DIY Hydrogen Fuels
DIY Hydrogen Fuels
(OP)
I've been thinging about the whole hydrogen fuel thing and I think hydrogen gas is not going to be a practical fuel.
So, I thought that maybe using solar cells to produce hydrogen from hydrolysis might be a good first step, but instead of just using the gas as a fuel, combine the hydrogen with something that's stable.
Perhaps the hydrogen could enhance the energy of an existing fuel, even if it's a solid that you'd burn in a wood (like) burning stove.
Anybody have any ideas how to combine hydrogen to make a fuel in your backyard?
So, I thought that maybe using solar cells to produce hydrogen from hydrolysis might be a good first step, but instead of just using the gas as a fuel, combine the hydrogen with something that's stable.
Perhaps the hydrogen could enhance the energy of an existing fuel, even if it's a solid that you'd burn in a wood (like) burning stove.
Anybody have any ideas how to combine hydrogen to make a fuel in your backyard?





RE: DIY Hydrogen Fuels
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: DIY Hydrogen Fuels
RE: DIY Hydrogen Fuels
First, if you're going to electrolyze water, don't just throw away the oxygen- that's half the energy right there.
In "combining the hydrogen with something that's stable", you similarly throw away a significant portion of the energy that was in the hydrogen in the first place. The same goes for compressing it or liquifying it or chemisorbing it for storage- significant energy waste is involved in all of those processes due to the properties of hydrogen. Without significant cost and complexity, you get none of this energy back when you use the fuel.
You'd be far better to just use the solar photovoltaics to replace electricity generated by other means and forget about the hydrogen entirely. If you produce too much electricity, storing it in batteries for off-peak use is far more efficient than bothering with hydrogen as a storage medium.
RE: DIY Hydrogen Fuels
RE: DIY Hydrogen Fuels
RE: DIY Hydrogen Fuels
RE: DIY Hydrogen Fuels
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RE: DIY Hydrogen Fuels
Rhodium is 102 g/mol. Molecular hydrogen is 2 g/mol. They claim two moles of hydrogen storage per mole of rhodium if I read things correctly- or perhaps it's worse than that, if this thing is merely shifting from Rh(6)H(12) to Rh(6)H(14). No matter- even the former would mean you'd need 102 g (~$19,000 USD as a raw material) of rhodium to store 4 g of hydrogen- and you'd need to lug around all that expensive mass with you too!
NO hydrogen storage medium involving significant quantities of rhodium will ever be economically feasible!
RE: DIY Hydrogen Fuels
Hydrogen will never find more than specialty applications. There are too many problems with storage and transportation. Energy density is low.
Newer technologies have even moved fuel cells away from their dependence on hydrogen, and into a whole array of light hydrocarbons.
Newer technology has improved the efficiency of solar cells to where direct power generation is more feasible.
RE: DIY Hydrogen Fuels
David
RE: DIY Hydrogen Fuels
Certainly using pure hydrogen in vehicles doesn't seem that practical on a large scale in anything like the near or medium term.
Perhaps if they can find a way to use it to enrich some other 'bio fuel' with it that creates a more easily used product it could be useful. Assuming of course that the promise of 'excess electricity' (compared to existing usage) from renewable resources, so that the hydrogen can be made cleanly in the first place, ever happens.
Even then it would probably be better to find ways to use the electricity directly, be it improved batteries for electric/plug-in-hybrid cars or some other technology.
One thing that hydrogen has some possible application is as a storage device for excess electricity generated by all the renewable resources that we’re waiting to magically appear. Many of these sources are intermittent and even unpredictable so being able to handle this is an issue and energy storage of some kind may be part of the solution, although there may be better ways than using electrolysis to generate hydrogen.
Out of interest they’ve decided that hydrogenated bio-oil is bad for us to eat but how does it compare to regular bio-oil as an energy source? Is this a situation where hydrogen enrichment of another fuel source might work?
RE: DIY Hydrogen Fuels
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RE: DIY Hydrogen Fuels
So long as the vehicles aren't made of thermite doped fabric we'll be OK!
Seriously though would the effects of a similar volume of propane, petroleum vapour, or other hydrocarbon gas we currently use routinely & relatively safely, combusting have been any better?
RE: DIY Hydrogen Fuels
Even assuming a method to produce hydrogen economically can be found, one of the big problems with hydrogen is that it is such a searching gas which will find the tiniest path out of its containment. Makes for some challenging design problems if we are ever to use it as a vehicle fuel: how to transfer it safely between the bulk storage and the vehicle tank?
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Sometimes I only open my mouth to swap feet...
RE: DIY Hydrogen Fuels