By team domination

1
Hydrogen as a fuel source

• By team domination
• (Wyatt, Nick, Jared, and Eugene)

2
What is Hydrogen power?

• Hydrogen is harvested from the process of
  electrolysis and used either in chemical
  processes to create electric energy, or burned in
  hydrogen combustion engines Ex BMWs hydrogen
  powered v12(slide 7)

A model of an internal combustion engine(almost
the same as a hydrogen engine, but with different
timing and pressure ratios, and of course more
pollution) can be found at http//auto.howstuffwor
ks.com/engine1.htm
A detailed explanation of the chemical process of
using hydrogen to create electricity can be found
at http//www.cleanfuelcellenergy.com/Hp35p42.pdf
3
Advantages

• Renewable if produced with solar energy
• Easy to use in cars, industry, homes etc
• Lower flammability than gasoline (less hazardous)
• Only emissions are in the form of water vapor (no
  greenhouse co2)
• Non toxic

4
Disadvantages

• Non renewable if created with nuclear power or
  fossil fuels
• Requires large fuel tanks for storage
• Our current infrastructure is not designed to
  use/ distribute hydrogen
• New engine technology needed for use
• Currently expensive

5
Issues

• It takes energy/ money to produce hydrogen
• It currently takes more money to create hydrogen
  fuel than the fuel is worth
• The good news is that scientists are making
  rapid progress, and will likely be able to make
  cost effective hydrogen fuel in the near future.

6
The future of hydrogen

• The first widespread use of hydrogen will
  probably be to combine it in small quantities
  with other fuels like gasoline and natural gas to
  reduce emissions and stretch reserves.
• Next, as hydrogen technology improves, we will
  likely see the emergence of hydrogen fueling
  stations, and the adoption of hydrogen as a
  primary fuel in first the commercial, and then
  the private sector.

7
Hydrogen combustion, BMW V12

• An article on BMWs new hydrogen powered V12
  offers an example of hydrogen technology that has
  already been developed
• The article is about how hydrogen is soon going
  to become a fuel source, and one of the early
  leaders is BMW with their Hydrogen 7 with a V12
  engine. Hydrogen is currently very difficult to
  capture, transport and store, however one of the
  benefits of such engines are their very low
  emissions fuel source. Emissions are so low that
  the test beds are not able to detect them. On
  most test sites the new V12 even cleans the air
  around it by emitting exhaust that is clearer
  than the air it takes in. Hopefully such
  technology will soon be able to help us off of
  our current dependence on oil.
• The article in its full context can be found at
  
• http//www.autobloggreen.com/2008/03/28/bmws-hydro
  gen-v12-engine-only-a-fraction-of-sulev-emissions-
  le/

8
Holland Hydrogen Tractor

•  
• Another encouraging example of hydrogen
  technology comes from the Dutch, in the practical
  form of a tractor.
• An article about the new tractor in Holland
  explains that it is 100 emission free all the
  time. The NH2 (prototype name for the tractor) is
  a nice relief from the super fast, super
  efficient, super expensive cars that are going to
  be the available in the next decades. The
  hydrogen engine produces 106 horsepower and can
  run for 2 hours on a tank. The plans are to have
  the tractor come out within the next 3 years
  commercially, and hopefully with slightly
  improved operating time. The tractor is going to
  be the starting point for a new fleet of hydrogen
  fueled work sources that will patrol the Dutch
  countryside.
•  The article in its full context can be found
  at
• http//dvice.com/archives/2009/03/prototype_hydro.
  php

9
Hawaii Hydrogen Highway

• Article in its full context at 
• http//www.fuelcellsworks.com/Supppage9620.html
• The article linked to above talks about the new
  Hydrogen Highway that the army is working on
  with the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute and the
  Environmental Protection Agency. The Hydrogen
  Highway is a government environmental
  initiative, which will be a road on the main
  island dotted with enough hydrogen fueling
  stations to make travel by hydrogen powered
  vehicle feasible. So far a hydrogen fueling
  station has been planned at the Hawaii Volcanoes
  National Park, and a few others are in the
  drawing stages for locations on Hawaiis main
  islands. The people of Hawaii are looking to turn
  to hydrogen first as a fuel for government and
  millitary vehicles, and then for private vehicles
  also to decrease their use of foreign oil/gas.

