Estebe.ChemIIWiki.2010

=What is the problem at hand?= The world is facing two major problems; over population and scarcity of resources. These two problems, compounded by climate change are creating the greatest crisis in history. While the overpopulation issue may be difficult to resolve in the short term, and while climate change may be irreversible, the race is on to find new sources of energy that may not accelerate climate change and actually provide resources. =What is the driving force of the problem?=
 * __ Fuel cells __**

Exponential demand from ever growing populations and ever scarcer resources will create dire need for energy to answer basic needs such as water and food distribution.

=What are people currently doing to solve the problem?= Aside from the many in denial of the situation, either because they are misinformed or because they have vested interests, the entire scientific community is hard at work on several potential solutions, some more likely than others. Some more effective than others. =Pick your favorite.= Fuel cell could become the most significant technology of this century. Fuel cell technology is not new as it was discovered in 1830, (William Grove’s Gazeous Voltaic Battery)

What is new is the latest advances in technology that makes this solution more effective and efficient every day. The latest promising discovery, at Leo Motors of a Zinc Air Fuel Cell Generator (ZAFCG) shows that this field is in full development. =How it works.= What is a fuel cell and how does it work? The technology requires a minimum of education to be understood, and thus has been denigrated sometimes by those who could not grasp its significance and called “fools cell”. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.

Fuel cells convert the chemical energy of hydrogen directly into electrical energy. Like a battery, a fuel cell consists of two electrodes separated by an electrolyte made of a thin polymeric membrane. But unlike a battery, a fuel cell does not need recharging - it will continue to produce electricity as long as fuel and oxidant (air or oxygen) are provided. There are several different types of fuel cells: the molten-carbonate, the alkaline, the phosphoric, the solid-oxide, and the proton-exchange-membrane (PEM). Each of these uses a different electrolyte; different ones operate best at different temperatures. Some, such as the solid-oxide fuel cell, require an operating chamber as hot as 1,800 F to work efficiently. [] Much like a conventional battery, the maximum output of an individual fuel cell is about 0.6 volts. To produce the required voltage and amperage, several cells are combined (similar to a conventional battery) to form what is called a stack.

Every manned U.S. spacecraft, from the Gemini program of the 1960s to the present-day shuttle program, has used fuel cells to provide electricity and, in some cases, fresh water.

But now the technology is spreading its wings and is used in many fields. 


 * Boeing Sponsored Dimona Fuel Cell Motorglider **

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Transportation is an obvious candidate:

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Maritime transportation is a better candidate because its fuel distribution structure already centralized to the ports would be easier to adapt to hydrogen than the road transportation:

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The military has already embarked fuel cells on submarines such as the U212 from Germany:

[] Norwegian shipping company Eidesvik and its partners have installed a 320-kilowatt molten carbonate fuel cell that operates on liquefied natural gas on the 5,900 metric ton Viking Lady

But there are many other applications such as the Samsung fuel cell powered laptop that will run for a month:

Or fuel cell powered bicycles:

These motor cycles make the one seen on Star Trek not so distant in the future:



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= = = = =Caveat emptor:= One of the problems of the technology `is the storage of H2: Hydrogen gas has good energy density by weight but poor energy density by volume versus hydrocarbons, hence it requires a larger tank to store. A large hydrogen tank will be heavier than the small hydrocarbon tank used to store the same amount of energy, all other factors remaining equal.



Storing H2 is the real challenged posed to fuel cell otherwise promising technology: []

Worse yet Hydrogen, while abundant in the world is seldom found in pure form H2 that uncontained would actually escape through the atmosphere and be lost in space. It is found associated with other atoms to from molecules such as H2O that some also call water, or CH4 that some call methane, that is also (unfortunately as it is a green house gas) abundant in the world, including some quarters of the MMA campus… The problem with pure H2 is that it is extremely flammable, and also likes to explode when combined with O2; one hell of a way to make H2O. The whole world, even those not born then have in mind the most famous H2 fire in history the Hindenburg airship: But it is well known now that many other factors contributed to the disaster, and if treated as it should H2 would not be more dangerous than say a 50 gallons drum of gasoline filled at 14% as it was used to create improvised bombs before new recipes were developed proving that the study of chemistry itself could be construed as dangerous and chemistry professors placed under state surveillance.

