Archive for January, 2009
hydrogen oxygen fuel cell membrane
Jan 28th
Fuel-cell cars are reaching commercial viability in today’s increasingly eco-conscious society, but despite their promise, even scientists have struggled to explain just how the fuel-cell’s central component – the proton exchange membrane – really works.
However, a team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has offered a new model that provides the best explanation to date for the membrane’s structure and how it functions. And armed with that information, scientists should be able to build similar fuel-cell membrane materials that are less expensive or have different properties, such as higher operating temperatures.
A fuel cell works by pumping hydrogen gas through the proton exchange membrane. In the process, the hydrogen gives up electrons in the form of electricity, then combines with oxygen gas to form water as the by-product. It can also work in reverse – when current is applied, water is split into its component gases, hydrogen and oxygen.
The model proposed by Ames Laboratory scientists Klaus Schmidt-Rohr and Qiang Chen, and detailed in the December issue of the journal Nature Materials, looked specifically at Nafion®, a widely used perfluorinated polymer film that stands out for its high selective permeability to water and protons. Schmidt-Rohr, who is also a professor of chemistry at Iowa State University, suggests that Nafion® has a closely packed network of nanoscale cylindrical water channels running in parallel through the material.
“From nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), we know that Nafion® molecules have a rigid backbone structure with hair-like ‘defects’ along the chain,” Schmidt-Rohr said, “but we didn’t know just how these molecule were arranged. Some have proposed spheroidal water clusters, others a web-like network of water channels.”
“Our theory is that these hydrophobic (water-hating) backbone structures cluster together,” he continued, “to form long rigid cylinders about 2.5 nanometers in diameter with the hydrophilic ‘hairs’ to the inside of the water-filled tubes.”
Though the cylinders in different parts of the sample may not align perfectly, they do connect to create water channels passing through the membrane material, which can be 10’s of microns thick. It’s this structure of relatively wide diameter channels, densely packed and running mostly parallel through the material that helps explain how water and protons can so easily diffuse through Nafion®, “almost as easily as water passing through water” Schmidt-Rohr said.
To unlock the structure mystery, Schmidt-Rohr turned to mathematical modeling of small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering, or SAXS/SANS. X-ray or neutron radiation is scattered by the sample and the resulting scattering pattern is analyzed to provide information about the size, shape and orientation of the components of the sample on the nanometer scale.
Using an algorithm known as multidimensional Fourier transformation, Schmidt-Rohr was able to show that his model of long, densely packed channels closely matches the known scattering data of Nafion®. Mathematical modeling of other proposed structures, in which the water clusters have other shapes or connectivities, did not match the measured scattering curves.
“Our model also helps explain how conductivity continues even well below the freezing point of water,” Schmidt-Rohr said. “While water would freeze in the larger channels, it would continue to diffuse in the smaller-diameter pores.”
Schmidt-Rohr added that additional analysis is needed to determine how the cylinders connect through the membrane.
Ames Laboratory, celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2007, is operated for the Department of Energy by Iowa State University. The Lab conducts research into various areas of national concern, including the synthesis and study of new materials, energy resources, high-speed computer design, and environmental cleanup and restoration.
The article, “Parallel cylindrical water nanochannels in Nafion fuel-cell membrane” by Schmidt-Rohr and Chen, is published in Nature Materials.
hydrogen power car
Jan 27th
Major automobile manufacturers promised the general public that at the earliest possible time, hydrogen cars will rule the streets. While the call for clean automobiles has soared, the supply for the future cars has not been sufficient to meet the demands. Lack of adequate number of hydrogen stations is refraining the carmakers from making adequate hydrogen powered cars. If this total situation is unacceptable, then you might as well have a look at this fabulous fuel saver called hydrogen fuel boost kit. Since the kit is one of the most handy ways to save fuel, why do you want to postpone your decision, till gas prices reach five dollars per gallon? Use the kit today and save enough money to buy an item of your choice.
