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How Does Hydrogen Energy Work?
Posted on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 @ 22:54:04 UTC by vlad
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Anonymous writes: How does hydrogen energy work? Many people don’t understand where hydrogen energy comes from or how it works but the consensus of the public is that hydrogen energy is a good thing.
In hydrogen powered cars, electricity (ideally from a renewable energy source) would be used to separate the hydrogen and oxygen in water. The oxygen atoms would be released harmlessly into the atmosphere. The hydrogen would be liquefied and cooled to -253 degree Celsius (-423.4 degrees Fahrenheit).
The extreme cooling causes the hydrogen to shrink to one thousandth
of its initial volume. To power the engine, the hydrogen combines again
with oxygen and the result is energy to drive the vehicle and the
hydrogen is returned to the environment again in the form of water.
It
sounds like a straight forward process but when considering how
hydrogen energy works there are many stumbling blocks to overcome.
Although the process sounds as if it would be efficient it’s only one
potential method for powering a hydrogen car.
What is hydrogen?
Hydrogen
is all around us but it’s a not a fuel you can mine. It could become
the perfect fuel of the future but the technology has to catch up to the
potential. Hydrogen exists in plant matter (biomass) and in water.
Though the sun is in large part hydrogen gas the gas is so light that it
escapes quickly from the earth’s environment when delivered in the
sun’s rays.
Hydrogen is the simplest element and produces almost
no pollution when burned. It’s abundant on earth and can be found in 90
percent of all the matter on the globe. It can be found in fossil
fuels, plants and all organic matter and, the most enticing of all,
hydrogen is abundant in water. That has led some to proclaim water will
be the coal of the future. In fact, Jules Verne wrote that in 1874
long before the potential hydrogen had been discovered. The prediction
may be fact but there are many challenges to overcome first.
Hydrogen
can’t be found by itself – it binds to other substances. So while it
may be available everywhere, extracting hydrogen is an expensive
process. In fact, the process of extraction is one of the quagmires of
understanding how hydrogen energy works. Separating hydrogen from the substances where it resides requires energy for the process.
Much
of the hydrogen energy used today utilized hydrogen extracted from
fossil fuels. When you react a hydrocarbon source (hydrogen that
resides in a fossil fuel) with steam the resulting products are hydrogen
and carbon monoxide. By converting the carbon monoxide to carbon
dioxide it’s possible to end up with almost pure hydrogen.
It’s
the word “carbon” that is part of the problem. Carbon is a main
contributor to global warming which is also called climate change
depending on which environmental expert you listen to. Though it’s
possible to retrieve hydrogen energy from plants and fossil fuels, the
carbon byproduct and the energy required for the separation process are
not environmentally safe methods. The process is called fossil fuel
reforming and is a critical step on the path to reliance on hydrogen
energy.
Coal gasification to yield hydrogen energy is a
multi-step method that requires energy use from other source at every
step of the process. Some experts question the viability of using one
fuel to create another fuel. They argue that moving carbon from one
form to another results in carbon emissions. The general advice from
many scientific experts is to develop natural gas resources which have
been largely untapped. Expanding use of natural gas would add a cleaner
energy source that is readily available while we further research how
hydrogen energy works and find better ways to separate hydrogen atoms
from water in a way that is safe environmentally and cost effective.
Recent Advances May Change How Hydrogen Energy Works
Recently
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced the development of a
silicon strip that looks like an artificial leaf. This thumb-sized
black strip also resembles a very thin magnet and is capable using solar
energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The announcement was
made only a few weeks ago and to date has not received much media
coverage. However, this could be the breakthrough that leads to
affordable hydrogen energy for the future.
If you drop the
silicon leaf into a glass of water and then hold the glass in the sun,
you will observe bubble caused by the hydrogen and oxygen in the water
separating. This is the technology that was predicted ten years ago and
if it is as feasible as it sounds, it could solve many of the problems
associated with how hydrogen energy works.
The MIT Professor who
developed the new technology over a period of three years says it has
the potential to solve the problem of how to store energy produced by
the sun as well as potential for how to separate hydrogen from water.
Best of all, the “leaf” is made of low-cost materials that are widely
available such as silicon, cobalt and nickel.
It may be years
before the new invention reaches the stage where it can be made
commercial viable. It will require significant funding to move the
initial research into a stage where a larger application can be tested.
In 2009, the Department of Energy withdrew funding for hydrogen energy
research. This had a dampening effect on commercial companies receiving
government research funding but universities continued to carry on with
hydrogen research.
The MIT project may move forward much faster
than projects funded by government agencies with the miles of red tape
and convoluted regulations.
To date, the new leaf strip has
already generated a lot of interest from venture capitalists. It was
venture capital money that funded the research at MIT and raising funds
for this project has been extremely successful.
The potential
for commercializing an inexpensive product that could provide the answer
to storing solar energy in fuel cells at a price that is not out of
reach is exciting. When you add the potential of how hydrogen energy
works and the breakthrough this new product might provide, venture
capitalists are more than willing to provide funding.
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Re: How Does Hydrogen Energy Work? (Score: 1) by nanotech on Thursday, October 20, 2011 @ 19:24:37 UTC (User Info | Send a Message) | This is all good information and I am convinced that molecular nanotechnology based photosynthesis and artificial leaf like machines can be used to produce cheap solar electric conversion foil/cells. But, what needs to be said, time and time again, and developed, is the deeper source of the "hydrogen energy".
William Lyne, engineer and author of Occult Ether Physics, and Pentagon Aliens, has shown that the Atomic Hydrogen Process, in which hydrogen is transformed from a monoatomic to a diatomic state, and back, acts as a gate/door to the energy transmitted through the ether, what Tesla called "Primary Solar Rays", mechanical sound pressure waves through the ether.
All overunity and anomalous energy comes from this source. This can be used through various means, including electrostatic, electromagnetic, magnet systems, and one of the best is to use a synthetic nuclear system, in which you take light atomic elements like lithium and expose them to ultraviolet radiation, and, the atoms transmute and energy is extracted and used, without dangerous radiation.
Joseph Papp used the atomic helium/noble gas process to do the same thing, and this is all "cold fusion" really is, as well as numerous other 'free energy' systems.
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