Hydrogen The Future Energy Sources For Fuel

Burned or used in fuel cells, hydrogen is an appealing option for powering future automobiles. This nontoxic gas could serve as a pollution-free energy carrier for machines of many kinds. When it burns, it releases no carbon .dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas.
And if hydrogen is fed into a fuel cell stack a battery like device that generates electricity from hydrogen and oxygen it can propel an electric car or truck with only heat and water as by products. Fuel-cell powered vehicles could offer more than twice the efficiency of today’s automobiles. Hydrogen could, therefore, help ease environmental problems, including air pollution and its hazards.

Weight for weight, hydrogen contains three times the energy of gasoline (petrol) but it is impossible to store hydrogen gas as compactly as the conventional liquid fuel. One of the most challenging technical issues is how to efficiently and safely store enough hydrogen onboard to provide the driving range and performance the motorists demand. Feasible storage devices hold sufficient hydrogen to support today’s minimum acceptable travel (driving range–almost 500 kms)–on a fuel tank that does not compromise on luggage room. These tanks have to be filled or recharged in a few minutes. Lot many researchers in the U8 Internal Energy Agency are expending considerable effort to overcome these limitations. Infact, 17 governments are committed to advancing hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies. In 2005 the US Department of Energy provide4 $ 30 million to fund the 80 research projects.

A 500 km. minimum driving range is one of the principal operational aims of the auto industry. Engineers believe that a~allon of gasoline is equal,on an energy basis, to a kilogram of hydrogen.(One US gallon is almost 3.8 litres) Whereas today’s automobile needs about 20 gallons of gasoline to travel 500 km.,the typical fuel-cell vehicle would need only 8 kilograms of hydrogen. Several automakers have tested about 60 hydrogen -fuelled prototypes and demonstrated driving ranges of 200 to 300 kms.

By 2010 some auto companies expect the first production of fuelcell cars to hit-the road. A hydrogen storage system must carry enough fuel for at least a 500 km trip and also be light enough to haul around a car. For a system weighing 600 kilograms (a reasonable~ size of a vehicle) ,six kgs. would be stored hydroge
1000
n. Liquified stored hydrogen can improve it’s stored energy density and could be used in cars, it drawbacks notwithstanding. Neverthe less, One world-renowned carmakerBMW is pushing this technology onto the road. The vehicle called HYDROGEN-7 will incorporate an ,internal combustion engine capable of running on either gasoline for 500 Kms.or on liquid hydrogen for 250 kms.

Chemical compaction: to raise energy density scientists have been able to take advantage of the chemistry of hydrogen itself. In it~ liquid phase, hydrogen molecules contain two bound atoms each. But when hydrogen molecules are chemically bound to certain other elements, they can be packed even closer together than in liquid hydrogen.

Some researchers are focusing on a class of substances called reversible metal hydrides, which were discovered by accident in 1969 at the Philips Laboratories in the Netherlands. Investigators found that a Samarium-Cobalt alloy when exposed to pressurized hydrogen gas it would absorb hydrogen, somewhat like a sponge soaks up water. When the pressure was then removed ,the hydrogen within the alloy reemerged in other words, the process was reversible,
In the US, scientists like Jame Reilly and Gary Sandrock,pioneered the development of hydride alloys. This work formed the basis for today’s widely used Nickel-Metal hydride batteries.The density of hydrogen in these alloys is 150 % more than liquid hydrogen! Such properties of metal hydrides are well suited to automobiles. Although the current metal hydrides have limitations, many automakers see them as the most viable low-pressure approaching the near future. Toyota and Honda automotive engineers, are planning a so-called hybrid approach in a system that combines a solid metal hydride with moderate pressure (lower than 10,000 psi) ,which they predict could achieve a driving range of more than 500 kms.

Designeer Materials: recent developments in nanoscale engineering have yielded a host of new high-surface-area materials, some with ~ more than 5,000 sq.mt. of surface area per gram of material. Carbon -based materials are mostly light weight and low cost. Over the centuries ,the basic promise -and challenge-of using hydrogen for transportatiQ1has remained fundamentally unchanged. Nevertheless finding a suitable container to store hydrogen in automobiles will soon permit people tp travel across the globe in the next decade without fouling or polluting the sky above us.

By: Archna Gupta

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Archna Gupta is a veteran in the marketing of Internet and writing of the articles on the range of subjects. For any information on currently working on India Holidays and online india travel

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Look at the calculator on your desk. Chances are the sun powers your calculator. Just check for the familiar small, dark gray panels on the front of the calculator. If they are there, your calculator operates with solar panel technology.

How does that little solar cell do its job? It uses photovoltaic cells. Photovoltaic (PV) comes from the words light (photo) and electricity (voltaic). Photovoltaic cells or modules (groups of cells) convert the light of the sun directly into electricity. It may seem exotic to use photovoltaic cells to power a small hand calculator, but solar panel technology is being applied to more every day.

Here’s how PV cells turn sunlight into electricity. They are made of materials called semiconductors. A frequently used semiconductor is silicon. When the sun strikes the semiconductor, the silicon soaks up some of the light. This transmits the energy within the sunlight to the semiconductor.

The energy breaks the electrons free, permitting them to flow unrestricted. To make something useful of all these free-floating electrons, the cells use electric or magnetic fields that drive the free electrons to flow like river, creating a current.

By inserting metal contacts at the top and bottom of the PV cell, we can extract the current to power something outside the cell. And there you have the basics to all solar panel technology. The total wattage (or power) is determined by the extracted current added to the cell’s voltage.

Advances in solar panel technology may actually see the panel itself disappear. The newest and most promising advance is the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) technology. In 1991Michael Gratzel, a chemist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology pioneered DSC (also called Gratzel cells).

DSC solar panel technology is designed in layers. A photosensitive layer composed of nano-sized, ultrathin semiconductor crystals over a fine layer of titanium dioxide. When sunlight hits the photosensitive layer, the loose electrons collect on the layer of titanium dioxide and produce an electrical current. A dye made of amorphous organic material covers the titanium dioxide — the dye absorbs sunlight and attracts free-flowing electrons, which creates a charge.

DSC lends itself to thin layers of photosensitive film. This transparent, lightweight, flexible and low-cost, sheets or dye film can be applied to the windows of your house or car, even to your sunglasses. The film generates a charge that can be applied to a small battery to power anything, including your phone or MP3 device.

The military even has applications for the DCS solar panel technology. The film can be applied to tents to power lights and laptops. In larger applications, it could power entire command centers. It could cover backpacks or be made into wearable solar panels and power a soldier’s electrical devices, eliminating the need for bulky and heavy supplies of batteries.

Jeff Fisher is a renewable energy enthusiast. You’ll finds tons of helpful green energy information at http://renewableenergysimplified.com/.

Do-It-Yourselfers can Take Action Today! With my FREE e-Course you can cut electricity bills by 70%.

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