Engine Fundamentals #1
(Series of 10)
Silicol Process. Employs caustic soda (sodium hydroxide), silicon (or ferro-silicon)
and water. The end residue is mainly sodium silicate, or "water glass".
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2004 DOE Emergency Response Guidebook.[PDF] Do not even think of
researching hydrogen without owning a personal copy of the hazmat "Orange
Book"
Production
Solar Electrolyzer - Watch for future
versions of this device The
Tandem Cell™ consists of two photo-catalytic cells in series: the front cell
absorbs the high energy ultraviolet and blue light in sunlight, using nano-crystalline
metal oxide thin films to generate electron-hole pairs. The longer
wavelength light in the green to red region passes through the front cell
and is absorbed in a Graetzel Cell producing electrical potential under
nearly all light conditions The two cells are connected electrically and
together provide the potential required to split the water molecules in the
electrolyte. The Cell is fabricated from widely-available and cheap
materials...
The Prospects for Solar-Powered Distributed Hydrogen Production [PDF]
This paper will focus on the critical issue of hydrogen production. In
particular, it will focus on the technologies and prospects of economically
competitive distributed hydrogen production from solar energy using
photovoltaic-electrolyzer systems in the medium term and the potential for
using photoelectrochemical water-splitting systems in the longer term.
Solar Hydrogen Production by Electrolysis [.PDF File]
Article describes the installation and operation of a 12
cell Hydrogen Wind Inc. 1000 watt electrolyzer which can produce 170
liters/hour of hydrogen and 85 liters/hour of oxygen (at standard pressure &
temperature). If you don't already have an Adobe Acrobat Reader, this
article makes the download wait worth it. See also:
Recent presentations and papers:
The Production of Hydrogen
When hydrogen reacts with oxygen to make water, it is an exothermic
reaction, meaning it produces energy. This is exactly what we want for our
cars. A problem arises however when we want to turn the water back into
hydrogen and oxygen. This can easily be done using a method known as
electrolysis, but since electrolysis is an endothermic reaction, it uses
up energy. Unfortunately, a lot of energy is required to produce a
substantial amount of hydrogen fuel. We don't have a lot of energy to spare
at this time, so we must find alternative ways of producing energy. The most
popular idea now is solar power, and there is lots of research being done on
using the energy of the sun to split up water molecules.
Photobiological Production of Hydrogen
Biological hydrogen production, the production of hydrogen by
microorganisms, has been an active field of basic and applied research for
many years. The governments of Japan and the United States, for example,
support significant applied R&D programs. These and a number of other
countries also support related basic research. Realization of practical
processes for photobiological hydrogen production from water using solar
energy would result in a major, novel source of sustainable and renewable
energy, without greenhouse gas emissions or environmental pollution. See
also:
Chapter 5 - Hydrogen production and
Novel Two-Stage Process for Photobiological Hydrogen Production
Project ArBAS Every
year an extraordinary experiment takes place in the dunes of the Sahara.
Purple bacteria and green algae are growing in a photo-bioreactor and
produce solar hydrogen. The photolysis of water is based on the integrated
metabolism between vegetative cells and heterocysts in the blue alga
Nostoc muscorum. The pilot experiments are part of the Berlin project
"Artificial Bacterial Algal Symbiosis" (ArBAS).
Fuel from water In Harnosand, Olaf
Tegstrom designed and lived in a house where the electricity came from a
small computer-controlled Danish windmill in the garden. The electricity was
used to electrolyse filtered water into its constituents, hydrogen and
oxygen, with the hydrogen gas used for cooking and heating the house and as
fuel for a SAAB car. The car is non-polluting as the exhaust consists almost
entirely of water vapour, and the safe storage problem has been solved, with
the gas absorbed to form a metal hydride and released as required. Indeed in
West Berlin, thanks to government subsidies for fuels that did not cause
acid rain, Daimler Benz has built a filling station where various converted
vehicles can be filled with hydrogen, produced from town gas.
Thermal Plasma Process for Producing Hydrogen Fuel from Methane.
Thermal plasma technology can produce extremely high heating and cooling
rates. The ability to achieve these high rates is crucial to the success of
direct thermal conversion concepts. The process optimizes the production of
hydrogen and solid carbon by controlling the pressure, temperature, gas
mixture, residence time, and cooling rate. High cooling rates freeze the
composition, inhibiting back reactions and helping to control the size and
morphology of the solid carbon produced.
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Fuel Cells
Making Electricity with Hydrogen
by Walt Pyle, Alan Spivak, Reynaldo Cortez, and Jim Healy: (© 1993 Walt
Pyle) A gas fed battery that never needs recharging! This article describes
a process for building a fuel cell using tools and techniques any skilled
hobbyist with a well equipped shop can duplicate. The fuel cell that we
built can produce direct current electricity from stored hydrogen and
oxygen. We obtained the hydrogen for this fuel cell commercially but plan to
produce hydrogen and oxygen from a renewable energy system based on solar
photovoltaics and water electrolyzers.
