymes.

According to a NREL website, other researchers are attempting to develop microbes to produce hydrogen from water, but as they produce oxygen as well as hydrogen and the hydrogen-evolving microbes are oxygen sensitive, this limitation must be overcome before a biological fuel cell that is fed by nothing but water could be developed.

Resources:

Milestone Achieved in the Development of Biological Fuel Cells, Newswise via Fuel Cell Today, April, 1, 2006
Hydrogen Production and Delivery, NREL R&D, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Research website

Technorati tags: fuel cells, hydrogen, energy, technology

Biofuels, Batteries and Power Plants

I must say that I agree with most of what U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman's said in remarks as reported in the referenced article, but they were too short, as mine are usually, to really reflect viewpoint. Our research dollars spent for biofuels and batteries may be in the right direction, but not enough is being spent soon enough and much too much is being spent on hydrogen. I believe that government spending for batteries and biofuels is a pittance and is worth it if it reduces the time until implementation by the smallest amount.  I also think we should reduce all subsidies for ethanol production as soon as possible by tying them to the price of gasoline. Corn ethanol subsidies should be phased out  as soon as cellulosic ethanol is commercial. Congress needs to appropriate the money for the cellulosic ethanol demonstration plants! I am glad to see that batteries are moving to the forefront, but they are so close to commercialization that I don't know how much government research can be justified.  We will need more power plants powered by either coal or nuclear. I prefer coal with sequestration because they can be built faster and the nuclear waste problem is reduced, but a parallel building program may be required.  No mention was made of conservation.  The greatest amount of conservation occurs with electric vehicles getting their energy from advanced power plants operating at above 60% efficiency. The government has sheparded this development much faster than industry ever would have.  Changes in lifestyle and better building insulation standards are very important also. The most immediate impact would be to raise vehicle efficiency standards immediately! But no matter how much conservation is used we will require more power plants. Renewable energy, although important, is not the subject of this discussion because there is no way it can significantly impact our power production in the next 10 years.

He was quoted that he's "surprised" that oil price increases haven't had a greater impact on the U.S. economy and that he is  "worried" that the economy will suffer if oil prices stay above current levels. He further stated that "we are going to reach a limit and we will see a real impact of increased oil prices on our economy. Whether its $95 or something north of that I don't know. I can tell you I'm worried about anything above the current levels."

He went on to say that the administrations policy to increase research dollars for bio-fuels, hybrid battery technology and hydrogen fuel has the country on the right track. "But this country has been decades in getting itself into the fix we're in now. And it'll be a significant number of years working our way out of it."

He also called for the approval of the Yucca Mountain project to dispose of our nuclear waste. "This country doesn't need four (nuclear power) plants. We need 14 or we need 24." In order to support this kind of construction "will require Yucca Mountain be built."  Bodman said demand for electricity in the U.S. will increase 50% over the next 20-25 years and "the only thing I see meeting that is nuclear power."

US Energy Secretary:Oil Prices Eventually Will Impact Economy, Terry Kosdrosky, Dow Jones Newswire, April 6, 2006

Technorati tags: biofuels, batteries, nuclear, electric power, ethanol, coal, energy, technology

Hydrogen or Batteries by 2020?

According to a Reuters report on last weeks National Hydrogen Association annual conference at the Long Beach Convention Center:

Hydrogen fuel proponents see 2020 as the year it all comes together.

Not only will there be affordable zero-emissions hydrogen-fueled cars in every showroom but in 2020 a smattering of houses across the world will be lighted with electricity from hydrogen-powered home generators.

Even proponents agree there are four major hurdles researchers need to solve before the fuel can be used widely: storage, fuel cell durability, affordability and a delivery system.

