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 READING ROOM

Fuel From Water:
Energy Independence With Hydrogen
10th Edition

Michael A. Peavey

Merit Products, Inc.

 
Contents

Chapter 1: PROSPERITY WITHOUT POLLUTION   Click the link to sample this chapter excerpt The Ultimate Fuel                             10 The Hydrogen Economy                  10 Replacing Fossil Fuels                    11 Objectives of this Book                    12   Chapter 2: ELECTROLYSIS Water Splitting                                  14 Electrolyzer Design                          19 Solid Polymer Electrolyte                 23 Cell Connections                               26 Commercial Electrolyzers                28 High Pressure Electrolysis               34 High Temperature Electrolysis         34 Photovoltaic Powered Electrolysis  40   Chapter 3: CHEMICAL HYDROGEN PRODUCTION Chemical Reactions                          47 Electrochemical Reactions               48 Photovoltaic Processes                    50 Biological Sources                            53 Direct Thermal Water Splitting         55 Thermochemical Cycles                    57   Chapter 4: STORING HYDROGEN Perspective                                         64 Pressurized Gas                                 65 Liquid Hydrogen                                 72 Hydride Energy Storage                    95 Formate Salts as a Storage  Media                                                  123 Microsphere Storage                        123 Storing Hydrogen in Carbon             125 Evaluating Hydrogen Storage  Systems                                              127 On-Board Hydrogen Generation      129   Chapter 5: ENGINE MODIFICATIONS    Benefits and Problems of Using Hydrogen                                            132 History of Hydrogen Conversion  Projects                                              135 Modern Conversion Projects           136 Fuel Mixing                                         137 Compression Ratio                           146 Fuel Dilution                                       149 Ignition Timing                                    154 Hydrogen as a Supplemental Fuel   157 Continuous Flow Engines                 166 Natural Gas Conversions                  167   Chapter6: ELECTRICITY FROM HYDROGEN Hydrogen vs. Electric Power             170 The Hydride Battery                           172 Fuel Cells                                            173 Thermoelectric Turbine                      188 Stationary Power Generation            190 Infrastructure                                        191 Air Batteries                                        193 Hydrino Battery                                   193   Chapter 7: STATIONARY APPLICATIONS Utilization Efficiency of Hydrogen     196 On-Site Power Generation                196 Pipelines                                             198 Harnessing Hydride                           199 Aphoid Burners                                  202 Open Air Burners                               203 Catalytic Burners                                204 The Billings Homestead                    209 The Lorenzen Homestead                215 Conclusions                                       215   Chapter 8: SAFETY Venting                                               216 Safety-Related Properties of  Hydrogen                                           216 Embrittlement                                   220 Regulations                                      222 Summary                                          223   Chapter 9: A NEW MANHATTAN PROJECT New Manhattan Project                   224 Hot Fusion                                        224 Cold Fusion                                      231 Transmutations                                234 Conditions for Reproducibility        234 Charge Cluster Accelerations        239   Chapter 10: SOURCES Organizations and Publications     240 Cold Fusion Bibliography               241 Books                                                243 Patents                                              245     Index Footnotes                                         251