With the hydrogen fuel boost kit, which is available the Internet and at local stores, you would be using HHO gas, which slashes the gas costs. Currently, there are already hybrid cars and if you own one, the kit is an alternative way of saving fuel. If the idea of doing things on your own does not quite appeal to you, then the hydrogen fuel boost kit is not for you. With this kit, you would have to put in a lot of labor to change your automobile into a hydrogen powered car. But the do-it-yourself buffs would love to put their hands in to this project, so why not start today? The sooner you begin, the quicker are the chances to save money.
Make sure you like to work on your car and youre not scared to mess around. Converting your can be a very enjoyable experience and try to keep a personal day book once you hook up the kit and write down your doubts or dislikes and most especially, your likes. Huge numbers of individuals are lining up to buy the hydrogen fuel boost kit, and you should not delay any further! Locate a store where you can buy your hydrogen fuel boost kit at an inexpensive price.
Not all car owners are great automobile mechanics and even if youre not mechanically savy but you like to spend a great deal of your time fiddling with some automobile parts, the fuel saver kit is definitely what you need. Kit assembly is not tough so long as you can read and understand – additionally, you grown the proud owner of a converted fuel-efficient car. Scanning through the Internet testimonials and product reviews would confirm the customer satisfaction with hydrogen fuel boost kits. Some even claim that that their gas efficiency has grown elevated to the tune of two hundred percent – this is stunning!
While this may seem out of the question, but the kit is actually capable of giving such results and if you understand how fuel cells function, then you will know what stunning savings you could get from your expenditure on gas. If you use the HHO, your car will surely run longer and so you will not be using up as much gas. The hydrogen fuel boost kit not only is a cost-saver of gas, it causes less damage to the environment, contributes towards economic development and reduces our addiction on gas.
Technorati Tags: hydrogen nessie car, make hydrogen fuel scam, hydrogen fuel cells costly
hydrogen fuel cell kits
Jan 26th
The use of a hydrogen car kit as a means of reproducing the amazing power of hydrogen as a cheap fuel alternative has become widely popular recently, with many different people selling guides, kits and commercial setups. Though nothing new, this technology has really started to take off just within the last few months.
Although this is a viable form of technology that clearly works, it is clear that many people do not believe that this technology actually works. If one scours the internet they will surely find many people saying that this idea of hydrogen conversion is a scam. Without going to far into it, these views are probably related to the fact that the technology was suppressed for many years by oil companies and others.
The basic theory behind how one is able to convert their car to run on water is as follows; water obviously contains hydrogen, if an electric current is passed through water in the right way, then it will allow the hydrogen and oxygen present in the water to be broken up into separate atoms. In the case of the hydrogen fuel cell kits, this charge comes from the cars battery. This is of course a very basic description, but just to give you an idea.
The question that probably led you to researching this topic and thus reading this article right now is most likely : does it work? Well, without just saying yes it does work, consider the fact that many billion dollar companies are using and integrating this technology into their current and future developments. What does that tell you? Well the fact is, companies like this do not invest money without thoroughly researching the technology first. This and the fact that many our already happily saving fuel with their converted engines tells the story.
If one is considering converting their car to run on water by doing it themselves and investing in a guide bought off the internet, and then buying the cheap parts needed to cheaply put together the hydrogen car kit themselves, then their are two main guides available online that are the best choice for the task at hand. The two guides are, the original WateѸGas, and the more recent, but cheaper, Run Your Car On Water.
WateѸGas as mentioned was the original guide for converting your car to run on water, and has been around since late 2007. This guide is the most detailed guide on the market, and includes many extras as a “bonus” when you purchase it. The upside of this particular guide is that it is the most detailed and includes pictures and very matter of fact instructions with no time wasting, secondly, the bonuses included have some very useful information about how to get a government rebate when you convert your car to hydrogen. The downside of this guide is the price.
Run Your Car On Water is a more basic guide, that tells you each step by step process that you will need to follow in order to install a hydrogen car kit in your own car. This guide is half the price of WateѸGas, has less bonuses, but for many is probably the best choice out of the two, simply because it gets the job done and is less of an initial investment.