=The CO2 produced by this technology.= Another issue is that the technology is not as clean as it appears to be at first sight. As it requires H2 in one form or another, most of the time, it is reformed from fossil fuels, the CO2 foot print of this technology may not be as small as some people would like to think. Fuel cells can operate on virtually any fuel that contains hydrogen, such as gasoline, propane, natural gas, methanol, and diesel. But these fuels must first be processed to extract the hydrogen. Most mobile fuel-cell prototypes rely on hydrogen from hydrocarbon fuel and incorporate a component that processes these fuels. Unfortunately, the orphan molecules of this process include carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide—all undesirable "greenhouse" gases (although emitted in levels still lower than that of an internal-combustion engine). And fuel cells running on ordinary hydrocarbon fuels aren’t nearly as efficient as those running on pure hydrogen. This is, for now the major weakness of that technology. The ethanol crowd often also calls the technology the fools cell, but they forgot that they themselves have a major problem: Fossil fuels are obviously not the way to go to produce H2. Although it could remain a great solution for smaller application such as cell phones:

It could be critical for a team that needs hand held satellite telephones in say earth-quake-ravaged Haiti to be able to recharge their phone without electricity. = = = = =Toward a better CO2 foot print.=

The Zinc Air Fuel Cell Generators, previously mentioned are one step in the right direction to improve the score on the carbon foot print of fuel cell technology and not only increase significantly the range of electric vehicles but does so without pollution and at very low cost. []

Some very interesting developments lead the technology away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy to capture H2: This fuel cell toy car for Sale on Amazon will run with the energy collected from tiny solar panels that is used to obtain H2 from electrolysis to power the fuel cell in turn powering the electric engine. Another fascinating experimental project: Wind to H2, gets H2 from wind energy, thus making the smallest foot print possible for the whole process: []

= = = = =How it could solve or alleviate the problems we face.=

Fuel cell technology coupled with renewable energy harvesting of H2, or in extreme cases where isolation is a parameter justifying fossil fuel’s hydrogen reformation, could provide the energy needed for transportation, agriculture and water supply as with the disappearance of many aquifers it is likely that desalination will become the only solution. Desalination requires powerful pumps and the only byproduct of fuel cells used to power these pumps would be… water. = = =What would you do next to change how it is used? Why?=

This student, more focused on maritime transportation, proposes a similar experiment that has been explored on small scale but never on large vessels: My idea comes from the observation that under sail, the propeller of a boat, even not specifically design for this purpose will turn, and this motion, although not powerful could be used to create energy in the form of electricity with a simple dynamo. In fact the hybrid cars as the Prius are already using this to recharge their batteries while on a favorable slope. So while the power generated by the propeller while under sail would create enough power to actually charge a battery, or just a trickle that could be used to harvest H2 from sea water electrolysis this should be explored further than it has been. Fuel cell assisted Sailboat: []

Given the major improvement that the square rig concept recently received with t he Maltese Falcon that is so effective under its very advanced computer monitored rig:

The propulsion under sail of such a large vessel should transfer a lot of energy through its declutched, freely rotating, and possibly specifically designed propellers. This energy in turn could be used to either directly charge alkaline batteries at peak performance or used to get H2 from sea water through electrolysis when the propellers’ rotating speed is not enough to efficiently charge batteries, large Solar panels could also complement the energy source to either directly charge batteries or trickle energy through the same electrolysis method to create H2. Then the electric engines of the ship would be used either taking its energy from alkaline batteries or from the fuel cells fueled with H2 coming from sea water. Such a ship could transport passengers and/or cargo, effectively using the wind when favorable, then efficiently use the energy created when under sail from sun light and sea water electrolysis to power its electric engines for port operations or to power through unfavorable winds.

Will the Scandinavians be the only ones? [] It is likely that this student much simpler solution; modern square rig, and propeller driven H2 production could be achieved much faster than this ambitious project. Simpler is often better in the maritime environment.
 * We would have a transportation vector that would use renewable energies from the most abundant supplies on the planet: wind, light, hydrogen and sea water, certainly worth exploring.**