How Fuel Cells Work by Karim Nice. You may have heard a lot recently about fuel cells.
According to many news reports, we may soon be using the new energy-saving
technology to generate electrical power for our homes and cars. The
technology is extremely interesting to people in all walks of life because
it offers a means of making power more efficiently and with less pollution.
But how does it do this?
Build Your Own Fuel Cell Instructions (Homepower Magazine - in PDF
format) Pretty easy to understand with all the photos and detailed drawings
- but the technology will defeat most folks. Still a great read.
Fuel Cells 2000 Online Library For students, teachers or other
researchers, a comprehensive guide to published sources, as well as audio
and video on the subject of fuel cell technology. For books and articles not
available online, just print this list and take it to your local library, or
check out the Searchable Online Database links!
Animation of H2 (PEM) Fuel Cell
from Schatz Energy Research. This animation shows the process that goes on
inside an individual fuel cell.
How Does a Fuel Cell Work? In
principle, a fuel cell operates like a battery. Unlike a battery, a fuel
cell does not run down or require recharging. It will produce energy in the
form of electricity and heat as long as fuel is supplied.
Types of Fuel Cells Briefly covers 9
different types of fuel cells.
Fuel Cell Applications
There are many uses for fuel cells — right now, all of the major
automakers are working to commercialize a fuel cell car.
Fuel Cell Charts These charts are
designed to be references, showing who’s doing what and the status of their
work. They are all updated regularly and can be downloaded in pdf format.
You must have Acrobat Reader to view and download most of the charts.
A Fuel Cell Primer - an (.pdf format) article by Bernadette Geyer
from IAEI News, November/December 2001.
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Use
Running a Gasoline Engine on Hydrogen Using
Water Now you know that it is
absolutely possible, and not just a crazy fantasy, to run a car on water.
You have watched the "proof of concept" and seen it for yourself. And so, my
friends, I now wish you luck in the world's race to find a way to save
ourselves from ourselves. Whoever finally produces the first viable watercar
will solve our energy problems once and for all and will go down in history
as a hero. It could be you...
Converting a Car to Hydrogen
To find out more about this, along with the instructions for doing it,
follow the links. You will find instructions and page-size illustrations
that you can print directly from the website (be patient with the diagrams —
it'll take a while for the pages to load). Or simply click
here to download the instructions and diagrams in ZIP file format. (This
package contains four additional diagrams, all in page-size printable form.)
See also
Water Car Update
Convert Your Cobra to Hydrogen!
This paper describes the details of
converting a gasoline powered 427 Shelby Cobra to run on gaseous hydrogen.
The purpose of this project was to design a vehicle capable of beating the
current land speed record for hydrogen powered vehicles.
Hydride slurry as safe hydrogen carrier
The company says that the core ingredients of the pumpable chemical hydride
slurry are environmentally friendly and completely recyclable. The slurry,
both before and after yielding the hydrogen, is not flammable, is safe to
handle, is easy to store, and can use the same kind of pumps and tanks that
are used for diesel fuel, gasoline or water.
Safe Hydrogen's efficient hydrogen storage technology enables broad-based
use of renewable energy sources, and pollution-free conversion of hydrogen
to electricity by fuel cells for off-grid, back-up and portable power. The
technology also enables the use of hydrogen for vehicle power...
All
Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Cars world-wide.
150 Miles Per Gallon - On Hydrogen!
It may not be a favorite for petrol-heads - but a new eco-friendly car has
been designed that runs on hydrogen. A university lecturer has produced a
taxi-type vehicle called Microcab - and its only emission is water vapor.
The vehicle can hold a driver and three passengers, has a maximum speed of
30mph and does around 150 miles to the gallon of hydrogen.
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Technology
Engineer Your Own Fuel Cells
CleanFuelCellEnergy.com is dedicated to
providing fuel cell information and materials for your laboratory needs with
prompt delivery. The
Free "Fuel Cell Ideas" Booklet
is filled with information and techniques for the novice to get started with
fuel cells or for the experienced scientist or engineer to help create some
new ideas that may lead to improved fuel cell designs.
Danish Researchers Discover New Hydrogen
Storage Method The hydrogen
tablet is safe and inexpensive, according to the researchers. You can
literally carry the material in your pocket without any kind of safety
precaution. The reason is that the tablet consists solely of ammonia
absorbed efficiently in sea salt. Ammonia is produced by a combination of
hydrogen with nitrogen from the surrounding air, and the DTU tablet
therefore contains large amounts of hydrogen. Within the tablet, hydrogen is
stored as long as desired, and when hydrogen is needed, ammonia is released
through a catalyst that decomposes it back to free hydrogen. When the tablet
is empty, you merely give it a "shot" of ammonia and it is ready for use
again... See also:
Danish Breakthrough In Using Hydrogen Fuel "Pill"
New device brings hydrogen fuel to older
vehicles H2 N-Gen™ is a Hydrogen
Generating Module for an Internal Combustion Engine that can be attached to
any type of engine, to enhance the combustion process, independent of the
fuel used (gasoline, diesel or propane / natural gas). The Module produces a
mixture of Hydrogen and Oxygen gasses, on demand, through a controlled
electrolysis process...