So why should you convert your existing car to run on water with the use of a hydrogen car kit? Well for one, obviously as you know you will be saving vast amounts of money on gas in the future, its estimated that for most vehicle types, you can recoup your investment after the first 4-6 weeks. After that you are simply saving up to 50% of your fuel costs. Apart from that, there is the positive environmental aspect, and the fact that oil is not going to drop in price, makes this a great way to prepare for the future.
So to to begin saving money on fuel, plus all the other associated benefits, get over to this hydrogen car kit review site. It was really helpful for me in choosing the right kit to get my car running using water, and if you are serious about doing it I recommend getting the best guide, as there are some pretty bad ones out there. You can also see more information at my friend Jack’s website at http://www.squidoo.com/buyhydrogencarkit
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Earl
hydrogen only generators
Jan 25th
Historically whenever gas prices have gone up, charlatans have come out of the woodwork offering drivers all manner of devices that are claimed to provide dramatic reductions in fuel consumption. From magnets that are clamped to fuel lines, to assorted vacuum advance devices, and intake vortex generators and magical carburetors none of these have actually been demonstrated to work. Many of these old school devices can still be found, but one of the most popular new devices is the on-board hydrogen generator and injection system.
The basic premise is that injecting hydrogen into the intake stream will displace some of the gasoline required, reducing both gasoline consumption and emissions. Just have hydrogen and injecting it will actually achieve this result since the hydrogen burns and produces only water and trace amounts of NOx (although much lower than gasoline or diesel engines). Burning more hydrogen means less gasoline is consumed. Easy right? Not so fast there buddy! Where does that hydrogen come from? The marketers out there are selling on-board hydrogen generators which are claimed to provide enough hydrogen to reduce gas consumption by 30-40 percent or more. Is this plausible? Not even close. Read on after the jump to find out why.
[Sources: Wikipedia, Hypertextbook.com, answers.com]Electrolysis of water is a process that’s been known for over two centuries. It’s not complicated, just stick a pair of electrodes into water and pass a current through them. Oxygen bubbles will be produced on one electrode and hydrogen on the other. Unfortunately as with all such processes it isn’t 100 percent efficient. Some of the electrical energy put into the system is lost as heat. The process has gotten better over the years but it is still about 70 percent efficient at best.
If you convert 1 US gallon of water to hydrogen by electrolysis it will yield 420.6 g of hydrogen (H2 gas). If the electrolysis is 100% efficient it will take 16.821 kWh of electricity to crack 1 gallon of water. That 420 g of H2 only has an energy density of 14 kWh (33.3 kWh/kg * .4206). That’s 16% more energy to crack the water than you get out of it. At 70 percent efficiency that means it would take about 24 kWh of input energy to produce hydrogen with 14 kWh of energy output.
To electrolyze water on the fly means the energy has to come from the engine via the alternator. Whatever electricity the alternator produces has to come from mechanical energy to drive it via the belt from the engine. That means the 24 kWh of energy will ultimately come from the engine while only 14 kWh will get put back in. As a result of this parasitic loss, on board hydrogen generation is an energy negative process that will actually reduce the total fuel efficiency of the vehicle because the load on the engine will be increased.
The only way that the fuel consumption of the vehicle can be reduced by hydrogen injection is to produce the hydrogen outside of the vehicle and store it as a gas on board. The total energy requirement doesn’t change but off board generation opens up the possibility of using renewable sources like solar and wind to power the electrolysis.
With all of those companies selling on board electrolysis systems claiming to reduce fuel consumption there have even been news reports claiming these systems work. The answer to this is cheating. Ask any veteran NASCAR mechanic about places to store extra fuel on board a car. The same thing is being done by these scam artists. They are using stored hydrogen somewhere on board to make it seem as though their systems are beneficial.
Hydrogen injection is fine as a stop-gap but the hydrogen must be produced outside the vehicle. If home electrolysis systems or hydrogen filling stations are readily available, existing cars could fairly easily be retro-fitted with injection systems to reduce gasoline consumption. In India they are already experimenting with vehicles fueled by hythane (a blend of natural gas and hydrogen) but that is produced and sold that way.
The bottom line is don’t waste your money on these devices. Want to save money and use less fuel? Drive less, consolidate trips, drive less aggressively.
