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Hydrogen
Saif Serag, Rachid Benchrifa
Physics Department, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco
Email: saifserag75@gmail.com, rachid.benchrifa@gmail.com.
Hydrogen :
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. It represents 75% of the mass matter and
about 90% of the atoms. It is abundant in stars and giant gaseous planets, but it is very small in the
Earth's atmosphere. The most common material containing is water, in addition to several other
sources such as natural gas and coal Fossil fuels, especially methane.
Hydrogen properties:
It is the lightest material with a single atomic number, which is colorless, tasteless and odorless. It is
also very flammable and is a clean energy carrier. Hydrogen generators are the lowest in emitting
carbon dioxide and other contaminants.
2
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
gasolin electric feul cell using feul cell using H2 cell H2 cell
motor motor & gasolin methanol production production
gasolin by methan by wind
machin energy
(figure5)comparsion for co2 emmission between diffrente car motors
The hydrogen generator is the least polluted among all the generators. It has almost no pollution.
Gasoline is the most polluting of the environment, so we know the importance of energy production
by hydrogen as it is cleaner and environmentally friendly.
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Usage of hydrogen :
1) Used in the ammonia production
CH4 + H2O → CO + 3H
In a second phase, additional amounts of hydrogen are generated as a result of the heat-diffusing
reaction, a gas-water reaction:
CO + H2O → CO2 + H2
During this reaction, an oxygen atom is stripped of the added water vapor for CO oxidation to
CO2. This oxidation process provides energy to the medium. The process can be powered by
burning a section of methane
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C + H2O → CO + H2
2- The temperature drops to about 800 ° C, which enters the current step air (4N + O2), which reacts
with the carbon and causes the temperature to rise again to about 1200 C because it is a reaction of
diffuse heat:
3. In the final step, the water gas is treated with water vapor in the degree C ° 045 with a medium of
iron oxide
• Biochemical method
Algae and blue bacteria have gained major concerns as potential cell manufacturers to produce
hydrogen. In conjunction with photosynthesis, these organisms use inexpensive inorganic substrates
and solar energy for simultaneous bio-synthesis and hydrogen evolution. However, hydrogen
production associated with these organisms is still too low to compete with existing chemical systems
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Saif Serag, Rachid Benchrifa hydrogen
Is the process of passing a constant current in water leads to its analysis of its main components,
namely hydrogen and oxygen
The device analysis process is shown in Fig
Where a continuous electrical source uses its negative electrode called a cathode and its positive
polynomial called anode being immersed in water where electrolysis is performed according to the
equation
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Saif Serag, Rachid Benchrifa hydrogen
Anode: -
Cathode: -
It should be considered that the water solution is not pure because the pure water is not conveyor for an
insulator, and the analysis poles must be made of corrosion resistant materials, in addition to a broken
dinner that prevents the mixing of hydrogen gas with oxygen
The amount of hydrogen produced by the water analysis process is twice that of the oxygen, due to the
water structure of the hydrogen atom and the single oxygen atom
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Note : we can to calcule kWh cost from PEM electrolysis by this relation
The quantity of outputs can be calculated through the Faraday law of analysis where it can be
mathematically formulated:
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This is a table showing the production of some types of analysis stations per
day and year:
(Table5) Type of electrolysis station
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Thermal analysis:
In this process, the water temperature is raised to about 2500 ° C. The water dissolves into hydrogen
and oxygen, but this temperature is very large and cannot be obtained in a simple way so it is
expensive and almost impossible because the combustion of hydrogen cannot reach water for this
value unless used Solar furnaces
Hydrogen storage: -
It is necessary to store hydrogen for different uses. The storage of hydrogen is one of the problems
facing researchers because of its very small atomic volume, which facilitates leakage from the
reservoirs so that it should be safer as well as the cost problem as the cost of storage of hydrogen is
high in many storage methods.