That is good news to me.  By that time plug-in cars and EV's should have been available in production quantities for eight years or so and the need for fuel cell vehicles should have gone away.  Both methods are very dependent on electricity to produce the "juice" (hydrogen or electricity) that goes into cars. The overall efficiency of an electric car is more than twice that of a hydrogen car eliminating the need to build many billions of dollars worth of generating plants and conserving our coal or nuclear resources for many years.  This will give us more time to ramp up our renewable energy sources so that by say 2050 we may able to get most of our energy from wind, solar, and ocean power and should have enough bio-liquids for producing biochemicals and to fuel the remaining vehicles that have not been converted to electric power.  There will be some expensive oil and natural gas available, but hopefully we will not have to use it for vehicles or to make electricity. Fuel cells may have some very good applications for stationary power in CHP applications where 85% of the energy in the fuel can be used. The transition to heating all buildings with either the waste heat from fuel cells or mass use of geothermal heat pumps will be well underway, eventually eliminating the need for fossil fuels for building heat.  Hopefully there will be some exotic way of producing hydrogen, such as from some mircrorganism, so that we don't have to use biofuels or electricity to make the hydrogen.

Technorati tags: hydrogen, fuel cells, energy, technology

The Energy Blog: Post title

GE Develops Equipment That Reduces Capital Cost of Producing Hydrogen

GE researchers have built a prototype of an apparatus that they believe could lead to a commercial machine able to produce hydrogen via electrolysis for about $3 per kilogram -- a quantity roughly equivalent in energy content to a gallon of gasoline -- down from today's $8 per kilogram. That could make it economically practical for future fuel-cell vehicles that run on hydrogen.

Hydrogen is made in an electrolyzer with a simple process, water is mixed with a potassium hydroxide electrolyte and flowed through a stack of electrodes. Electricity causes the water molecules to split into hydrogen and oxygen gases, which bubble out of the solution. Today commercial-scale quantities of hydrogen are extracted far more cheaply from natural gas. In a hydrogen economy, natural gas will become very expensive and other uses of natural gas than for vehicle transportation will be given a higher priority.

According to GE improving the efficiency is not the core problem, rather it is reducing the capital cost of the equipment used to produce the hydrogen.  Electrolyzers are currently made of expensive materials and require costly assembly labor.   

Additional Hydrogen Storage Information

While researching the previous post on the Honda micro CHP system I came across this information on hydrogen storage in their fuel cell vehicle.  I have added this paragraph to the recent hydrogen storage post, but I am posting it here for those of you that have already read that post. This is the first storage system that I have seen that appears to be near what will be required in a commercial fuel cell vehicle (FCV).  Honda said in January that they would begin production of a FCV that would be very close to their FCX in 3 or 4 years.

Honda had this phrase in their announcement of their newest model of their fuel cell car, the 2006 FCX: Honda has now developed a new approach to expanding storage capacity, a newly developed hydrogen absorption material in the tank doubles capacity to 5 kg of hydrogen at 5000 PSI, extending cruising range to 350 miles, equivalent to that of a gasoline-engine car. The tank is located behind the rear seat. No other details were given, but I presume that by increasing the tank pressure to 5,000 PSI they were able to increase the capacity of absorbent material to an acceptable value. This is the same pressure as is used in most cars using a simple pressure vessel and has the accompanying disadvantages of the high pressure, but requires much less volume than a simple tank.

Honda Annnounces First Installation of Micro-CHP System

American Honda Motor Company and Massachusetts-based Climate Energy, LLC have collaborated in the first test installation of a micro-sized combined heat and power system (Micro-CHP system).  At the Braintree, Mass., residence of Mr. Bernard Malin, the Climate Energy system is now using cogeneration technology with natural gas to provide residential heat more efficiently than ever before, given the added benefit of producing electric power.

Honda supplies its compact home-use cogeneration unit to Climate Energy, which in turn, combines it with a furnace or boiler as a supplemental system to conventional space heating and electric power in new and existing homes, while delivering ultra-quiet operation.

The complete Climate Energy Micro-CHP system, powered by the Honda MCHP unit, results in more than 85 percent efficiency in converting fuel energy into useful heat and electric power.  The system also is expected to yield a 30 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions as compared with conventional heating appliances and grid supplied electricity.

Hydrogen Storage Systems

Hydrogen storage is one of the most critical components of a hydrogen fueled PEMFC vehicle.  Some believe that the hydrogen storage system will be the major obstacle delaying deployment of a sucessful fuel cell vehicle. Conventional fuel tanks for the storage of hydrogen (H2) in fuel cell vehicles have several associated issues. 

