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Showing posts with label PEM Fuelcell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PEM Fuelcell. Show all posts

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Solar panel to generate Hydrogen


Photovoltaic solar energy is becoming popular as a source of clean energy and an alternative to fossil fuels to combat climate change. Though the initial cost is expensive people have started realizing the potential of PV solar as a real alternative to grid power, especially when they can export surplus power to the grid and earn some revenue. It is a source of income for potential investors as the energy cost keeps rising steadily. The cost of solar panels, batteries and inverters are slowly coming down as the systems get more popular and more competition is created in the market. However, during cloudy days or when the solar hours are less, the power generation by solar panels is considerably low. Moreover, the ‘power in tariff ‘ system is not available in many countries especially in developing countries. Therefore, energy storage becomes an issue. Lead acid batteries serve as storage devices for smaller applications but it becomes expensive for lager systems. Operation and maintenance, replacement and waste disposal are some of the issues with battery storage. Generating Hydrogen onsite using solar power and storing Hydrogen under pressure in a tank is the best method of storing solar energy. The stored Hydrogen can be used to generate power using a Fuel cell as and when we need power. However, the amount of energy required to convert water into Hydrogen using Alkaline Electrolyzer or Solid Polymer Electrolyzer is still high, averaging 5-7 kwhrs/m3.When you calculate the economics of Hydrogen storage versus battery storage using a computer modeling for a stand alone system, it is clear that Hydrogen storage is more economical and also guarantees an uninterrupted power supply using a Fuel cell. One US company has developed a Carbon doped Titanium oxide nanopowder visible light photo catalyst to generates Hydrogen using sun’s light energy. The company claims that it consumes only one third of the power consumed by PEM Electrolyzer or half of an Alkaline Electrolyzer.It can be easily installed at roof tops and it can generate Hydrogen even at one third of sunlight because it can effectively use short UV light and blue wave length of suns light because these energetic wavelengths penetrate cloud cover more effectively than the rest of sunlight. A 2mm modular solar panel can be installed on roof top or installed in multi-acre field installations. Even during the absence of sunlight the company claims it can use grid power to generate Hydrogen using its hybrid integral (MMO) Mixed metal oxide Titanium anode as efficiently as PEM Electrolyzer. While a PEM electrolyzer generates about 1.3kg Hydrogen from a power input of 100Kwhrs, this model can generate about 2.5kg Hydrogen using MMO + TiO2 anode and about 3.8kg using TiO2 alone. (Based on higher heating value of Hydrogen at 39.4 kwhrs/kg).The panel consuming 26.7kwhr power at 1.0Volt DC current at Anode can generate 1.25kg Hydrogen with Electrolysis electrical efficiency at 148%. This will make Hydrogen fuel a commercial reality because it will consume only 21.36 kwhrs of Dc power to generate 1 Kg Hydrogen. The generated Hydrogen can generate about 15 Kw power using a Fuel cell. This is an elegant solution to generate and store power using sun’s light than Photovoltaic power.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Ammonia as a source of Hydrogen for future cars

