HYDROGEN

B. B. ALE
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Pulchowk Campus, Institute of Engineering
Tribhuvan University
 HYDROGEN DATA
Properties Values
Lower heating value 33.33 kWh/kg 120 MJ/kg
Higher heating value 39.41 kWh/kg 141.86 MJ/kg
Density 0.0899 kg/Nm3 70.79 kg/m3 LH2
Boiling point 20.390 K (0.1013 MPa)
Specific heat capacity Cp = 14.199 kJ/kg K Cv = 10.074 kJ/kg K
Explosion limits in air 4.0 – 75.0% by volume
Detonation limits in air 18.3 – 59.0% by volume
Diffusion coefficient 0.61 cm2/s (4 times as high as that for CH4)
Energy content 1 Nm3 H2 = 0.34 l gasoline
(equivalent based on 1 l LH2 = 0.27 l gasoline
lower heating value)
1 kg H2 = 2.75 kg gasoline

Source: http://www.hyweb.de
SAFETY
 HYDROGEN ECONOMY

Source: www.efcf.com/reports
Hydrogen is not a natural fuel, but a synthetic energy
carrier. It only carries energy generated by other
processes.
For example, hydrogen may be produced from electricity by
electrolysis of water.
However, high-grade electrical energy is also required to
compress or liquefy it, and to transport, transfer and store
it. Moreover, in many cases, hydrogen offers little or no
end-use advantage over the source energy.
For example, in all stationary applications, hydrogen would
compete with grid electricity, which could be distributed
directly to the end user with much lower energy losses.
 SAFETY ASPECTS OF HYDROGEN
• Hydrogen is
– not detonative at open air
– not decomposing
– not auto-igniting
– not oxidizing
– not toxic
– not corrosive
– not radioactive
– not badly smelling
– not contagious
– not endangering water
– not damaging the fetus (teratogenic)
– not causing cancer (carcinogenic)
 SAFETY ASPECTS OF HYDROGEN
• Hydrogen is lighter than air and vanishes
rapidly upwards.
• Hydrogen has a high diffusion coefficient (four
times that of methane) and dilutes rapidly in
air.
• Hydrogen has significantly narrower
detonation limits in air than explosion limits –
when ignited early, it burns before detonation
limits are reached.
• Hydrogen burns with an invisible flame with
very little heat radiated from the flame.
• Hydrogen is colorless and odorless.
 PROBLEM WITH THE FOSSIL FUEL ECONMY
• Our AUTOMOBILES, trains and planes are fueled
almost exclusively by petroleum products like gasoline
and diesel. A huge percentage of our power plants use
oil, natural gas and coal for their fuel.
• Air pollution - When cars burn gasoline, they would
ideally burn it perfectly and create nothing but carbon
dioxide and water in their exhaust. Unfortunately, the
internal combustion engine is not perfect. In the process
of burning the gasoline, it also produces:
– Carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas
– Nitrogen oxides, the main source of urban smog
– Unburned hydrocarbons, the main source of urban ozone
• Environmental pollution - The process of transporting
and storing oil has a big impact on the environment
whenever something goes wrong. An oil spill, pipeline
explosion or well fire can create a huge mess.
 PROBLEM WITH THE FOSSIL FUEL ECONMY
• Global warming - When you burn a gallon of gas in your car,
you emit about 5 pounds (2.3 kg) of carbon into the
atmosphere. If it were solid carbon, it would be extremely
noticeable -- it would be like throwing a 5-pound bag of sugar
out the window of your car for every gallon of gas burned. But
because the 5 pounds of carbon comes out as an invisible
gas, carbon dioxide, most of us are oblivious to it. The carbon
dioxide coming out of every car's tailpipe is a greenhouse
gas that is slowly raising the temperature of the planet. For
example, if the ice caps melt, sea level will rise significantly,
flooding and destroying all coastal cities in existence today.
That's a big side effect.
• Dependence - The United States, and most other countries,
cannot produce enough oil to meet demand, so they import it
from oil-rich countries. That creates an economic
dependence. When Middle East oil producers decide to raise
the price of oil, the rest of the world has little choice but to pay
the higher price.
 ADVANTAGES OF HYDROGEN ECONOMY
• The elimination of pollution caused by fossil fuels - When
hydrogen is used in a fuel cell to create power, it is a
completely clean technology. The only byproduct is water.
There are also no environmental dangers like oil spills to
worry about with hydrogen.
• The elimination of greenhouse gases - If the hydrogen
comes from the electrolysis of water, then hydrogen adds no
greenhouse gases to the environment. There is a perfect
cycle -- electrolysis produces hydrogen from water, and the
hydrogen recombines with oxygen to create water and power
in a fuel cell.
• The elimination of economic dependence - The elimination
of oil means no dependence on the Middle East and its oil
reserves.
• Distributed production - Hydrogen can be produced
anywhere that you have electricity and water. People can
even produce it in their homes with relatively simple
technology.
TWO POSSIBLE SOURCES FOR THE HYDROGEN