• It must be a pressure vessel to store any significant amount of hydrogen.
• When stored at 5,000 or 10,000 psi a reasonable sized tank can't store enough hydrogen for the length of trip, about 300 miles, that is typical in current gasoline or diesel powered vehicles.
• There are concerns about the saftey of a pressurized tank in case of an accident.
• A complicated filling nozzle/tank nozzle arrangement is necessary for safety and to prevent spills.
• It is expensive, estimated to cost $2,000 to $3,000.

Several alternate means of storage have been proposed and are in various stages of being developed.  The large number of options being considered is because no technology has, as of yet, been proven to be a satisfactory solution.

• Improved Composite Tanks for Compressed Hydrogen
• Liquid Hydrogen Tanks
• Metal Hydrides
• Chemical Hydride Slurries
• Carbon Based Materials

New Small Scale Hydrogen Production Method

Greenshift Corporation (OTC: GSHF.OB) today announced the formation of General Ultrasonics Corporation that owns patented technologies that use ultrasonic energies to enable a new type of hydrogen reformation that is capable of significantly reducing the scale at which hydrogen production is cost-effective.

This reduction in scale is made possible by a demonstrated 25% reduction in the temperatures required to affect the reformation reaction as compared to standard steam reformation of natural gas (SRNG), and even greater gains as compared to partial oxidation processes (POX).

New Solar Hydrogen Production Method

Sandia Lab researcher Rich Diver has invented a new way to make hydrogen using solar energy.  Using rings containing reactive ferrite material, relatively cool ferrite absorbs the oxygen out of steam.  The ferrite is then heated by sunlight to drive off the oxygen prior to the next cycle. The remaining hydrogen is pumped out and compressed for use.  The ferrite is heated and cooled in a  regenerative cycle using counter currently rotating rings containing the ferrite.

The process is in fairly early stages of development and will require much work before it could be used in a practical system.  One of the tasks that is complete is development of a ferrite material consisting of  ferrite mixed with  zirconia that has the right color and properties to be used as the absorbent. Rich said "We had to come up with a material that was black and absorbed heat from the sun and which had the right reaction oxidation reaction."

The next step is building a prototype of the system.

The following description from the Sandia Announcement explains the process in detail:

BP Planning Power Plant That Would Sequester Carbon Dioxide

BP and Edison Mission Group (EMG) announced on February 10 that they are planning to build a $1 billion, hydrogen fueled, 500 MW power plant that would sequester the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions produced by the plant.

Petroleum coke would be gasified into a stream of hydrogen and CO2; about 90% of the CO2 would be captured for sequestration.  After a clean-up process to remove pollutants and other impurities, the hydrogen stream would be used to fuel gas turbines to generate electricity. The turbine generators would produce virtually no greenhouse gas emissions. The captured CO2 would be compressed and transported by pipeline to an oilfield where it would be injected thousands of feet underground into the oil field, both enhancing oil production and permanently trapping the CO2.

Hydrogenics Hydrogen Generation Compliments Wind Power

Using wind power to make hydrogen is a technology that has been promoted to mitigate the intermittency of wind power generation for some time.  Canadian Hydrogenics (TSX:HYG.TO; NASDAQ:HYGS) announced that it has sold its fourth hydrogen station that is powered by wind energy. The following selling points are claimed: 

• The cleanest way to make hydrogen is to use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen
• The cleanest and most sustainable source of electricity is from renewable energy sources such as wind power....wind-hydrogen
• Reduced dependence on imported energy
• No effect on climate
• Hydrogen generation from wind power, and its subsequents use, produces zero emissions
• Wind offers low-cost renewable energy
• Wind is and intermittent energy source - hydrogen is a way to 'store' wind-generated electricity
• Hydrogen provides a means to match wind supply and energy demand
• Equipment is quiet and has low visual impact

More Proof of Global Warming

Dr Michael Coughlin, head of the National Climate Centre was reported as saying that the world is now hotter than any time since prehistoric times.  He is supported by research using gas trapped in Antarctic ice going back 650,000 years that found that current levels of carbon dioxide in the air are 27% higher than at any tiny time during that period.  This goes along with NASA's report that says that 2005 is the hottest year on record.

