Oceans Of Fuel - The CON of the OIL Co.'s Enslaving Man

VAST Quanities of LOX and LH Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Hydrogen are CURRENTLY available to INDUSTRY at less than Gasoline Prices. The Chysler Turbine of the 1950s and 60s specially retrofitted with HIGH TEMP Industrial Ceramics WILL RUN Just Fine on LOX and LH. There is NO energy shortage nor fuel crisis, Just Crooked Ass Politicians and the OIL Lobby, WAKE UP Earth has OCEANS OF ENERGY and FUEL

http://www.hydrogen.org/Knowledge/Ecn-h2a.html

http://www.astronautix.com/country/usa.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A429040

http://www.astronautix.com/articles/lunpter4.htm

Artikel/Abstracts - HYDROGEN ENERGY

by Reinhold Wurster and Dr. Werner Zittel, Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik GmbH, Ottobrunn, Germany

Published at the Workshop on Energy technologies to reduce CO2 emissions in Europe: prospects, competition, synergy, Energieonderzoek Centrum Nederland ECN, Petten, April 11-12, 1994

Table of Contents

Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Description of Hydrogen Technologies
3. Current State of Application of Hydrogen Technologies
4. Expected State of the Art in Western Europe by the Year 2020
5. Estimated Technical Potential in Western Europe for the Target Year 2050
6. Remarks on Market Implementation, Public Acceptance, Policy Implications, R&D Priorities, Costs, Barriers, Disclaimers, etc.
7. Literature
8. List of Most Important Abbreviations
9. Parametric Data Sheets for Selected Hydrogen Technologies

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ABSTRACT

A description of the technologies for hydrogen production, conditioning, storage, handling, transport, and for the application in possible transport, domestic, industrial and other uses is given.

The current state of application of hydrogen technologies is depicted and their potentials for development are estimated.

From this information base and on the basis of ongoing R & D activities in the field of hydrogen technologies, the foreseeable possible state of the art for the year 2020 is derived.

The technical potential of hydrogen technologies in all fields of application is developed for the target year 2050 and the penetration of the energy economy is anticipated.

Causes which affect, impede or support the large-scale applications of hydrogen technologies are addressed. Strategic considerations on hydrogen and its future are given.

1. INTRODUCTION

Hydrogen is presently used in the energy sector only in industrial applications. The hydrogen originates almost completely from chemical processes as by-product or as industrial raw material.

When hydrogen is produced as a commercial product, then its usually generated via steam reforming of natural gas, via partial oxidation of oil or via electrolysis of water. Hydrogen is then either an intermediate product, as in the case of ammonia synthesis, or it is an auxiliary agent as in the cases of float glass production, metallurgy, fat hardening, chemicals production, semiconductor industry or generator cooling. One of the few cases where hydrogen is used as a commercial product presently, is the sector of space applications where hydrogen serves as liquid propulsion fuel.

Since several years, hydrogen is discussed as as a component of an electricity-hydrogen energy system, as clean energy carrier and fuel. Mainly due to cost reasons, partly also due to the not yet sufficiently advanced state of infrastructural development, hydrogen has not yet found its way into wider spread energy applications. During the most recent years, several hydrogen demonstration projects have been implemented or initiated worldwide (Solar-Hydrogen-Bavaria/ SWB, Euro-Québec Hydro-Hydrogen Pilot Project/ EQHHPP, World Energy Network Using Hydrogen/ WE-NET). On the other hand, environmental constraints subsequently have led to or spurred discussion on legislatory activities in order to reduce emissions related to fossil energy use (US Clean Air Act/ Californian ULEV and ZERO emission legislation, planned EC energy and CO2 tax). Many specialists see chances for hydrogen applications to emerge in niches such as vehicle applications in polluted metropolitan areas.

2. DESCRIPTION OF HYDROGEN TECHNOLOGIES

Departing from present hydrogen usage, mainly as feedstock for the chemical industry and as liquid fuel (LH2) for space application, hydrogen is gradually on its way to develop to a secondary energy carrier. Thus hydrogen might become a means for energy storage and a medium of energy transport in a possible electricity/ hydrogen energy system. For this purpose it has to be provided on a large-scale and for some time to come electrolytically.

Presently, almost all commercial hydrogen is produced from fossil sources. If hydrogen is produced electrolytically then hydro-electricity is today's source of energy. An overview on hydrogen production and consumption provides table 1 for the cases 'worldwide' and 'Germany'.

Remark: The status and development of currently employed commercial hydrogen technologies is documented in the data sheets of chapter 9. If data given for 2020 or 2050 are identical with 1994 data, no realistic forecasts were available or speculations should be avoided.

2.1 Hydrogen Production and Conditioning Technologies

The presently used concepts for hydrogen production on a commercial basis are steam reforming of natural gas, partial oxidation of oil products and electrolysis of water.