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Excerpt

Chapter One : PROSPERITY WITHOUT POLLUTION THE ULTIMATE FUEL THIS book is not about alternative energy. There are no alternatives. Hydrogen makes up 90% of the atoms in the universe. On Earth it is found mostly in water. Hydrogen is the only fuel that doesn’t pollute and is endlessly renewable. Burning hydrogen produces only water vapor. The environmental effects of pollution and global warming make it clear that we must replace carbon-based fuels with fuel from water. Long after fossil fuels run out, hydrogen will remain. Taken from the world’s rivers and oceans, it will keep our wheels turning when imported oil and coal-fired boilers are ancient history. Using hydrogen doesn’t mean abandoning modern life, but the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy will require public subsidies and forbearance. Advantages Hydrogen has the highest energy per unit weight—three times gasoline. It dissipates rapidly in air. This reduces explosion hazards. It can be transported safely in pipelines, And is nontoxic. Disadvantages Hydrogen has the lowest energy per unit of volume—one-third of gasoline. It has a wide range of flammability. It will burn in lower concentrations,   And it’s harder to store than liquid fuels and other gaseous fuels.   THE HYDROGEN ECONOMY Intern combustion engines can be converted to hydrogen in much the same way as with natural gas. With gaseous fuel, the container weighs more, compared to the contents, than a gasoline tank storing the same amount of energy. Hydrogen can make electric vehicles practical. The electric motor is a hundred year old technology that today is two to three times more efficient than the internal combustion engine. But it has the same problem as storing gaseous fuel. The batteries are heavy compared to the energy stored. New technology is solving this problem. Hybrids combine electric motors and gasoline engines to increase efficiency. Fuel cells convert hydrogen to electricity. The power to weight ratio for a vehicle powered by a hybrid or fuel cell is lower than for an internal combustion engine but is superior to electric batteries. Fuel cells are costly and require a long warm up period. Improvements continue. In 1980 J. O’M. Bockris in Energy Options described the Hydrogen Economy. Renewable and nuclear energy would produce electricity and hydrogen. In addition to electricity, nuclear energy provides heat for chemical reactions that produce hydrogen. Hydrogen can be used for cars, heat, producing synthetic fuel and waste treatment.125 Efforts towards a hydrogen economy include: Japan’s WE-NET program, to convert the country to a Hydrogen Economy. Honda and Toyota are building fuel cell vehicles. 8 Internet sites involved in promotion. 8 power production companies cooperating in research. 7 periodicals devoted to the subject. Shell Hydrogen, a subsidiary of the oil company, actively doing research.943 REPLACING FOSSIL FUELS Non-Alternative Fuels So far, the various “alternative fuels” haven’t eliminated fossil fuels. In Europe, with decades of research on alternative energy and high gasoline taxes—slowly—some fossil fuel alternatives to gasoline, like natural gas, are catching on. The U.S. imports 16 percent of its natural gas. Wider use would reduce both air pollution and oil imports. Some utilities sell natural gas for the equivalent of 70 cents per gallon of gasoline. Engine conversion is simple but expensive—up to $3,000 per car. Few of the 210,000 gas stations in the U.S. offer natural gas. At a cost of about $200,000 to covert a refueling station, such an investment is unlikely. Theodore Eck, economist at Amoco, says oil companies would sell natural gas if auto companies built cars to use it. Mass production could reduce the conversion cost to about $300. The public won’t buy them because the fuel isn’t available. Roy McAlister, of the American Hydrogen Association, claims that if consumers would be willing to pay a higher price, volume production would bring the price down. The Ultimate Goal—Cheap Electrolysis Water molecules are composed of two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen. When separated, water molecules become two gases—hydrogen and oxygen. H2O àH2 + O When burned, hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water. H2 + O à H2O Most fuels produce carbon dioxide. Hydrogen produces only high temperature steam. It cleans the air by converting pollutants already in the air to carbon dioxide and water vapor. There are two main ways to separate hydrogen from water. Electrolysis. Electric current is passed through water to separate the gasses. The main problem is the cost of electricity. Steam reforming of natural gas is cheaper than electrolysis but natural gas will run out by 2025. Hot steam causes the carbon in methane (CH4) to combine with the oxygen in water to produce carbon dioxide and hydrogen. 2H2O + CH4 à CO2 + 4H2 Natural gas is among the cheapest of fossil fuels. Replacing it, and all others depends on low cost electricity. Therefore, the main energy policy goal must be to make electrolyzed hydrogen cheaper than natural gas. Natural gas costs about $0.02 per kilowatt hour (kWh). Electrolysis is about 50% efficient. So, the goal should be: Price of electricity = $0.01 per kWh The cost of generating electricity from utility power in the US is between $0.05 and $0.10 per kWh in (2003 dollars). The cost of solar and wind technology barely keeps pace with utility power. Solarex, the largest photovoltaic supplier in the U.S., predicts that by 2020 its photocells will operate at $0.10 per kWh (in 2003 dollars). John O’M. Bockris of Texas A&M University estimates the environmental cost of gasoline is $1.60 per gallon. (This does not include the billions spent combating terrorists subsidized by imported oil.) Assume the current price of gasoline (in 2002 dollars) is $1.35 per gallon. The total cost $1.35 + $1.60 = $2.95. The energy to run a machine is always less than the output. In other words the efficiency is always less than 100%. The efficiency of small scale electrolyzers is about 50%. Therefore, the energy output is half the energy input. It also includes $0.67 for mortgage, maintenance and insurance on the photovoltaic cells that provide electricity from sunlight.136 The energy of gasoline is 33.652 kWh per gallon. The cost of hydrogen with the same energy as a gallon of gasoline is:   Cost of hydrogen = (33.652 kWh / kg X 0.10) + 0.67 = 7.40 0.50 Where: 33.652 kWh = energy in gallon of gasoline in kWh 0.50 = efficiency of electrolyzer 0.10 = cost of utility electricity per kWh In other words the price of hydrogen for the equivalent energy of gasoline is $7.40 for electricity at $0.10 per kWh. $4.03 for electricity at $0.05 per kWh. $1.34 for electricity at $0.01 per kWh.133 Cheap electricity is critical to the future of hydrogen. Solar and wind power should be used wherever practical but no source of power yet devised can produce, on a large scale, the $0.01 per kWh electricity needed for a hydrogen economy. During World War 2 the US government embarked upon the Manhattan Project to build a nuclear bomb. Chapter 9 describes how a New Manhattan Project, with the participation of all nations, would insure a hydrogen future.   OBJECTIVES OF THIS BOOK How hydrogen can be used in place of fossil fuels. How to generate hydrogen by electrolysis. How to convert internal combustion engines to hydrogen. How hydrogen is fueling future automotive technology. How nuclear fusion may make hydrogen cheaper than natural gas.

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