Effects that have been attributed to the warming include that the Artic sea ice dropped to its lowest level ever, the record hurricane season and an unprecedented drought that reduced the flow of the Amazon river to its lowest ever rate.  Canada and Australia had their hottest ever weather this year, while India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Algeria suffered heatwaves reaching 50C.

If this isn't strong enough proof that global warming is real, what do you need Mr President?  It certainly should be enough to convince you to take all possible measures to reduce global warming, which should include as its main point the reduction of burning of fossil fuels. The time required for any mitigating measures to have any impact is so great, that all stops have to be pulled out now.  Items that have been repeatedly indicated as being necessary include:

How GE Captures New Energy Markets

An article from Fortune magazine via the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, gives a comprehensive review of General Electrics activities in the energy market. In perhaps the broadest and largest corporate effort anywhere, GE spent $700 million in 2004 on clean-energy R&D--ranging from hydrogen production to solar cells, cleaner coal plants, and biofuels. Their wide variety of activities include:

• Their very successful wind turbine business has sold 5,500 turbines since 2002, with 1,600 to be installed this year.  They hope wind power will eventually supply 20% of U.S.'s total energy.
• They are developing hybrid electric locomotives that they have running on an eight mile long test track, which they will start selling in 2007.
• They have many hydrogen related projects including solid oxide fuel cells for stationary applications, ICE engines modified to run on hydrogen, gas stations that use electrolysis to generate hydrogen, methods of storing hydrogen in man-made nanoparticles or in metal hydrides and thermochemical methods of producing hydrogen.
• GE has been building new high temperature nuclear reactors in Europe and Asia.
• They have teamed with Exxon Mobil and Schlumberger to study how to sequester carbon dioxide.
• They are developing IGCC technology for producing electricity and hydrogen.
• GE is pursuing three ways of using solar cells: developing more efficient solar cells, developing electrochemical cells that produce hydrogen, reducing the size of thermal solar farms from hundreds of acres to tens of acres by improving concentrating solar system efficiency.  An example of their research in solar is the development of nanodiodes--whiskers 1/80,000th the thickness of a human hair--displaying a photovoltaic effect that converts sunlight into electricity.

John K. Reinker, who runs a team of about 60 scientists on hydrogen related subjects, is excited about the sheer scope of GE's energy R&D. "I don't think there is any other company in the world that is looking at so many energy technologies and as a result is able to understand which have the most probability of success." Thomas Edison, GE's original research scientist, would be proud.

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Solar Hydrogen from Landfill Gas

SHEC LABS - Solar Hydrogen Energy Corporation, with its partners will deploy the world’s first Solar Hydrogen production station, “SHEC Station #1”, using methane collected from the City of Regina's (Canada) landfill.

The unit produces hydrogen with solar energy as the primary energy input. A solar concentrator, pictured, similar to that used in thermal solar dish electrical generators is used.  The Stirling engine in the electrical generators is replaced by a reaction chamber that receives the solar energy through an iris that can be controlled to regulate the amount of heat being fed to the reactor.  SHEC has developed a solar concentrator that is simple to make using relatively common materials. They developed a process to get the curvatures required to a high degree of accuracy with a manufacturing process that is very inexpensive. 

BP Alternitive Energy Unit Details

Today BP announced a website that gives greater details about its Alternative Energy business, a new unit that consolidates its low-carbon activities in the power industries, that was announced yesterday.  The website gives an insite into their current activities in each of these areas and a clue as to what they will be doing in the future.

They have formed this unit because they believe that solar, wind, hydrogen power and gas-fired technologies have reached the a tipping point where they think they can create a profitable, high growth, global business in the course of the next decade. 

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BP Forms New Unit, To Use Sequestration

BP today announced that it plans to double its investment in alternative and renewable energies to create a new low-carbon power business with the growth potential to deliver revenues of around $6 billion a year within the next decade. BP Alternative Energy will manage an investment programme in solar, wind, hydrogen and combined-cycle-gas-turbine (CCGT) power generation, which could amount to $8 billion over the next ten years.

