Hydrogen Fuel: a Clean and Secure Energy Future

Hydrogen Fuel: a Clean and Secure Energy Future

In his State of the Union address, President Bush announced a $1.2 billion hydrogen fuel initiative to reverse America’s growing dependence on foreign oil by developing the technology for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells to power cars, trucks, homes and businesses with no pollution or greenhouse gases. The hydrogen fuel initiative will include $720 million in new funding over the next five years to develop the technologies and infrastructure to produce, store, and distribute hydrogen for use in fuel cell vehicles and electricity generation. Combined with the FreedomCAR (Cooperative Automotive Research) initiative, President Bush is proposing a total of $1.7 billion over the next five years to develop hydrogen-powered fuel cells, hydrogen infrastructure and advanced automotive technologies.

 

Under the President’s hydrogen fuel initiative, the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by fuel cells. The hydrogen fuel initiative complements the President’s existing FreedomCAR initiative, which is developing technologies needed for mass production of safe and affordable hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles. Through partnerships with the private sector, the hydrogen fuel initiative and FreedomCAR will make it practical and cost-effective for large numbers of Americans to choose to use clean, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2020. This will dramatically improve America’s energy security by significantly reducing the need for imported oil, as well as help clean our air and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Background on Today’s Presidential Action

 

 

Fuel Cells are a Proven Technology: America’s astronauts have used fuel cells to generate electricity since the 1960s, but more work is needed to make them cost-effective for use in cars, trucks, homes or businesses. Additional research and development is needed to spur rapid commercialization of these technologies so they can provide clean, domestically produced energy for transportation and other uses.

 

The President’s Initiatives Will Overcome Key Technical and Cost Barriers for Fuel Cells:

 

Lowering the cost of hydrogen: Hydrogen is four times as expensive to produce as gasoline (when produced from its most affordable source, natural gas). The hydrogen fuel initiative seeks to lower that cost enough to make fuel cell cars cost-competitive with conventional gasoline-powered vehicles by 2010; and to advance the methods of producing hydrogen from renewable resources, nuclear energy, and even coal.

 

Creating effective hydrogen storage: Hydrogen storage systems are now inadequate for use in the wide range of vehicles that consumers demand. New technology is needed.

 

Creating affordable hydrogen fuel cells: Fuel cells are now ten times more expensive than internal combustion engines. The FreedomCAR initiative is working to reduce that cost to affordable levels.

 

America’s Energy Security is Threatened by Our Dependence on Foreign Oil:

 

America imports 55 percent of the oil it consumes; that is expected to grow to 68 percent by 2025.

 

Nearly all of our cars and trucks run on gasoline, and they are the main reason America imports so much oil. Two-thirds of the 20 million barrels of oil Americans use each day is used for transportation; fuel cell vehicles offer the best hope of dramatically reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

 

Hydrogen fuel Will Help Ensure America’s Energy Independence:

 

Through the hydrogen fuel initiative and FreedomCAR, the federal government, automakers and energy companies will work together to overcome the technological and financial barriers to the successful development of commercially viable, emissions-free fuel cell vehicles that require no foreign oil.

 

Hydrogen is domestically available in abundant quantities as a component of natural gas, coal, biomass, and even water.

 

The Department of Energy estimates that the hydrogen fuel initiative and FreedomCAR initiatives may reduce our demand for petroleum by over 11 million barrels per day by 2040 – approximately the amount of oil America imports today.

 

Fuel Cells Will Improve Air Quality and Dramatically Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions:

 

Vehicles are a significant source of air pollution in America’s cities and urban areas. Hydrogen fuel cells create electricity to power cars without any pollution.

 

The hydrogen fuel and FreedomCAR initiatives may reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions from transportation alone by more than 500 million metric tons of carbon equivalent each year by 2040. Additional emissions reductions could be achieved by using fuel cells in applications such as generating electricity for residential or commercial uses.

 

Hydrogen is the Key to a Clean Energy Future:

 

It has the highest energy content per unit of weight of any known fuel.