Synthesis of Ammonia is one of the remarkable achievements of Chemical engineering in forties. It is a precursor for Urea, the fertilizer that brought about ‘Green revolution’ in agriculture industry and helped to achieve record food production all over the world. It was a milestone in modern chemistry to synthesis a molecule containing 1 atom of Nitrogen and 3 atoms of Hydrogen, reperesented by NH3 called Ammonia. The Heber-Bosch process for the production of Ammonia is a well established, mature, commercial technology. The process uses a Hydrocarbon source such as Naphtha or Natural gas as the feed stock to generate a synthesis gas composed of Hydrogen and Carbondioxide.The gas mixture is separated into carbon dioxide and Hydrogen using PSA (pressure swing adsorption ) technology. The resulting Hydrogen is used to combine with Nitrogen to synthesize Ammonia. The chemical reaction can be represented by the following equation. N2 + 3H2 ---------- 2 NH3 The above reaction takes place at a pressure of 100-200 bars and temperature of 300-500C in presence of a catalysts. It is an exothermic (heat releasing) reaction and the catalyst bed is cooled and maintained at 400C to be efficient.Buth this process of Hydrogen generation using Hydrocarbon emits greenhouse gases. Alternatively, Hydrogen can be generated using different methods using renewable energy sources using water electrolysis. Such process may be used in the future for this application. Nitrogen is derived from atmospheric air. The air we breathe contains about 79% of Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen. But these two gases can be separated by liquefying the air by cryogenic process and distilling them into two fractions. Alternatively, they can be separated using pressure swing adsorption or membrane separation process, utilizing their density differences. In either way, Nitrogen can be separated from atmospheric air. By combining the above Hydrogen and Nitrogen, it is possible to synthesis Ammonia on a commercial scale. The ammonia can be easily split into Hydrogen and Nitrogen by passing Ammonia through a bed of Nickel catalyst at 200-400C as and when required, to generate onsite Hydrogen. This Hydrogen can be used for power generation or to run our cars using PEM Fuelcell.As we have seen previosulsy, we are now looking for various sources of Hydrogen, and Ammonia is one of the promising sources for couple of reasons. The process and technology of Ammonia production, transportation and usage is well documented and has been practiced for few decades. It does not emit any greenhouse gases.Liquified Ammonia has been widely used in air-conditioning and refrigeration systems. Ammonia can be easily metered into any system directly from the cylinder. It is easier to use Ammonia directly into a convention internal combustion engines in place of Gasoline and this technology has already been practiced in 1880. Ammonia is pungent and any leakage can be easily identified. The advantage of using Ammonia as a fuel in cars, it does not emit any smoke but only water vapour.It can be admixed with Gasoline or used as 100% anhydrous Ammonia. It also helps in reduction of NO2 emission, especially is diesel engines. Ammonia has a great potential as a source of future fuels provided the sources of Hydrogen comes from water using renewable technologies or by photo-electrolysis using sunlight.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

How to generate your own Hydrogen?

It is amazing that highly combustible Hydrogen is a constituent of cool water. As long as it remains a part of a water molecule we are able to handle it easily. Water is always in a state of ionization with H+ and OH- ions in a dynamic equilibrium. The electrical conductivity of pure water which is completely free from any other ions is almost zero. In a solid polymer electrolyzer, which is the reverse of Fuel cell, water is decomposed into Hydrogen and Oxygen while passing a Direct current. Electrolyzer is an electrolytic cell similar to battery, containing an Anode, Cathode and Electrolyte. In a solid polymer Electrolyzer, the electrolyte is a polymer membrane. Water is decomposed as shown in the following reaction: At Anode of electrolyzer: H2O-------- 0.5 O2 + 2e + 2H† At Cathode of electrolyzer: 2H† + 2e ------ H2 The purity of water is critical in the above process of electrolysis. In conventional electrolysis, water with addition of potash lye (KOH) acts as an electrolyte. But in the above process there is no need for any addition of lye. Moreover, Hydrogen can be generated at high pressure so that further compression becomes easier. In cases of power generation using Fuel cell, the Hydrogen pressure from Electrolyzer is sufficiently high, obviating the usage of an additional compressor. The electrical conductivity of water increases as the concentration of dissolved salts increases. That is why the conductivity of seawater is much higher than your tapwater.But this salt can be removed by the process of desalination using ‘reverse osmosis’ systems. When you separate pure water and salt water using a semi permeable membrane there is natural tendency for pure water to pass across the membrane to pure water side. This process is called ‘Osmosis’. The process continues till the concentration of water on both side of the membrane becomes equal. Nature does not like disparities between strong and weak and always tend to make both equal. By reversing this principle of osmosis, we can separate salt water into pure water and highly concentrated salt water known as brine. This process is called ‘Reverse osmosis’. We will discuss about this process later. If your tap water is not very hard, say for example, total dissolved solids TDS is around 500ppm (Part per million), then the osmotic pressure is not high, which means you do not need to use a high pressure pump. Higher the TDS level, higher the osmotic pressure and higher the power consumption will be. You can install a reverse osmosis system based on your water analysis. You have to use a pure water with low electrical conductivity less than 1 micro Siemens/cm.The reverse osmosis system can be connected to your tap and store pure water while draining the salt water into the drain. You can use this pure water into an Electrolyzer to generate Hydrogen. The Hydrogen can be stored in a tank made up of Carbon composite materials that can withstand high pressure and approved by regulatory authorities. This article is only to understand how Hydrogen can be generated using your tap water. The actual implementation of the system requires knowledge and experience in installing such a system. But we will release an eBook, a step by step guide to set up your power generation system as well fuelling your Fuel cell car, using Hydrogen. An independent power generation and fuelling system using only solar power and water will soon become a commercial reality because, it is a clean and sustainable solution for all our energy problems. The PV solar industries are already expanding at a faster rate and solar Hydrogen will soon become an ultimate solution.