“We are focusing our investment in alternatives and renewables on power generation because it accounts for over 40 per cent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, the biggest single source. It is also the area where technology can be applied most cost-effectively to reduce emissions." said BP chief executive Lord Browne.

Investment in hydrogen fuels will include the world’s first commercial project – at Peterhead, in Scotland – to turn natural gas into hydrogen by stripping out carbon dioxide and pumping it into depleted oil reservoirs. The hydrogen will be used at a power station in Peterhead to generate 350 megawatts of ‘clean’ electricity, and the carbon dioxide re-injected into the offshore Miller field. BP is looking at a similar sequestration scheme to make hydrogen from low-value coke by-products at a US refinery which would be used to generate 500 megawatts at an adjacent new-build power plant.

The complete press release can be found here.

The most newsworthy part of this announcement is BP's plans for sequestering carbon dioxide as part of two projects.  I believe that this is the first time sequestration has been used on non-subsidized commercial projects.  Hopefully this will push regulators to look at sequestration as best available commercial technology (BACT) and require it to be used on other projects.

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Hydrogen Boost for Truckers

Some truckers are now using hydrogen, generated onboard, to supplement their fuel and get a 10-40% increase in fuel efficiency.  The Canadian Hydrogen Fuel Company (CHEC) is selling its hydrogen fuel injection (HFI) system to:

• Reduce fuel costs, a guaranteed 10% in fuel savings
• Improve torque and horsepower
• Decrease exhaust emissions by about 50%
• Reduces oil degradation by about 50% and
• Decrease engine maintenance requirements

HFI is an onboard generator of hydrogen and oxygen gases for internal combustion engines.  The gases are generated by electrolysis of distilled water. They are introduced into the air intake manifold of the truck where they are mixed with the incoming air. Introducing a small amount of hydrogen to an engine enhances the flame velocity and thus permits the engine to operate with a leaner air to fuel ratio than otherwise possible. The result, is that relatively small amounts of hydrogen can significantly decrease fuel consumption, dramatically increase horsepower and reduce exhaust emissions.  The company spent 8 years in R & D with extensive road tests before going into the market. They now have over 60 million miles of road use with the HFI. 

The Car that Makes its Own Fuel

Amnon Yogev, an retired Israeli professor from the Weizmann Institute and one of two founders of Engineuity, has invented a car that produces its own hydrogen fuel from light metals, such as magnesium or aluminum, eliminating all of the infrastructure required for making, transporting and storing hydrogen.  The inventor claims that when the cars become commercial, they will cost about the same as conventional cars and will be emission free.

A coil of the fuel - aluminum or magnesium - is fed into a device called a Metal-Steam combustor that will separate hydrogen out of water that is heated to a very high temperature.  The oxygen atoms will bond to the metal forming a metal oxide, freeing the hydrogen.  The hydrogen and the steam, which forms when the pressure in the 'fuel' line is reduced below that in the combustor, are sent to the engine where they are used to generate power.  My explanation: The steam will be superheated in the engine and returned to the Metal-Steam combustor to provide the heat needed to generate more hydrogen.  The waste metal oxide and remaining unoxidized metal would be removed from the combustor and collected for recycling at the fuel station where the coils of metal are purchased.

A drawback is that the amount of metal needed for fuel, to give the car the same range as a conventional car, weighs about three times as much as the gasoline it replaces.  The engine should be a minor modification of ICE's. They claim neither the purchase price or the running cost should be much different than conventional cars.  Engineuity plans on developing a prototype in three years if they are able to raise enough money from investors.

I don't believe its that simple.  Does it really work?  Can some of you bright young readers analyze the cycle and see if it can work?  How do you start the car?  Do you need a heater for the combustor and where do you get the energy to do that?  Can you produce some excess hydrogen and store it, that sounds expensive. How do you adjust the speed?  Somehow you must dump some of the heat produced in the engine I guess or can you throttle the hydrogen and design the combustor to take the high pressure that might result.  Can that be combined with the engine cooling system?  What is the response time of the system?  You have a volume in the combustor that might have to be heated and cooled to provide response.  What about the cost of the Metal-Steam combustor?  It must operate at a pretty high pressure and the pressure vessel then adds weight to the car.  I guess there is no exhaust system which saves a bit. I would think the price of the "feed metal" would go up with the price of energy, so there is not a great saving there, if any.  I have added some to the cycle description to clarify it, I hope I did it correctly.