 

When burned in an engine, hydrogen produces effectively zero emissions; when powering a fuel cell, its only waste is water.

 

Hydrogen can be produced from abundant domestic resources including natural gas, coal, biomass, and even water.

 

Combined with other technologies such as carbon capture and storage, renewable energy and fusion energy, fuel cells could make an emissions-free energy future possible.

 

The Hydrogen Fuel Initiative Complements President Bush’s FreedomCAR initiative:

 

In 2002, President Bush launched FreedomCAR, a partnership with automakers to advance high-technology research needed to produce practical, affordable hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that American consumers will want to buy and drive.

 

The hydrogen fuel initiative will develop technologies for hydrogen production and distribution infrastructure needed to power fuel cell vehicles and stationary fuel cell power sources.

 

President Bush’s Budget Provides Strong Support for Hydrogen Fuel and FreedomCAR:

 

President Bush proposes $1.7 billion in funding for the hydrogen fuel initiative and FreedomCAR over the next five years, including $720 million in new funding for hydrogen fuel.

 

The President’s FY 2004 budget request for hydrogen and fuel cell research and development and advanced automotive technologies through the hydrogen fuel and FreedomCAR programs is $273 million.

History of Hydrogen

HYDROGEN FACT SHEET

History of Hydrogen

Hydrogen has received increased attention as a renewable and environmentally-friendly option to help meet today’s energy needs. The road leading to an under­standing of hydrogen’s energy potential presents a fascinating tour through scientific discovery and industrial ingenuity.

-     1766 Hydrogen was first identified as a distinct element by British scientist Henry Cavendish after he evolved hydrogen gas by reacting zinc metal with hydrochloric acid. In a demonstration to the Royal Society of London, Cavendish applied a spark to hydrogen gas yielding water. This discovery led to his later finding that water (H₂O) is made of hydrogen and oxygen.

-     1783 Jacques Alexander Cesar Charles, a French physicist, launched the first hydrogen balloon flight. Known as “Charliere,” the unmanned balloon flew to an altitude of three kilometers. Only three months later, Charles himself flew in his first manned hydrogen balloon.

-     1788 Building on the discoveries of Cavendish, French chem­ist Antoine Lavoisier gave hydrogen its name, which was derived from the Greek words—“hydro” and “genes,” meaning “water” and “born of.”

-     1800 English scientists William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle discovered that apply­ing electric current to water produced hydrogen and oxygen gases. This process was later termed “electrolysis.”

-     1838 The fuel cell effect, combining hydrogen and oxygen gases to produce water and an electric current, was discovered by Swiss chemist Christian Friedrich Schoenbein.

-     1845 Sir William Grove, an English scientist and judge, demon­strated Schoenbein’s discovery on a practical scale by creating a “gas battery.” He earned the title “Father of the Fuel Cell” for his achievement

-     1874 Jules Verne, an English author, prophetically examined the potential use of hydrogen as a fuel in his popular work of fic­tion entitled The Mysterious Island.

-     “I believe that water will one day be employed as fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it, used singly or together, will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light, of an intensity of which coal is not capable.”                                Jules Verne, The Mysterious Island (1874)

-     1889 Ludwig Mond and Charles Langer attempted to build the first fuel cell device using air and industrial coal gas. They named the device a fuel cell.

-     1920s German engineer, Rudolf Erren, converted the internal combustion engines of trucks, buses, and submarines to use hydrogen or hydrogen mixtures. British scientist and Marxist writer, J.B.S. Haldane, introduced the concept of renewable hydrogen in his paper Science and the Future by proposing that “there will be great power stations where during windy weather the surplus power will be used for the electrolytic decomposition of water into oxygen and hydrogen.”

-     1937 After ten successful trans-Atlantic flights from Germany to the United States, the Hindenburg, a dirigible inflated with hydrogen gas, crashed upon landing in Lake­wood, New Jersey. The mystery of the crash was solved in 1997. A study concluded that the explosion was not due to the hydrogen gas, but rather to a weather-related static electric discharge which ignited the airship’s silver-colored, canvas exterior covering which had been treated with the key ingredients of solid rocket fuel.