• Electrolysis of water - Using electricity, it is easy to split

water molecules to create pure hydrogen and oxygen.
One big advantage of this process is that you can do it
anywhere. For example, you could have a box in your
garage producing hydrogen from tap water, and you
could fuel your car with that hydrogen.
• Reforming fossil fuels - Oil and natural gas contain
hydrocarbons -- molecules consisting of hydrogen and
carbon. Using a device called a fuel processor or a
reformer, you can split the hydrogen off the carbon in a
hydrocarbon relatively easily and then use the hydrogen.
You discard the leftover carbon to the atmosphere as
carbon dioxide.
 RENEWABLE SOURCES OF HYDROGEN
• To have a pure hydrogen economy, the hydrogen must be
derived from renewable sources rather than fossil fuels so
that we stop releasing carbon into the atmosphere.
• Several different ways to create electricity that do not use fossil
fuels
– Nuclear power
– Hydroelectric dams
– Solar cells
– Wind turbines
– Geothermal power
– Wave and tidal power
– Co-generation (For example, a sawmill might burn bark to create power,
or a landfill might burn methane that the rotting trash produces.)
• But changing the power plants over to nuclear and solar may
not be so easy. Nuclear power has
political and environmental problems, and solar power currently
has cost and location problems.
 HYDROGEN PRODUCTION
• Steam reforming of natural gas
• Coal gasification
• Biomass gasification
• Electrolysis of water
• Thermolysis and thermo-chemical cycles
 The reactions at the cathode are:
ELECTROLYSIS CELL (1) K+ + e– => K
a positively charged potas-sium ion is
reduced
(2) K + H2O => K+ + H + OH–
the ion reacts with water to form a
hydrogen atom and a hydroxyl ion
(3) H + H => H2
the highly reactive hydrogen atom then
bonds to the metal of the cathode and
combines with another bound hydrogen
atom to form a hydrogen molecule that
leaves the cathode as a gas
The reactions at the anode are:
(1) OH– =>OH + e–
a negatively charged hy-droxyl ion is
oxidized
(2) OH => ½H2O + ½O
the ion reacts to form water and an oxygen
atom
(3) O + O => O2
the highly reactive oxygen atom then bonds
to the metal of the anode and com-bines
with another bound oxygen atom to form an
oxygen molecule that leaves the anode as
a gas
 STEAM REFORM PROCESS WATER/GAS SHIFT
REACTION PROCESS

Source: www.collegeofthedesert.edu/index.esp
 PARTIAL OXIDATION PROCESS AUTOTHERMAL PROCESS

Source: www.collegeofthedesert.edu/index.esp
 HYDROGEN STORAGE
• Compressed hydrogen storage
– Hydrogen embrittlement
• Liquid hydrogen storage
– Hydrogen boil-off and insulation
– Hydrogen liquefaction and embrittlement
• Hydride storage
– Metal hydrides
– Chemical hydrides
– Doping of hydrides
• Carbon nanotubes
ADIABATIC COMPRESSION WORK VERSUS FINAL
PRESSURE FOR HYDROGEN AND METHANE

Source: www.efcf.com/reports

• Much more energy per kg is required to compress

hydrogen than methane.
• Multi-stage compressors with intercoolers operate
somewhere between the two limiting cases of isothermal
and adiabatic compression.
TYPICAL ENERGY REQUIREMENTS FOR THE LIQUEFACTION OF
HYDROGEN VERSUS PLANT CAPACITY.

Source: www.efcf.com/reports
• As expected, more electrical energy is consumed for the
liquefaction of hydrogen in small plants than in large facilities. For
existing plants of 10 and 1,000 kgLH2/h capacity, at least 100 and
40 MJ/kgLH2 are required for liquefaction, respectively.
 PHYSICAL METAL HYDRIDES
• Hydrogen may be stored physically, e.g. by adsorption in spongy
matrices of special alloys as physical metal hydrides. The hydrogen
forms a very close, but not perfect, bond with alloys like LaNi5 or ZrCr2.
• When a metal hydride storage container is filled with hydrogen, heat is
released and usually lost.
• Conversely, when the process is reversed to liberate the stored
hydrogen, heat must be added.
• Thus the energy needed to package hydrogen in physical metal
hydrides may be more or less limited to the energy needed to produce
and compress hydrogen to a pressure of 3 MPa [15]. This is
significantly less than for hydrogen stored as compressed gas at 20
MPa, and far less than for hydrogen stored at 80 MPa, or as a liquid.
• Metal hydrides store only around 55-60 kg of hydrogen per m3,
whereas, ignoring the container, liquid hydrogen has a volumetric
density of 70 kg/m3. Moreover, metal hydride cartridges are very
heavy. A small metal hydride container holding less than 2 g of
hydrogen weighs 230 g [16].
[15] Product specifications, HERA Hydrogen Storage Systems GmbH, Höfener Strasse 45, DE-90431
Nürnberg / Germany
[16] Lawrence D. Burns et al., “Vehicle of Change”, Scientific American, p. 47, (October 2002)
 CHEMICAL METAL HYDRIDES

• Hydrogen may also be stored chemically in alkali metal hydrides. There are many
options in the alkali group like LiH, NaH, KH, CaH2, but complex binary hydride
compounds like LiBH4, NaBH4, KBH4, LiAlH4 or NaAlH4 have also been proposed
for hydrogen storage. None of these compounds can be found in nature. All have to
be synthesized from pure metals and hydrogen.
• To produce the hydrides, at least 1.6 time more high grade energy has to be
invested to produce 1 HHV energy unit of hydrogen, giving a stage efficiency of less
than 1/1.6 = 60 %.
 HYDROGEN TRANSPORTATION
• Steel bottles and pipelines have been use to transport gaseous
hydrogen for more than half a century with excellent safety
records.