Resource:  The Car That Makes its Own Fuel, IsraCast, October 24, 2005

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About Hydrogen Solar Tandem Cells

The Hydrogen Solar Ltd Tandem Cell™ is a self-contained unit which directly splits water molecules into high-purity hydrogen and oxygen using solar energy. It  significantly reduces carbon emissions by eliminating the fossil fuels normally used in electrolysis or steam reforming to produce hydrogen.

Now for an explanation of their system. A flow cell, through which the water electrolyte passes, is in the front of the stack, the light passes through this cell to the Tandem Cell™ which consists of two photo-catalytic cells in series: the front cell, coated with nano-crystalline metal oxide thin films, absorbs the ultraviolet and blue light from sunlight and oxygen is formed on the surface.  This cell does not generate enough voltage to split the water, so the electrons are connected to the back cell.  The longer wave-length green and red light pass through the front cell and are absorbed in the back dye-solar cell, increasing the potential of the electrons, which then flow to the hydrogen cathode where the hydrogen is formed. This is not the arrangement used in real modules, but illustrates the principle, if this arrangement were used, a transparent membrane would have to be placed in the water cell to separate the hydrogen and oxygen.  No external electricity is required. The process is renewable, produces no carbon dioxide or other emissions.

The cells are made from low cost materials.  The most expensive material used is the glass that the cells are made from.  The thin film semiconductors are iron or tungsten based rather than more expensive silicon materials. The process is now competitive, on the small scale, producing hydrogen at one third the cost than from PV solar panel-electrolysis systems.  On the large scale it was, mid 2004, about twice the cost of steam reforming with natural gas.

Solar Refined Zinc Enables New Hydrogen Process

A hydrogen production process has been developed using solar refined zinc.  Hydrogen can be extracted from water by heating water to 350°C (662°F) in the presence of zinc.  The problem is that zinc is produced by either electolysis or smelting, both processes having a high energy consumption and concurrent pollution resulting from the consumption of fossil fuels used to oproduce the energy.  Production of hydrogen by electrolysis of water requires even more energy and using the current technology of making it from natural gas would require too much of this resource to be used to produce the large quantities of hydrogen needed to run our cars using fuel cells.

Scientists from Israel, Sweden and France have collaborated to develop a method of producing the required pure Zinc from the naturally occuring ore of zinc, zinc oxide (ZnO).  Zinc must normally be heated to 1750°C / 3182°F to recover the zinc.   Scientists at the Weitzman Institute in Israel found that adding small amounts of carbon in the form of coal enabled Zinc production at a more manageable 1200°C (2192°F).  A 1 MW solar furnace (shown above) was used to generate the required temperatures.   A large array of heliostats (computer guided highly reflective mirrors) follows the sun around the sky and reflects the light to a hyperbolic mirror located inside the solar tower producing highly concentrated heat inside the solar furnace located in the tower.  Zinc was produced at rates which reached an average of 50kg/hr during the tests, so that scale up to commercial production quantities should be relatively easy.

When heated above 1200°C  the ZnO breaks down into Zn and oxygen which in turn recombines with the carbon to create CO as a minor by-product.  In order to produce hydrogen from the Zn powder a much simpler process is performed where the Zn is mixed with water at a temperature of 350°C. The oxygen inside the water recombines with the Zn to produce ZnO once again and the by-product is pure hydrogen. The later process could be performed at the local filling station where the hydrogen is needed, while zinc could be produced at locations where solar heat can be produced the most economically.