-     1958 The United States formed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA’s space program currently uses the most liquid hydrogen worldwide, primarily for rocket propulsion and as a fuel for fuel cells.

-     1959 Francis T. Bacon of Cambridge University in England built the first practical hydro­gen-air fuel cell. The 5-kilowatt (kW) system powered a welding machine. He named his fuel cell design the “Bacon Cell.” Later that year, Harry Karl Ihrig, an engineer for the Allis—Chalmers Manufacturing Company, demonstrated the first fuel cell vehicle: a 20–horsepower tractor. Hydrogen fuel cells, based upon Francis T. Bacon’s design, have been used to generate on-board electricity, heat, and water for astro­nauts aboard the famous Apollo spacecraft and all subsequent space shuttle missions.

-     1970 Electrochemist John OM. Bockris coined the term “hydrogen economy” during a discussion at the General Motors (GM) Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. He later published Energy: the Solar-Hydrogen Alternative, describing his envisioned hydrogen economy where cities in the United States could be supplied with energy derived from the sun.

-     1972 The 1972 Gremlin, modified by the University of California at Los Angeles, entered the 1972 Urban Vehicle Design Competition and won first prize for the lowest tail­pipe emissions. Students converted the Gremlin’s internal combustion engine to run on hydrogen supplied from an onboard tank.

-     1973 The OPEC oil embargo and the resulting supply shock suggested that the era of cheap petroleum had ended and that the world needed alternative fuels. The develop­ment of hydrogen fuel cells for conventional commercial applications began.

-     1974 National Science Foundation transfers the Federal Hydrogen R&D Program to the U.S. Department of Energy. Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu of the University of Miami, FL, organized The Hydrogen Economy Miami Energy Conference (THEME), the first international conference held to discuss hydrogen energy. Following the confer­ence, the scientists and engineers who attended the THEME conference formed the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE).

-     1974 International Energy Agency (IEA) was established in response to global oil market disruptions. IEA activities included the research and development of hydrogen energy technologies.

-     1988 The Soviet Union Tupolev Design Bureau successfully converted a 164-passenger TU-154 commercial jet to operate one of the jet’s three engines on liquid hydrogen. The maiden flight lasted 21 minutes.

-     1989 The National Hydrogen Association (NHA) formed in the United States with ten members. Today, the NHA has nearly 100 members, including representatives from the automobile and aerospace industries, federal, state, and local governments, and energy providers. The International Organization for Standardization’s Technical Committee for Hydrogen Technologies was also created.

-     1990 The world’s first solar-powered hydrogen production plant at Solar-Wasserstoff-Bayern, a research and testing facility in southern Germany, became operational. The U.S. Congress passed the Spark M. Matsunaga Hydrogen, Research, Development and Demonstration Act (PL 101-566), which prescribed the formulation of a 5-year management and implementation plan for hydrogen research and development in the United States.

-     The Hydrogen Technical Advisory Panel (HTAP) was mandated by the Matsunaga Act to ensure consultation on and coordination of hydrogen research. Work on a methanol-fueled 10-kilowatt (kW) Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell began through a partnership including GM, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Dow Chemical Company, and Canadian fuel cell developer, Ballard Power Systems.

-     1994 Daimler Benz demonstrated its first NECAR I (New Electric CAR) fuel cell vehicle at a press conference in Ulm, Germany.

-     1997 Retired NASA engineer, Addison Bain, challenged the belief that hydrogen caused the Hindenburg accident. The hydrogen, Bain demonstrated, did not cause the catastrophic fire but rather the combination of static electricity and highly flammable material on the skin of the airship. German car manufacturer Daimler-Benz and Bal­lard Power Systems announced a $300-million research collaboration on hydrogen fuel cells for transportation.

-     1998 Iceland unveiled a plan to create the first hydrogen economy by 2030 with Daimler-Benz and Ballard Power Systems.1999 The Royal Dutch/Shell Company committed to a hydro­gen future by forming a hydrogen division. Europe’s first hydrogen fueling stations were opened in the German cities of Hamburg and Munich.