• Compressed gas H2: Gaseous hydrogen can be transported in

pressurised bottles40 (typically at 20 to 30 MPa), in tube-trailers
(typically at 20 MPa) and through pipelines. In distribution
pipelines, the pressure is between 0.01 and 2 MPa, while for
long distance transport the pressure can range between 1.1 and
30 MPa.

• Liquid H2: Liquid hydrogen can only be delivered by truck and

by rail. A truck can carry more hydrogen as a liquid than as a
compressed gas because the liquid is denser. Today, LH2 can
be transported in cryo-containers or in trailers in sizes between
41 m³ and 53 m³ at temperatures of about 20°K (i.e. - 253°C). A
40 m³ LH2 trailer transports about five times as much hydrogen
as a 21 m³ CGH2 tube trailer.
 HYDROGEN IN TRANSPORTATION

• Hydrogen fuel to run IC engine

• Hydrogen fuel to run fuel cell
• Hydrogen fuel to run hybrid vehicles
HYDROGEN POWER VEHICLE

• Electricity generated from

solar power is used to split
water into hydrogen and
oxygen. Oxygen is released
into the atmosphere, while
hydrogen is liquefied and
stored at a very low
temperature (-253 °C).
• During internal combustion,
the hydrogen combines with
oxygen. The resulting
energy powers the vehicle,
while the hydrogen is
returned to the environment
as water. Harmful
emissions are virtually
eliminated.
 HYDROGEN SYSTEM
It consists of
• water purification,
• hydrogen production
• hydrogen drying and filtration
• Low pressure storage
• Hydrogen compression,
• High pressure storage,
• dispensing, and
• venting.
LIST OF EQUIPMENT FOR HYDROGEN SYSTEM

• DI water supplier
• Hydrogen Electrolyser
• Hydrogen dryer and filters
• Low pressure storage
• High pressure compressor
• Hydrogen high-pressure storage
• Hydrogen dispensing system
• Leak detector, emergency shutdown system
• Hydrogen venting or draining system
• Auxiliary system: control air, chiller, N2, vacuum
Source: http://avt.inl.gov - INL/CON-06-01109 (weststart_hice_presentation.pdf)
Source: http://www.ch2bc.org/index2.htm
Source: Energy, The Master Resource Book, The Basics - page 61
 ACTION PLAN
• Infrastructure for hydrogen system
– Hydrogen generation & storage system
– Hydrogen refueling station
• Introduction of hydrogen vehicles
– Hydrogen buses
– Hydrogen cars
– Hydrogen buses and cars
– Hydrogen buses, cars and motorcycle
• Hydrogen IC engine or FC
– Conversion of gasoline IC engine into hydrogen IC engine
– FC vehicles
HYDROGEN STORAGE AND BURNING: EXAMPLE
 LONG TERM VISION IN HYDROGEN FUEL: 5 YEARS

• 5 years Plan for Hydrogen fuel development and

its uses:
– Capacity Building in Hydrogen Production by
operating pilot scale Hydrogen fuel production using
Electrolysis.
– Technology transfer from developed countries
– Research in hydrogen storage: Metal Hydride,
Compressed Cylinders.
– Application in Cooking and Lighting
– Application in Public Vehicles
 FINDINGS
• Country has substantial amount of surplus
hydro electricity, which can be utilized to
produce hydrogen fuel.
• Country can significantly benefit by producing
hydrogen fuel competitive enough to the current
diesel fuel in transport in longer term by
Lowering the off-hour electricity tariff.
• Significant reduction in air pollution and
GHG emission can be achieved.
• Electrolysis technology is its future technology
for the production of hydrogen fuel.
 FINDINGS
• The cost of hydrogen fuel production is largely
affected by the off peak electricity tariff rather
than its infrastructure cost and a suitable off
peak electricity tariff can lower the hydrogen fuel
price.
• In contrast to the centralized infrastructure, the
decentralized system like on site hydrogen
production in small scale such as refueling
stations seems more feasible option since there
is no mass market of hydrogen fuel technology.
 CONCLUSIONS
• Hydrogen is an energy carrier (like a
battery) rather than an energy source.
• Renewable energy sources should be
used to produce hydrogen in order to
reduce emissions.
• Think of hydropower to hydrogen to get
maximum environmental benefit. That is,
promote the hydrogen vehicles.