10
Hydrogen Locomotive

• An article about BNSFs hydrogen locomotive
  project explains the benefits of introducing
  Hydrogen as a fuel for their trains.
• This article talks about a hydrogen-powered
  locomotive which is a testing object that will
  attempt to reduce the use of diesel fuel in the
  world and in favor of moving to an alternate
  source of energy such hydrogen which can be
  produced from water. The NA train set up uses
  about 15 trillion gallons of gas and the US is
  trying to cut down that number and shift the
  industry to renewable, less polluting fuels.
  With diesel prices going up (they jumped to 26
  of BNSTs operating costs last quarter) the
  company is eagerly looking to develop new fuel
  technology, and cut costs.
•  
• Article in its full context at
• http//www.railwaygazette.com/news_view/article/20
  09/03/9305/bnsf_explores_the_fuel_cell.html
•  

11
Current Commercial Hydrogen

• A company called HEC markets their current
  hydrogen engines and generators at
  http//www.hydrogenenginecenter.com/ Their add
  talks about the history of hydrogen powered
  engines and how they came to be. It also talks
  about what all hydrogen engines can produce and
  how they work. Their technology uses hydrogen
  fuel to generate electricity, and they use the
  zero emissions as a big sell point.

12
Hydrogen as a viable alternative

• An article about the future of fuel explains that
  when the oil dries up their will likely be many
  different fuel options, and that one wont
  immediately prevail. The main problems with
  hydrogen right now seem to be that it is too
  expensive to compete with fossil fuels, and that
  our infrastructure isnt currently set up to
  support it. This article explains however, that
  once the price of hydrogen is brought down, it
  will be a competitive alternative fuel. Due to
  hydrogens high energy concentration, it would
  only need to come down to eight dollars a gallon
  to compete with gasoline, because it contains
  more than twice the energy per kilogram as gas.
• Article in its full context at
• http//www.designnews.com/article/46770-Feds_Have_
  Primed_the_Hydrogen_Research_Pump.php

13
Hydrogen from ethanol

• A recent scientific article offers hope for
  solving the hydrogen harvesting problem. One of
  the reasons hydrogen is not yet considered a
  feasible fuel is that it is usually harvested
  through electrolysis, which is expensive.
  Professor of chemical engineering Lanny Schmidt
  has developed a chemical reaction which can
  cheaply harvest hydrogen gas from ethanol
  (alcohol generated from biomass). This is
  exciting because it may offer an affordable way
  to produce hydrogen from a renewable source, and
  Schmidt estimates that three times the energy can
  be captured from ethanol hydrogen, than just from
  simply burning ethanol.
• Article in its full context at
• http//www.it.umn.edu/news/inventing/2004_Summer/h
  arvestinghydrogen.html

14
Hydrogen Boosted Engines

• an article about hydrogen boosted gasoline
  engines talks about how they work and how
  efficient they are. It discusses how small
  amounts of hydrogen can be harvested from
  gasoline by a car, and how cars with such engines
  can gain an additional twenty to thirty percent
  of their original fuel economy. In a hydrogen
  boosted gasoline engine, a small amount of
  hydrogen is made by an onboard reformer, and that
  hydrogen is added to the normal intake mixture to
  increase combustion efficiency.
• The article in its full context can be found at
• http//auto.howstuffworks.com/how-a-hydrogen-boost
  ed-gasoline-engine-works.htm

15
Learning About Hydrogen
An electrolysis demonstration can be prepared
relatively easily. If you mix salt with water (to
increase its conductivity) and run wire from the
positive and negative electrodes of a 9 volt
battery into the water, you will see bubbles.
These bubbles are hydrogen and oxygen gas which
result from the decomposition of H2O. The wire
with more bubbles will be hydrogen as there are
two hydrogen atoms for every oxygen.
16
Key Questions To Consider

• Can Hydrogen be harvested and stored cheaply
  enough?
• What changes would we have to make to convert our
  infrastructure to hydrogen?
• Can we get enough hydrogen from renewable
  sources?
• What is the timeframe for converting to hydrogen?
• Is it worth the RD to develop Hydrogen?