-     A consortium of Icelandic institutions, headed by the financial group New Business Venture Fund, partnered with Royal Dutch/Shell Group, DaimlerChrysler (a merger of Daimer Benz and Chrysler), and Norsk Hydro to form the Icelandic Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Company, Ltd. to further the hydrogen economy in Iceland.

-     2000 Ballard Power Systems presented the world’s first production-ready PEM fuel cell for automotive applications at the Detroit Auto Show.

-     2003 President George W. Bush announced in his 2003 State of the Union Address a $1.2 billion hydrogen fuel initiative to develop the technology for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells, such that “the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by fuel cells.”

-     2004 U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced over $350-million devoted to hydrogen research and vehicle demonstration projects. This appropriation represented nearly one-third of President Bush’s $1.2 billion commitment to research in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. The funding encompasses over 30 lead organizations and more than 100 partners selected through a competitive review process.

-     2004 The world’s first fuel cell-powered submarine under­goes deepwater trials (Germany navy).

-     2005 Twenty-three states in the U.S. have hydrogen initiatives in place.

-     Today-2050 Future VisionIn the future, water will replace fossil fuels as the primary resource for hydrogen. Hydrogen will be distributed via national networks of hydrogen transport pipelines and fueling stations. Hydrogen energy and fuel cell power will be clean, abundant, reliable, affordable and an integral part of all sectors of the economy in all regions of the U.S.

 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030206-2.html

Hydrogen Fuel Cells

The hydrogen fuel cell operates similar to a battery. It has two electrodes, an anode and a cathode, separated by a membrane. Oxygen passes over one electrode and hydrogen over the other. The hydrogen reacts to a catalyst on the electrode anode that converts the hydrogen gas into negatively charged electrons (e-) and positively charged ions (H+). The electrons flow out of the cell to be used as electrical energy. The hydrogen ions move through the electrolyte membrane to the cathode electrode where they combine with oxygen and the electrons to produce water. Unlike batteries, fuel cells never run out.

The Hydrogen Future

Commentary
The hydrogen future

 

Cebu Daily News
First Posted 16:34:00 06/16/2008

 

According to a recent story from Agence France Presse, published in the June 4 issue of the Inquirer, some 3,000 households in Japan, including the official residence of the Prime Minister, are now equipped with hydrogen fuel cells “the size of a cupboard” to light, heat and energize the homes.

In an operating fuel cell, oxygen from the air and hydrogen (from natural gas or from water) are combined in an acidic solution to produce electricity. There is no noise, virtually no pollution, and the exhaust is nothing more noxious than water vapor. If the hydrogen is extracted (by electrolysis) from water, there is no pollution at all. In the Hyatt Jamboree Hotel, the fuel cell is less than half the size of a tennis court and its exhaust of water vapor is condensed as hot water, which is used by the hotel’s laundry.

In 1995, the price of oil was probably around $20 a barrel. The per-kilowatt price of power generated by fuel cells then was about ten times that of power generated by coal or diesel fuel. But with the price of oil now at $134 a barrel and climbing, the price differential is becoming minimal, especially if one were to factor in the medical and hospitalization expenses incurred by millions of people from the pollution, plus the damage to the environment in the way of more extreme floods, droughts and desertification blamed on global warming.

In 2002, the government of Iceland was the first in the world to declare an official policy to move away from a carbon to a hydrogen economy. Since then, the governments of Norway, Sweden, New Zealand and Costa Rica have declared an official policy of achieving a “carbon-neutral” economy. To achieve that, they have to increase the use of non-carbon energy alternatives such as hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, solar and hydrogen fuel cells.

Countries with very little or no gas deposits can use hydrogen fuel cells. The hydrogen can be extracted from water — rainwater, tap water, river water — by electrolysis, using either solar energy or wind energy to electrolyze the water, meaning to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen, which is one of the first experiments that we perform in high school Science class.

