‘Hydrogen Highways’ and a new ‘fuel cell’ Honda…
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July 10, 2007Science is definitely NOT my forte but after hearing a couple of ’30-somethings’ talking about California’s Hydrogen Highway – for cars running on hydrogen fuel cells – I jumped straight on the net to find out more.
Some ‘hydrogen science’
I vaguely know that scientists are working on hydrogen in relation to ‘fusion power’, as distinct from ‘fission power’, that is currently used in nuclear power plants, and I confirmed a similarly vague feeling that this area of research is all a bit difficult when I read that JET –
These definitions were helpful:
1. Fission (A-Bomb) & Fusion (H-Bomb)
Fission, simply put, is a nuclear reaction in which an atomic nucleus splits into fragments, usually two fragments of comparable mass, emitting 100 million to several hundred million volts of energy…
A fusion reaction is usually started with a fission reaction, but unlike the fission (atomic) bomb, the fusion (hydrogen) bomb derives its power from the fusing of nuclei of various hydrogen isotopes into helium nuclei.
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.
A fuel cell consists of two electrodes sandwiched around an electrolyte. Oxygen passes over one electrode and hydrogen over the other, generating electricity, water and heat.
A fuel cell produces electricity.
The fuel cell is similar to a battery. It produces electricity using chemicals. The chemicals are usually very simple, often just hydrogen and oxygen. In this case the hydrogen is the “fuel” that the fuel cell uses to make electricity.
The oxygen needed by a fuel cell is usually simply obtained from air.
Wikipedia quotes an editorial in New Scientist magazine saying “if commercial fusion is viable, it may well be a century away”,
BUT
Governor Schwarnegger’s California Hydrogen Highway has been evolving since 2004, and there are others around the world. Look at these headlines:
California’s Altergy Systems Unveils World’s First Fuel Cell Assembly Line FOLSOM, CA – Making hydrogen and fuel cell technology competitive in the market place advanced significantly last month with the unveiling of what is described as the world’s first – and only – automated high-volume fuel cell assembly line.
The Nordic Countries: Hydro Opens First H2 Station, Fueling Priuses, on Norway’s Hydrogen Highway PORSGRUNN, NORWAY – Norway’s oil and gas company Hydro opened its first hydrogen fueling station last month near its research center here as part of the country’s ambitious HyNor hydrogen highway.
GM Shifts Hundreds of Fuel Cell Engineers To Prepare for Volume Production DETROIT – General Motors is starting to gear up for fuel cell car volume production.
U.S. Coal Reserves May Be Smaller Than Generally Assumed, NRC Study Says WASHINGTON, DC – The National Research Council in a new report last month put a damper on optimistic predictions that coal would last for hundreds of years as a future last-resort key national energy source.
160 Hydrogen-Plus Stations to Operate Worldwide by Year-End, New Survey Says LONDON – A new survey of the world’s hydrogen infrastructure concludes that there will be more than 160 hydrogen fueling stations world-wide by the end of this year, with most of the additions in California, Canada, Scandinavia and the European Union.
Briefly Noted: First Carbon Sequestration Test Europe’s first land-based carbon dioxide sequestration and storage test facility got underway last month in Ketzin, Germany.
AND
There will be limited marketing of a new Honda Fuel Cell Vehicle in Japan and Europe in 2008
Honda’s ‘next-generation’ FCX Concept fuel cell vehicle has made its European driving debut at the Gotland Ring in Sweden. The vehicle is said to have an energy efficiency of around 60 percent; approximately three times that of a petrol-engine vehicle, twice that of a hybrid vehicle and 10 percent better than the current FCX.
The FCX Concept is a key stage in Honda’s development of fuel cell technology and will be the basis for a totally new fuel cell vehicle which the company is currently developing. Limited marketing of this new vehicle is on target to begin in 2008 in Japan and the US.
What do you know about fuel cell vehicles?
1 Comment
Nuclear fisson is not used to directly generate electrity, but the reaction is used under controlled conditions to generate steam driving turbines that power electrical generators – the excess steam at the end of he cycle is the white “smoke” often seen leaving those iconic cooling towers of power stations.
Hydrogen as a fuel, has had a bad press since the Hindenburg disaster because of the emotional impact those awful scenes had on public opinion; but a closer examination of the facts are worth considering: I have always wondered since Chemistry 101, why, if hydrogen burns with a clear flame, the flame from the Hindenburg was yellow: it turns out that it as the aluminium powder coating applied to the exterior of the airship which likely attracted a lightening strike and began the conflagration. In fact the Hydrogen, if anything, helped those who escaped by converting into water and cooling and dampening the heat and flames.
Hydrogen is of course lighter than air, and so burns upwards. CNG and most other gaseous fuels are heavier than air, and as a result have a far greater potential for death and injury, and burn at a far higher calorific value than hydrogen itself. It is unfortunate that hydrogen has such a relatively low calorific potential, and equally because it is a very small molecule, line losses are considerable and thus it has never made it as a reticulated supply. But if it was otherwise, it would not be hydrogen…
So lets work with what we have got without trying to make hydrogen exactly emulate other fuel sources: that is why, for me, the challenge is to set aside the status quo of vehicle systems and build something without the preconceptions of internal combustion and massive engine blocks with all the paraphenalia that attends.
Whilst fuel cells of themselves may be quiet and non-polluting, it is also necessary to factor in the method of generating that hydrogen. Hydogen is presently generated by electolytic separation (essentially the reverse of the fuel cell described). If the electricity required for this process is oil or coal driven, then even under perfect circumstances, hydrogen so generated will not be better for the environment than the electricity used to create it. Hydro power is no more efficient, but at least does not generate greenhouse gas (Norway has plenty of Hydro, hence the opportunity to move in that direction).
I also foresee photosynthetic generation – plants or chlorophyllic materials that naturally process water to harvest the oxygen and release the hydrogen.
Meanwhile, in Vanuatu, Tony Deamer who runs a car-hire and maintenance yard in Port Vila has developed an effective way of converting his vehicles to run on coconut oil, overcoming the problems associated with esterification and coagulation.
It takes 24 hours for the earth to rotate, absorbing and re-radiating the energy from the sun that makes life on earth possible. Do not imagine that there will be no consequences if we release the tiny fractions of that energy sequestered over many millions of years in the form of coal, oil and gas, within a matter of a few hundred years? This is not rocket science.
Finding ways to generate our power requirements from within the diurnal cycle is, I believe, the approach we should adopt: harvest the daily power that arrives, concentrate this if necessary, and use only as much as would normally be re-radiated in that day.
CHARLES BOYLE
“The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.” – Baha’i writings.