HyWeb-Compendium
summarizes the technical and economical state of the art as well as the
perspectives in the areas: hydrogen production, transportation, storage,
handling and applications.
Hydrogen-Boron Focus Fusion Reactor poses
overwhelming competition to Tokamak
Imagine a non-polluting power plant, the size of a local gas station, that
would quietly and safely power 4,000 homes, for a few tenths of a penny per
kilowatt-hour, compared to 4-6 cents/kw-h of coal or natural-gas-powered
plants. One technician could operate two dozen of these stations remotely.
The fuel, widely available, is barely spent in the clean fusion method, and
would only need to be changed annually...
Dictionary of technical terms in hydrogen and
fuel cells:
English-German and
German-English
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Miscellaneous
Innovative Hydrogen Production by. Reaction Integrated
Hydrogen is the fundamental element in the nature and
found in many common materials, including water. Hydrogen will be a one of
primary energy resources in the 21st century because it generates
no pollutant and supplies sufficient energy for transportation and other
applications. However, hydrogen production process consumes a lot of energy.
Under the current technology, hydrogen requires at least twice as much as
the energy produced from other sources; coal, oil, gas or nuclear plants. To
develop more appropriate methods based on sustainable energy sources will be
very important for us.
RAND Forum on Hydrogen Technology and Policy - A Conference Report
By: Mark A. Bernstein: Hydrogen as an energy carrier has generated much
attention in recent years due to its potential large-scale use in producing
electrical energy through fuel-cell technologies and in replacing gasoline
for use in transportation. On December 9, 2004, the RAND Corporation hosted
a forum on hydrogen technology that drew 40 experts in various fields to
discuss what needs to be done to better inform decision makers in the public
and private sectors of the benefits and risks of various hydrogen-related
programs and policies. The forum participants represented a number of public
and private organizations and had varied interests in as well as varied
perspectives on the future of hydrogen as an alternative energy carrier. The
document summarizes the proceedings of that forum. Support RAND Research —
Buy This Book at the above link, or download the
Full Document
in pdf for free. RAND makes an electronic version of this publication
available for free as a public service. If you find this information
valuable, please consider purchasing a paper copy of the full document to
help support RAND research.
Hydrogen Articles A series of excellent articles you can download
from Home Power Magazine - Subscribe to this great Mag!
Great Educational Resources:
Hydrogen Safety
Hydrogen FAQ
Types of Fuel Cells
Cal Hydrogen Highway
Energy Independence
DOE H2 Education
Technician Level Hydrogen Manual Download
NREL Hydrogen Downloads
Hydrogen and Water Chemistry Lesson
Middle School Guide to Hydrogen
Hydrogen and Fuel Cell FAQs
Hydrogen Calculator Chart
This utility will assist you in referencing Hydrogen equivalents at standard
temperature and pressure. To use this table, substitute the numeric value in
the table to quantify the energy source listed on the left. The result is
the equivalent hydrogen fuel, in units of hydrogen shown on the top.
Total Energy System Poster
Bio-Mass to Bio-Gas - Ed Burton
Ed Burton has a start to finish solution for fire management, with several
useful products produced along the way. 1) Cut wood and wood 'chunkettes'
can be sold for use in a fireplace. 2) Enriched manure can be used or sold
as a soil amendment. and 3) Biogas could even be compressed and stored in
containers for future use.
Microbial fuel cell- High yield hydrogen
source and wastewater cleaner
Using a new electrically-assisted microbial fuel cell (MFC) that does not
require oxygen, Penn State environmental engineers and a scientist at Ion
Power Inc. have developed the first process that enables bacteria to coax
four times as much hydrogen directly out of biomass than can be generated
typically by fermentation alone...
Brown’s Gas: Hydrogen-Oxygen
Generator.
DIAGRAM OF A HYDROGEN-OXYGEN UNIT FOR
STOICHIOMETRIC USE
The Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter
Launched in May 1986 originally as "The Hydrogen Letter," our publication is
the voice of the international hydrogen and fuel cell communities, covering
events and developments in this emerging field as they occur. Every Month.
Worldwide. A Subscription is required for full access, but there are plenty
of articles available for open viewing.
Renewable-Hydrogen Startup Business Listing
This page will be dedicated to creating a network
environment for startup renewable and hydrogen businesses. Visit their
websites, buy their products.
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