Potential other ways to produce hydrogen are biogenic production, thermolysis and pyrolysis. Out of these, at medium term, pyrolysis of biomass or also water vapour reforming of biomass seem to have good perspectives in an energy economy abating CO2 emissions, besides water electrolysis operated by non-fossil electricity. Hydrogen can be produced from natural gas via steam reforming and CO2 emissions can be postponed or avoided by extracting the CO2 and injecting it into emptied gas field under pressure.

Furthermore, hydrogen can be produced very efficiently from natural gas and electricity completely free of CO2 by production of carbon black as marketable product via the Kværner process.

Table 1: Sectors of Production and Use of Hydrogen

Sectors of Production and Use Germany
World

[109 Nm3/ yr]

Hydrogen Production
Direct Production:

Steam-Reforming of Natural Gas and Naphta

Partial Oxydation of Heavy Oil

Production as By-Product:

Petroleum Industry (Gasoline Reforming)

Petrochem. Industry (Ethylen Production)

Other Chemical Industry

Chlorine Alkali Electrolysis

Coal Refining (Coke Gas)
9.0

6.0

3.0

10.0

2.5

3.6

0.9

0.9

2.1
310

190

120

190

90

33

7

10

50

Total 19.0 500
Hydrogen Application
Non-Energy Use:

Chemical Industry

Metallurgical and Glass Industry

Indirect Energy Use:

Petroleum Industry

Synthetic Fuels

Direct Energy Use:

Industry (Process Heat)

Other Uses
6.4

6.0

0.4

3.6

2.7

0.9

9.0

8.4

0.6
240

230

10

100

160

Total 19.0 500

Status: 1986 / Source: Ad-hoc-Auschuß beim BMFT, Solare Wasserstoffwirtschaft, Bonn, 1988

In order to use gaseous hydrogen in the marketplace, hydrogen has to be conditioned, i.e. transformed into a transportable a/o storable form. For hydrogen transport in gas pipelines it has to be compressed or ad-mixed to natural gas. For long distance transport in smaller quantities the most practical as well as economic way is to transport hydrogen in liquid form at cryogenic temperatures. If hydrogen shall be stored over longer periods (e.g. seasonal storage) it can be transformed into liquid hydrides (methanol, methyl-cyclohexane, ammonia) or stored as pressurized gas in underground caverns. For mobile as well as stationary small-scale storage, hydrogen has to be conditioned preferably to either pressurized gaseous hydrogen, bound to metal hydrides, liquefied at cryogenic temperatures or cryo-adsorbed at an optimized pressure/ temperature balance.

2.2 Hydrogen Storage Technologies

Various storage concepts for hydrogen have been developed in the recent years. The concepts which are already commercial or on the way to commercialization are depicted below:

Gaseous Hydrogen: Moderately pressurized hydrogen at large quantities and as stationary form of storage (several 10,000 Nm3 at about 1 - 1.5 MPa) is stored in spherical vessels. Even larger quatities (several million Nm3 at pressures between 3 to 6 MPa) can be stored in porous aquifer storage caverns underground (e.g. ICI, England).

For some industrial applications hydrogen is stored in small high pressure bottles (50 Nl/ 20 MPa) or in medium size high pressure cylindrical vessels (10 - 20 m3/ > 20 MPa).

High pressure cylindrical storage vessels for pressurized gaseous on-board hydrogen storage in vehicles are presently under development. The pressure levels aimed at are 20-30 MPa. The materials used for advanced tanks are plastic composite structural materials with steel or aluminum liners for the inner vessel.

Metal Hydrides: Metal hydride storages usually are charged with pressurized hydrogen of between 3 and 6 MPa. Suitable metal alloys provide spaces in their lattice where hydrogen atoms can be accommodated. The hydriding heat set free when absorption of hydrogen occurs has to be removed from the hydride storage in order to avoid damage of the storage containers. High temperature hydrides (temperature level at which the hydrogen discharging process starts again) are more efficient than low temperature hydrides. In automobile applications only low temperature waste heat is available from engine cooling. Therefore, mainly low temperature hydrides are used for automobile applications. Most recently experiments with medium temperature hydrides have started. Metal hydride storage systems are also regarded as a very safe way to store hydrogen in domestic applications.

Sponge Iron: The sponge iron storage during the charging process makes use of reduction of Fe3O4 by either hydrogen or carbon monoxide, liberating either water vapour or carbon dioxide and leaving Fe as a product. When discharging of the storage shall occur, water vapour is inserted and clean moist hydrogen gas obtained from the oxidation reaction. Advantage of this process is that hydrogen rich gases obtained from hydrocarbons and used for charging the storage do not need a shift reaction or a selective oxidation downstream. Advantage of this storage concept furthermore is its very low investcosts of approx. 1.5 ECU/ kWh (at least one order of magnitude cheaper than its competitors) and its still acceptable weight (half that of hydrides, double that of pressurized H2 storage) at atmospheric operational pressure levels.