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Hydrogen can be stored in its gaseous state or liquid or solid state. We will now review hydrogen
storage methods and the advantages and disadvantages of each method
For calculate kWh cost from storag :
𝑇𝑂𝑇𝐴𝐿 𝐿𝐼𝐹𝐸 𝐶𝑌𝐶𝐿𝐸 𝐶𝑂𝑆𝑇
(levelized cost of energy) LCOE =
𝑇𝑂𝑇𝐴𝐿 𝐿𝐼𝐹𝐸𝑇𝐼𝑀𝐸 𝐸𝑁𝐸𝑅𝐺𝑌 𝑃𝑅𝑂𝐷𝑈𝐶𝑇𝐼𝑂𝑁
Gas hydrogen: -
Storage of hydrogen and its gas is one of the most common methods. It is stored in tanks in this
condition and under pressures ranging from 350 to 700 bar. These tanks are designed to be lightweight
and safe to avoid hydrogen leakage. Increase the volume capacity of tanks by cooling the tank to 169 °
C - 77 kB which is commercially available
Its disadvantages are the high cost of $ 500-600 per kilogram of hydrogen and with the development
of the manufacture of these reservoirs, but it suffers from loss in hydrogen if used in the long term in
addition to the effect of hydrogen on the constituent materials of the tank is not understood so now still
need some kind of Research and development to develop this process to reduce cost, size and safety as
well as the development of technology to restore the energy of pressure and storage during operation
as it uses 20% of energy
Liquid hydrogen:-
Hydrogen gas can be converted into liquid by applying low pressure on the gas and then cooling it to -
253C ° with helium gas, which reaches a density of 70.8 kg / m3. This means that the liquid hydrogen
density is much greater than the gas and this reduces the loss of hydrogen, The method is expensive
for both liquid conversion and storage, where 25-45% of stored energy is stored in hydrogen, in
addition to the problem of re-evaporation of liquefied hydrogen as well as the risk of pressure and
cooling, making the system unsafe
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Solid hydrogen: -
It is one of the safest and safest ways to store hydrogen either in the form of physisorption,
chemisorption or nanostructure, and we will review the most common methods used to determine the
mechanism in which solid hydrogen is stored.
1. Adsorption method: -
Adsorption is the method of accumulating atoms or molecules of gas on the surface of a solid material,
ie, the aggregation of a substance on the surface of another absorbent material and is classified as
physisorption where the physical forces of Van der Waals weak physical strength is achieved only at
low temperatures and increase the pressure of gas and decrease in high temperature
Most of the materials used for industrial adsorption fall into one of three categories :
1. Oxygen-containing compounds - usually hydrophobic, and polarity, including substances such as
silica gel and zeolite.