In the Hydrogen Future, there will be no big power plants anywhere, connected to millions of users by miles and miles of transmission lines. Instead, there will be thousands of stand-alone hydrogen fuel cells generating power for neighborhoods, communities, residential condos, office condos, industrial complexes, university campuses, government offices, military camps, shopping malls, hospitals, hotels, etc.

What about the Philippines? In the recently concluded Energy Summit, not a word seems to have been spoken about hydrogen fuel cells. It is our continuing misfortune that the leaders whom we elect, and the bureaucrats whom they appoint, cannot see the future beyond the next elections. — Antonio C. Abaya, www.tapatt.org

 

 

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/opinion/view/20080616-143006/The-hydrogen-future

What is a fuel cell?

A fuel cell converts chemicals, hydrogen and oxygen into water, and in the process, it produces electricity.

Photo courtesy Ballard Power Systems A fuel-cell stack that could power an automobile. See more fuel cell images.

An example of a fuel cell which we are all familiar with is the battery. A battery has all of its chemicals stored inside, and it converts those chemicals into electricity.

With a fuel cell, chemicals constantly flow into the cell so it never goes dead — as long as there is a flow of chemicals into the cell, the electricity flows out of the cell. Most fuel cells in use today use hydrogen and oxygen as the chemicals.

A fuel cell works by catalysis, separating the electrons and protons, forcing the electrons to travel through a device which uses hydrogen and oxygen to create electricity. A single fuel cell consists of an electrolyte, sandwiched between a porous anode and a cathode.

hydrogen powered plane (article from bbc news)

Hydrogen-powered plane takes off

The small, propeller-driven craft, developed by aviation giant Boeing, made three short flights at an airfield south of Madrid, the company said.

It was powered by hydrogen fuel cells, which produce only heat and water as exhaust products.

The tests could pave the way for a new generation of greener aircraft, the company said.

Boeing’s chief technology officer John Tracy said the flights were “a historical technological success” and “full of promises for a greener future”.

Small future

Three test flights of the two-seater aircraft took place in February and March at an airfield at Ocana, south of Madrid. The plane was modified to include a hybrid battery and fuel cell system developed by UK firm Intelligent Energy.

The fuel cells, which create electricity by combining oxygen and hydrogen, were used to power an electric motor coupled to a propeller.

Other organisations have demonstrated solar-powered planes

During take-off the plane’s batteries were used to provide an additional boost, but whilst in the air, the plane relied entirely on the cells.

Boeing said the plane has a flying time of 45 minutes but tests were limited to around half that time.

Although the test had been successful, the firm said it did not believe fuel cells could be the primary power source for large passenger aircraft.

However, it could be used as a secondary source of energy for large planes, according to Nieves Lapena, the engineer responsible for the test flights, but this may take some time to develop.

“In my opinion, we are talking about a delay of about twenty years,” she said.

Green skies

Hydrogen-powered planes have been flown before, but never with a human pilot onboard.

In 2005, California-based AeroVironment successfully completed test flights of its Global Observer craft which was powered by liquid hydrogen.

The hydrogen-powered plane is capable of carrying two people Enlarge Image

Other companies are also seeking to develop more environmentally-friendly planes, amid concerns over their contribution to climate change.

Earlier this year, the airline Virgin Atlantic conducted the first commercial flight powered partly by biofuel.

And last year, defence firm Qinetiq flew a solar-powered plane for 54 hours, smashing the official world record for the longest-duration unmanned flight.

Zephyr, as the craft was known, could be used for military applications, as well as for Earth-observation and communications.

Other unmanned prototypes have been shown off by the American space agency Nasa.

However, in 2010, Swiss balloonist Bertrand Piccard plans to launch Solar Impulse, a manned plane in which he will attempt to circumnavigate the globe.

To carry the precious payload, the craft will have a huge wingspan of 80m (262ft), wider than the wings of the Airbus A380.

As the plane is piloted by only one person at a time, it will have to make frequent stopovers. The current plan is for the journey to be broken into five legs each lasting between four or five days.

(From BBC news : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7330311.stm )

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