Liquid Hydrogen: LH2 is stored in small tanks of 100 l to up to stationary spherical tanks of some 2,000 m3. All tanks have a vacuum-insulation between inner and outer wall of the tank system. The large volume tanks usually have perlite insulation, whereas the medium to smaller size and all mobile tanks have a vacuum super-insulation consisting of a number of some 30 aluminum foil layers separated by a type of plastic foils or mats.

The evaporation rates (evaporation of LH2 into GH2) of modern LH2 tanks typically are in the order of 0.1% per day for large volume stationary tanks (several 100 m3 to several 1,000 m3), 1% for mobile cylindrical delivery tanks (38 to 55 m3) and around 1.7% - 3% for small vehicle storage tanks (about 100 l to 400 l), depending on the specific requirements and layout.

Cryo-Adsorption: Gaseous hydrogen at low temperatures (150 - 60 K) is physically adsorbed on porous material, mostly active carbon. The storage densities achievable lie between those of LH2 storage systems and high pressure systems. This might provide characteristics requested by mobile applications. At 3.5 MPa some 25 g H2/ l can be stored at 77 K which is about 30% of the density of LH2 or equivalent to 30 MPa pressurized storage. At the same pressure but at 175 K some 8 g H2/ l can be stored which is equivalent to 10 MPa of pressurized storage.

Liquide Hydrides: Liquide hydrides are chemical compounds which have the capability of binding hydrogen, such as methyl-cyclohexane, ammonia, methanol, etc.. The advantage of this method of storing hydrogen is its storability over longer periods in more or less stable conditions. Therefore, it might be possible to store hydrogen in a seasonal storage, i.e. from summer to winter time, in a comparatively small volume and only with hydrogenation and dehydrogenation but without storage losses. The disadvantage of liquid hydride storage for emission-free or reduced automotive applications is the need for on-board dehydrogenation which would require a dehydrogenation unit on-board a vehicle, causing additional dead weight. Also the hydrogen carrier substance (toluene in the case of methyl-cyclohexane) has to be collected and recycled for hydrogenation, representing additional dead weight.

2.3 Hydrogen Transport and Handling

Liquid Hydrogen: Transcontinental transport of liquid hydrogen has been investigated in the EQHHPP /4/ assuming a barge carrier concept. Five vacuum super-insulated tanks of 3,600 m3 (l=29m x d=18 m) geometrical volume, each mounted on a barge, are transported by a specially designed barge carrier ship cross-atlantic. The barges serve as land-side as well as ship-side storage for LH2. The invest costs for one barge are calculated to be in the order of 4½ MECU. The barge carrier capable of accommodating five barge tank containers would lie in the order of 33½ MECU.

The evaporation rate of the designed barge tank will be 0.1 %/d, resulting in a 0.05 MPa pressure build-up during a 9 day 5,500 km voyage across the northern Atlantic. The filling pressure of 0.125 MPa thus will be increased to 0.175 MPa, whereas the maximum allowable pressure would be 0.5 MPa. The barge tanks will be emptied to 5% of its volume, the remaining LH2 assuring cryogenic temperature conditions in the tanks, thus allowing the recirculation of cold gasfied hydrogen to the liquefaction plant and to avoid heating-up and cooling down of the tank which would incur big thermal losses.

An up-scaling of this design would lead to barge tank vessels of approx. 48 m in length and 27 m in diameter and a resulting transport volume of approx. 23,000 m3. Due to very unfavourable ship dimensions (breadth of ship about double breadt of storage vessel) a new ship and vessel design would become necessary, such as e.g. a SWATH-ship design with also disconnectable LH2 transport containers as designed by HDW /8/.

First steps into transcontinental transport of LH2 can be realized also step by step by starting with standardized commercial vacuum super-insulated ISO 40 ft containers (40 m3 LH2) right now. Then switching to larger container designs such as double length 80 ft containers (100 m3) and then jumbo containers (270 - 600 m3) can be made available as soon as markets have developed.

Distribution of LH2 to the consumer via road or rail can be effected by containerized or by trailer transport in existing ISO containers or commercially existing liquid hydrogen truck trailers. Also vehicle refuelling stations for LH2 vehicles will be served by containerized or trailer delivery.

Liquid hydrogen refuelling of hydrogen vehicles and aircraft will be possible with advanced refuelling equipment. Filling nozzles which can be disconnected in cryogenic state will allow the subsequent refuelling of many units in short time, comparable with today's refuelling processes of conventional fuels. Refuelling times of 5 - 15 minutes for cars and buses will be feasible soon and of half an hour for aircraft are expected feasible.

Gaseous Hydrogen: Gaseous hydrogen can be provided via truck delivery in cylindrical high pressure vessels (20 MPa) for very small quanitities and only over short distances economically. In the future, large quantities of gaseous hydrogen can be provided only via centralized and decentralized pressurized pipeline sy