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Initial Post: 05_22_2008;
Update Post: 07_06-2009
Recently, there has been a lot of fuss over the gas hydrogen.
Sometimes it is viewed as the
preferred the form of energy source, and atimes it is viewed as the
preferred form of energy storage.
Hydrogen in its purest form is simply a gas, and is the lightest gas
known. It is an elemental gas, being naturally existing gas.
The gas here on earth is mostly bound to oxygen and as such
exist mostly through water.
However, the form in which the
gas is found in the bound form has three elemental states: The
single proton nucleus state - the form properly called Hydrogen, the
proton-neutron pair nucleus state called Deuterium, and the
proton-double neutron nucleus state called Tritium.
Actually because hydrogen is not a naturally occurring gas on earth
and as such has to be extracted from a compound in which it is bound
to another substance, preferably water.
The extraction of hydrogen therefore requires the expenditure of
energy, and it is this sense that it is used as a storage device
than an energy source.
Often therefore, it is more of an energy storage substance for
physically distributing energy.
Interestingly, there are
myriad of ways that are being pursued to extract the hydrogen from
water. The earliest known method that is still the most commonly
used method is the Electrolysis of water. Particularly interesting about these designs
is that they interface well with several different forms of energy
feeds for the hydrogen extraction mechanics. All considered the
common methods ? both proven and proposed - for the extraction of
hydrogen from water are as delineated below and each of these
techniques has both advantages and disadvantages, assuming even all
the proposed methods are in fact proven, are perhaps better elicited
through methods reviews:
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Electrolysis of water
Often taught in most chemistry classes, in this technique water is
placed between two electrodes, and some quantity of an electrolyte
poured into it to cause a shift of the pH away from pH-7.
Electromotive force is applied to the electrodes causes the free
H[+] ions to travel to the Cathode or negatively charged electrode
and thus become neutralized with the subsequent combination with
another hydrogen atom to form a molecule and then a gas, while the
OH[-] travels to the Anode
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or positively charged electrode and yields an electron to replenish the battery electron
given off to the H[+] at the cathode and as a result becomes
neutralized, yields an oxygen atom that then combines with another
oxygen atom and forms gas.
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Dielectric Rupture Electrolytic Method
This technology is suggested to be based on the work of
Sandia National Labs
which has shown that at certain very high voltage analysis water
ceases to be dielectric and begins conduction of electricity - a
form of ionization. Very simply put, the concept is that water placed between
two electrodes is subjected to a minimum voltage evaluated to cause
dielectric rupture for the given inter-electrode separation, and
hence facilitate the ionization. In essence this method is
actually a variant of the electrolytic method described above. The
advantage offered here is that high voltage, instead of a
electrolyte, is being used to induce the electrolysis.
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Slow-Moving Water Method A
floating barge with turbines around the perimeter harness the
energy of the water flowing by is
the suggested approach of
Slow-Moving water Inc
. Rather than try to enter the electricity utility business with
all its strident registration obstacles, the company model is to
produce electricity by-products, such as hydrogen and distilled
water, which are much easier to distribute
Energy Type
The energy release manner of
hydrogen is chemical and as such
obtains through the breakage and formation of chemical bonds. Specifically this is
accomplished through a chemical reaction between the hydrogen and
oxygen. The reaction gives off heat and is of the class of chemical
reactions generally termed exothermic reaction, of a fairly
extensive reaction chemistry. During the reaction, two
parts of hydrogen combines with one part of oxygen and forms water
vapour which cools down and becomes liquid water.
Energy Adoption
Because the reaction gives off heat the process of adopting the
hydrogen energy is use-specific: The hydrogen is reacted with oxygen
and the by- |
product steam simultaneously heated with the heat to support
the mechanical extraction of work, The hydrogen is reacted with
oxygen to heat water to produce steam in some form of boiler or
steam generator and to then drive a turbine with the steam to
produce electricity.
However, one of the problems with using hydrogen as fuel is the
matter of the design of the equipment or device or
adoption technologies
for the use-specific application.
The Energy Adoption-Technology Analysis, presents for consideration
three situations: The use of the same steam as produced during
the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen, The case of reacting the
hydrogen with oxygen from the air, and in both cases to drive
mechanical work as is with automobiles, The combustion of the
hydrogen with air in an adoption-technology to support a society by
one of two considerations: The development of Power Generation
Systems to support the distributed or multi-location needs of the
citizens and businesses; and The single location preference of a
business that prefer Power Systems dedicated for its own use and
completely under its control.
The
portable use of hydrogen, as fuel for automobiles raises the matter
of the storage of the gas in a media that should allow continual
measured and demand-proportional release of the gas.
On the
other hand, the use of water as continuous source of hydrogen has
the
difficulties with the requirements for handling the water flow on a
continuous flow and well-designed container to hold the hydrogen
without the risk of explosion till injected into the engine for the
combustion. In the case of the space crafts the hydrogen is kept in
liquefied state, other situations may yet demand simple high
pressure containment.
The development of Centralized Solar Power-Generation Systems, of
course, must consider the best method of storage of the hydrogen
during the lag-time between the production of the hydrogen and the
combustion of the hydrogen. The fact is there will obtain the need
to process the hydrogen for removal of water vapour and other
impurities prior to combustion. Indisputably, the storage
consideration is very crucial in this sense.
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