2. Carbon-based compounds, including substances such as activated carbon and graphite.
3. Polymer compounds - polar or non-polar materials in the perforated polymer matrix.
Both of the above materials are characterized by high porosity and a large surface area that can absorb
a large part of the gases under certain conditions of pressure and temperature. To ensure that large
volumes of hydrogen can be stored, granules from the base material are used to increase the bonding
surfaces and are then supplied with hydrogen by injecting hydrogen at high pressures into the reservoir
filled with fine particles of the substance
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2. Absorption method: -
The use of solid, liquid, and absorbent carbon compounds as well as nanotubes, are the main ways to
chemically bind hydrogen. It is the safest way, as no hydrogen will be released in the event of an
emergency, but it is large and heavy. Metal hydrides such as LaNi5, Mg2Ni, FeTi are used to store
hydrogen by chemically binding to the surface of the material. To ensure that large volumes of
hydrogen can be stored, granules from the base material are used to increase the bonding surfaces. The
material is then filtered by hydrogen injection at high pressure in the tank filled with fine particles of
matter, the process of binding hydrogen with the material is associated with the release of quantities of
heat, and this temperature must be re-introduced to separate the hydrogen from the material again
Hydrate: -
Hydrate is a mixture of hydrogen and one or more other elements, in which the links may be very
different in nature (ionic, covalent, metal or mixed)
To store hydrogen, we are interested in metal hydrides that are usually produced from a combination
of hydrogen with transition elements or some of their alloys (2TiH, LaNi5H6, 1FeTiH). These
compounds have a strongly marked metal character, so much so that they can be considered as metal-
hydrogen alloys
The following table shows some of the common hydrate types used for absorption as well as the
percentage of hydrogen absorbed as well as the absorption temperature of each metal
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Hydrates of metals such as hydrogen hydride release hydrogen at high temperatures between 550-
600 k. Hydrogen is chemically linked to magnesium, as is the case with all hydrids, where hydrogen is
released only at high temperature and pressure
2. Carbon nanotubes: -
Carbon nanotubes have the capacity to store between 4.2 - 65% of their weight of hydrogen, and if
they are produced in a large and economical manner, 13.2 liters of carbon nanotubes contain the same
amount of energy as 50 liters of the fuel tank. The relatively low density and high porosity help due to
the large surface area of the potential for physical adsorption of carbon nanotubes that may solve the
hydrogen storage problem. However, practical experiments have shown that the current pipe capacity
does not exceed 0.01% and the pipe quantity is 0.2% of the sample. In total carbon high porosity at
room temperature and pressure 11.35 mpa The storage ratio was 11.26% Block for pipes, 67.55% for
carbon fiber and 4.25% for graphite These values have launched many kinds researches to understand
the process of physical adsorption and storage of hull molecules Drogen in nanotubes Since the case is
physical and depends on the strength of Vander Falls, the simulation idea was introduced, which gave
an average of 6.3 kJ / mol compared to the 4 kJ / mol adsorption card,
Carbon nanotubes have the ability to release hydrogen at room temperature because it is physically
adsorbed on the surface of the tube to allow a small amount of heat to be released.
Scientists have found during many years of research and research that the most promising mineral that
can be practically used to store hydrogen in hydride & magnesium. It has low density (4.5 times
lighter than iron and 1.5 times lighter than aluminum), relatively low cost and theoretically can react
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with 7.66% hydrogen per block. However, it is extremely difficult to achieve maximum value, and this
issue is being worked out by scientists all over the world. Work must be done to become a magnesium
powder material that can be used in the system several times. In addition, the temperature of the
hydrogen release (hydrogen hydride giving the hydrogen at 360 ° C) and increasing the flow rate of
hydrogen saturation reaction (hydrogen hydrogenation) should be reduced (this is necessary for the
tank to be fully filled with hydrogen within 5 minutes rather than within half an hour). .
Hydrogen transfer: -
Hydrogen can be transported in several ways depending on the state of hydrogen (solid,
liquid, gaseous). The cost of conduction depends on the distance to which the hydrogen is
transported. If hydrogen is in a solid or gaseous state, it can be transported in tanks loaded
on trucks or filled in cylinders, And then transferred to the point of consumption as in Fig
Figure 16
Or transfer through long pipelines from the production area to the point of consumption The
following table shows transport costs for liquid and gas situations:
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The following table shows the prices of pipelines according to their diameter
3 400,000
9 900,000
12 1,000,000
14 1,400,000
And do not forget to mention that there are taxes for transportation as in the United States of America
up to half a dollar or 0.38 euros per gallon
If the solid state is filled with containers or cylinders under certain conditions (pressure and
temperature) The cost of solid-state trailers in the Hydrexia company about half the capital
cost ($/kg) of the conventional tube trailers and can reduce the total cost of hydrogen delivery
by 30 -40%. Hydrogen can also be stored in solid sheets, containing approximately 500 liters,
as shown in the figure below
Greatest hydrogen storage - can density solid state trailer carry up to 900 kg of hydrogen in
one trip, ie three times more than a standard tube trailer
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Anode: is the negative electrode of the fuel cell, has many functions. Administers electrons
released from the hydrogen molecules so they can be used in an external circuit. They have
channels in which hydrogen gas is distributed evenly over the catalyst surface.