Resouce:  "ZINC POWDER WILL DRIVE YOUR HYDROGEN CAR", Isra Cast, 9/8/05

Technorati tags: hydrogen, solar tower, zinc

Bush's Comments on Energy

The following are excerpts from President Bush's June 15th remarks to the 16th Annual Energy Efficiency Forum

The primary cause of rising gasoline prices is that the global demand for oil is growing faster than global supply....The first step toward making America less dependent on foreign oil is to improve conservation and efficiency....Hybrid vehicles are one of the most promising technologies immediately available to consumers....I propose that every American who purchases a hybrid vehicle receive a tax credit of up to $4,000....We are also encouraging automakers to produce a new generation of modern, clean-diesel cars and trucks.... Congress should extend the tax incentives for the purchase of hybrid vehicles to clean diesel cars and trucks....the Environmental Protection Agency is working to simplify rules and regulations for refinery expansion....my administration launched an ambitious program called the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative. The energy bill will authorize additional funds for this vital initiative. With bold investments now, we can begin to replace a hydrocarbon economy with a hydrogen economy....We've got to be aggressive about finding alternative sources of fuel. And one such source is ethanol....I like the idea of spending money on research to make ethanol more feasible....we can get the same type of alternative fuel from soybeans. It's called biodiesel....To encourage greater use of ethanol and biodiesel, my administration supports a flexible, cost-effective renewable fuel standard.... This proposal would require fuel producers to include a certain percentage of ethanol and biodiesel in their fuel. I proposed $84 million in the 2006 budget for ongoing research into advanced technologies that can produce ethanol from farms, forests, or even municipal waste dumps.... the Department of Energy is funding research and development of super-conducting power lines. It's important research because it will enable us to more efficiently move electricity....One day, technologies like solar panels and high-efficiency appliances and advanced insulation could even allow us to build "zero-energy homes" that produce as much energy as they consume....My budget for 2006 brings clean coal funding to $1.6 billion over five years....Congress needs to pass the Clear Skies Initiative....passing it, not only will we clean the environment, but it will result in tens of billions of dollars in clean coal investments by private companies....to further increase our natural gas supply, Congress needs to make clear federal authority to choose sites for new receiving terminals for liquefied natural gas....We need to expand our nation's use of nuclear power....So I've directed the Department of Energy to work with Congress to help pass legislation that will reduce uncertainty in the nuclear plant licensing process....such as federal insurance to protect the builders of the first four new plants against lawsuits, bureaucratic obstacles, and other delays beyond their control.

In general I support these ideas.  However (my cynical side), I don't think these remarks have much to do with what actually gets enacted into law.  It is good too see that the president acknowledges that demand rather than supply is driving our pending energy shortage.  His emphasis on hybrid cars is encouraging.  $84 million for research on alternative fuels seems like such a pittance compared to the billions on the hydrogen initiative and the clean coal program. I know that his remarks on coal and nuclear energy will be controversial, but I believe that we have no choice but to go ahead with these programs.  The clean coal program, which includes sequestration, is the one sure thing we have to fall back on.  The environmental issues associated with coal mining are probably not addressed and could and should be.  Building four nuclear power plants (I thought it was to be three) is essential to demonstrate that safer nuclear plants can be built.  I personally think that a fuel recycling program should be initiated to take care of our mounting nuclear wastes, rather than using the Yucca Mountain storage scheme.  If the hydrogen economy ever becomes a reality (I hope not) our coal reserves will deplete rapidly and nuclear may be our only option.  Development of a massive renewable fuels program would be a much wiser use of our tax dollars.

Technocrati tags: energy policy, renewable energy

N.Y. megamall aims to run on clean energy

A $20 billion, 800 acre shopping and entertainment project, DestiNY, would run entirely on green energy.  It will have the worlds largest solar installation at 32 MW, 28 MW of fuel cells, a combined total of 120 MW of biodiesel and biomass and 44 MW of wind power.  All construction equipment is being powered by biodiesel.  Hydrogen for the fuel cells will be generated from renewable energy.  Construction is scheduled to begin this June on the largest megamall ever built, near Syracuse, NY.  The 7.5 million sq ft mall would be nearly twice as big as the Mall of America.

As pointed out in the referenced article, the mall is all green energy, but what about all the gasoline used by the tourists and shoppers coming to the mall.

Technocrati tags: solar power, renewable energy, wind power, fuel cells