PEOPLE AND THEIR PROBLEMS

New Delhi, 7 October, 2005

Hydrogen Energy Source

TOWARDS CLEAN & GREEN ENERGY FUTURE

By Radhakrishna Rao

The skyrocketing price of the crude oil in the international market continues to impose a heavy strain on the economy of several third world countries, including India, which are fully dependent on petrol and diesel to meet the energy needs of their transport and industrial sector.  Apart from their high cost, the fossil fuels also play a key role in befouling the atmosphere in the urban areas through the release of many harmful pollutants that are a source of health hazards.

Indeed, a study carried out in the United States says that if the transport sector in the country goes in for environmental-friendly energy sources in lieu of the currently used fossil fuels, there could be a drastic decline in the incidence of asthma, respiratory disorders and other potentially life-threatening afflictions.

The study carried out by Mark Jacobson and his colleagues at Stanford University pleaded for the speedy introduction of hydrogen fuel as a replacement to oil.  It pointed out that such a step could reduce death by over 6,000 a year in the country.  Of course, Jacobson and his colleagues envision an era where all the vehicles in the US will be powered by hydrogen fuel to herald a clean and green energy future. 

As it is for the last four decades, spaceships and launch vehicles have been routinely employing the high performance cryogenic engine propelled by the energy released from the burning of hydrogen.  But the costly and complicated cryogenic engine technology used for space propulsion cannot be adopted easily for driving vehicles or running computers.

However, by combing hydrogen fuel with oxygen it is possible to generate a large quantity of electricity along with pure water as an exhaust.  The water so produced is in such a state of purity that astronauts onboard the US space shuttle used to drink the water so produced without hesitation.

Thanks to a project funded by the USAID (United States Agency for International Development), the Pune-based Bajaj Auto Ltd. joined hands with the Energy Conversion Device of Troy in Michigin to develop a fully hydrogen fuel powered autorikshaw concerns the conversion of its conventional combustion engine into the one capable of using hydrogen as an alternate fuel.

Indeed, this new avatar of the three wheeler has been projected as a major initiative towards minimizing the rigours of climatic changes brought about by an increased emission of green house gases.  For many years now, burning of fossil fuels has been considered a major contributor to the increasing volume of green house gases circulating in the global atmosphere.

Despite many constrains, the hydrogen fuel cell technology envisioned by Geoffrey Ballad is slowly gaining in popularity with many of the automobile giants taking up high profile projects to develop a commercially viable and functionally efficient hydrogen fuel cell system.  As it is, fuel cell is just like any other battery to the extent it generates electricity to propel a vehicle in the desired direction.  However, technological constraints and cost factors are impeding the popularization of hydrogen fuel cell as a source of clean energy to drive an increasing number of vehicles on the roads of the world.

Though a variety of fuel cell types are in vogue, all of them function on somewhat similar principle.  To begin with, the hydrogen is fed into the anode where a catalyst separates hydrogen’s negatively charged electrons from positively charges ions.  Thereafter, electrons are made to move through the electrolyte to cathode to combine with oxygen to produce electricity and water.  A hydrogen fuel cell can be kept operational without let or hindrance by refueling it with hydrogen obtained from a convenient source.

Obviously, hydrogen is considered both renewable and eco-friendly.  However, the biggest hindrance in the mass use of hydrogen fuel cell is the lack of practical storage methods.  For the fuel cells to be functionally efficient need to be maintained either at an extremely low temperature or at a high pressure.  Right at the moment, some of the major thrust areas of research aimed at turning hydrogen fuel cell into a popular energy source include increasing the power to weight density, zeroing in low cost and high performance material, reducing the complexity and streamlining manufacturing process for an economically viable production of hydrogen fuel cells. 

Use of Nano technology and smart materials are expected to lead to the development of fuel cells whose energy generation “Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe” says David Mao, a visiting scientist in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago.  He along with the graduate student Wendy Mao has developed an icy material made of molecular hydrogen that requires less stringent temperature and pressure storage condition for operation.  “The new class of compounds, offer a possible alternate route for technologically useful hydrogen storage” says Russel Hemley, a senior scientist at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institute in Washington.

On the other hand, researchers at the Texas Centre for Superconductivity and Advanced Materials of University of Houston have engineered a method to devise a “solid oxide” fuel cell that functions at half the temperature of the currently operational hydrogen fuel cell systems.  Both General Motor (GM) and Boeing are working towards developing hydrogen fuel cells and hope to hit the target by 2010.  As it is GM has achieved some success in demonstrating that compressed hydrogen and wire technology could benefit automobile uses to a large extent.

Some fine-tuning regarding the cost, reliability and ability to store hydrogen in cars could make thing smooth for use of fuel cells as the convenient driving energy source.  Boeing on the other hand is keen on engineering a hydrogen fuel cell for use in aircraft.  But Boeing had made it clear that at the present level of technological growth, hydrogen fuel cells are not economically viable option for aircraft.

The California-based outfit Ultra Cell has succeeded in developing a light weight and high performance hydrogen fuel cell weighing just 1.3 kg.  In fact, Ultra Cell achieved a breakthrough in converting methanol into hydrogen inside the device to generate power.  But the hindrance is that this involves a chemical reaction running at about 280 degrees Celsius.  As such the crux of the problem is how to minimize the temperature to render the system an operationally viable unit. 

In the ultimate analysis, a number of technological challenges need to be surmounted to create an ideal hydrogen fuel cell wherein hydrogen combines with oxygen to produce power within the permissible range of pressure and temperature.  And, of course, the cost of a hydrogen fuel cell would also need to be brought down by a substantial extent in order to make it a popular energy source.---INFA

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