Cathode : is the positive electrode of the fuel cell and contains channels on which the oxygen
is distributed on the surface of the catalyst. It also introduces electrons from the outer circuit
to the catalyst, where they can be regrouped with hydrogen ions and oxygen to form water.
Electrolyte: is a proton exchange membrane. This specially processed material only charges
positively charged ions. The membrane obscures the electrons. The membrane must be
moistened to function and remain constant.
Catalyst: A special substance that facilitates the interaction of oxygen and hydrogen. They
are usually made of nanoparticles coated well on carbon paper or cloth. The catalyst is stiff
and thick so that the maximum surface area of the platinum can be exposed to hydrogen or
oxygen. The platinum side of the catalyst envelope faces.
The fuel cells (the proton exchange membrane) which is in the heart of the cell is called the
proton exchange membrane. It allows protons to pass through them unhindered, while
electrons are blocked. So, when the H2 hits the catalyst and is divided into protons and
electrons (remember, the proton is the same as the H + ion), the protons go directly to the
cathode side, forcing the electrons to travel through an outer circle. Along the way perform
useful work, such as lamp lighting or drive, before combining protons and O2 on the other
side to produce water.
How does it works? Compressed hydrogen gas (H2) enters the fuel cell on the anode side.
This gas is forced through the catalyst by pressure. When the H2 molecule touches the
platinum on the catalyst, it is divided into two H + ions and two electrons (e-). The electrons
are made through the anode, making their way through the outer circle (doing useful work
such as engine operation) and returning to the cathode side of the fuel cell.
Meanwhile, on the cathode side of the fuel cell, oxygen gas (O2) is forced through the
catalyst, forming two atoms of oxygen. Each of these atoms has a strong negative charge.
This negative charge attracts H + ions across the membrane, where they combine with an
oxygen atom and two electrons from the outer circle to form a water molecule (H2O).
All this interaction occurs in the so-called heap cells. Experience also includes setting up a
complete system around the core component which is the cell stack.
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Due to highly efficient hydrogen content of the fuel cells (55%), this remarkable technique
can be used in many applications such as transportation (cars, buses, forklifts, etc.) and
backup power to produce electricity during an electrical network failure.
For calculate 1kWh adding cost from fuel cell :
𝑇𝑂𝑇𝐴𝐿 𝐿𝐼𝐹𝐸 𝐶𝑌𝐶𝐿𝐸 𝐶𝑂𝑆𝑇
(levelized cost of energy) LCOE =
𝑇𝑂𝑇𝐴𝐿 𝐿𝐼𝐹𝐸𝑇𝐼𝑀𝐸 𝐸𝑁𝐸𝑅𝐺𝑌 𝑃𝑅𝑂𝐷𝑈𝐶𝑇𝐼𝑂𝑁
1𝑘𝑊 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡
1kWh =
1𝑘𝑤∗𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒(ℎ)∗𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟
Technology advantages: -
By converting potential energy directly into electrical energy, the fuel cells avoid "thermal
pressure" (as a result of the second law of thermodynamics) and are therefore more efficient
than combustion engines, which must first convert potential energy into heat, then
mechanical work.
The direct emission of fuel cell machines has been just water and little heat. This significantly
improves the engines of the internal combustion engine of greenhouse gases.
Fuel cells do not contain moving parts. They are therefore more reliable than traditional
engines.
Hydrogen can be produced in an environmentally friendly manner while extracting and
refining oil is extremely harmful.
The prices of fuel cell devices to generate electricity in the range of 1-3 kW range from 3800-
22800 euros and these prices have a tendency to decline with the development of
manufacturing
The estimated cost of producing 1 kW of fuel-cell power for a system price of 1,200-1,500 €
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Energy generators: -
There are different types of fuel supplied by generators such as gasoline, diesel, gas and other
fuels. However, hydrogen can be used to supply these generators. For example, Ballard Power
System, in cooperation with Ford Power Product, introduced the first power generator with an
internal combustion engine The Oxtar model was capable of generating a voltage between
120 and 480 volts at a frequency of 50-60 Hz and manufactured energy sources similar to the
market, especially from Asian companies
Hydrogen has also been introduced as a fuel for gas turbines in the past years. Power is
generated through turbines that use the heat energy generated by the combustion of hydrogen
to generate steam, which is a very fast-moving cycle that rotates the turbine,
The disadvantage of this method is that the turbines were low at less than 35%
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The Hindenburg disaster in Lake Hurst, New Jersey, on May 6, 1937, put an end to the life of
the hydrogen airship. Where a hydrogen explosion killed 35 people in the airship and one
member of the crew, but a miracle remained 62 out of 97 passengers and crew. After more
than 30 years of passenger travel on a commercial balloon - tens of thousands of passengers
flying a million miles - on more than 2,000 flights without a single injury - the era of the
balloon has ended.
References
1) https://tophat.com/marketplace/science-&-math/earth-sciences/textbooks/the-human-planet-human-
geography-in-the-anthropocene-demian-hommel/535/29480
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine
3) https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/wind-power2.htm
4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insular_energy_system
5) Electrical Energy Storagen https://www.iec.ch/whitepaper/pdf/iecWP-energystorage-LR-en.pdf
6) IEA Statistics © OECD/IEA, iea.org/stats/index.asp
7) Wind-turbin-models.com
8) COST ANALYSIS OF HYDROGEN ENERGY GENERATION
Karol Grab-Rogalinski, Stanislaw Szwaja
9) 2014 سوريا-تقييم عملية فصل الماء الى مكوناتح بوجود محفزوضوئي (وسام نزية عبد القادر) جامعة دمشق
10) 2011 اقتصاديات الهيدروجين وامكانيات تحقيق التنمية المستدامة (امال رحمن) (سلمى عائشة)جامعة ورقلة
11) Hydrogen economy – Wikipedia
12) http://electricity-world.blogspot.com
13) http://www.mpoweruk.com/index.htm
14) الهيدروجين وقود المستقبل
a. ) 2015-2014 حسن الشيحاوي( سوريا, جعفر اسكاف, محمد عابد شنن مجد بليدي, يزن زيدان,كرم شبيب
15) Hydrogen for Large-scale Electricity Generation in USA Deepak Prakash President, Global Energy Network
Institute (GENI) 2011
16) Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cells, Strategic Roadmap 2011
17) STOCKAGE DE L’HYDROGENE DANS LES SOLIDES www.nesshy.net
www.mcphy.com
Magnesium-based hydrides as promising candidates for competitive hydrogen storage Highly cited
paper IJHE DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2006.11.022
18) Economics of wind energy (M.Ragheb 2017)
19) Wind Electrolysis: Hydrogen Cost Optimization Genevieve Saur, Todd Ramsden Prepared under Task No.
H271.3710 May 2011
20) http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2013/acs-presspac-august-28-2013/producing-
hydrogen-from-water-with-carbon-charcoal-powder.html
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21) Techno-economic Analysis of PEM Electrolysis for Hydrogen Production Whitney G. Colella Brian D. James Jennie
M. Moton NREL Genevieve Saur Todd Ramsden 27 February 2014
22) PEM Electrolysis H2A Production Case Study Documentation Prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy Fuel Cell
Technologies Office 31 December 2013 By: Brian James (SA) Whitney Colella (SA) Jennie Moton (SA)
23) Costs of Storing and Transporting Hydrogen Wade A. Amos National Renewable Energy Laboratory
24) An economic analysis of the production of hydrogen from wind-generated electricity for use in transport
applications Philippe Menanteau, Marie-Marguerite Quéméré, Alain Le Duigou, Sandra Le Bastard
http://solarcellcentral.com/cost_page.html
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