An economical way to separate hydrogen from water and use it to power a generator? (Univ of CO at Boulder,CO?

Question

University Of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado, USA, had a project using hydrogen to power a generator using air conditioning compressors as an engine and hydrogen as the power source. No one monitors the email address listed 2 years ago. I am interested in providing power to locations where power is not currently available due to distance or location. I propose the program would be funded by the Philippine govenment. My services nearly free. I would like to solve this as my contribution to society in my retirement years.

Dan

Answer 1

refrigeration compressors couldn't be used anyway.

they have no spark plugs- required for ignition.

or ignition timing device

the exhaust valves could not handle the heat of combustion, and would melt/warp fairly quickly.

no oil filtering provisions.

possibly an issue with oil viscosity and pump/bearing clearence.

you could not use refrigeration oil any

longer because it isn't designed for use in an internal combustion application.

finally, you can't cool the compressor. it doesn't have water jackets cast or fins to radiate excess heat.

refrigerant cools the motor windings in normal operation, there is no provision for that either.

Answer 2

The main reason people aren't building gigantic plants to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen is because it takes more energy to obtain the hydrogen than the hydrogen releases when combusted.  Unless you can't plug the appliance in, hydrogen is out of the question, unless technology finds a way to quick, eco-friendly, cheap hydrogen.

Answer 3

Do you remember the man in Columbus, Ohio who was poisoned by 2 Arabic men because he discovered a way to separate Hydrogen from water and power his car, but when offered $750,000 to stop doing his research he refused? Well if you don't, learn from his death. Our world runs on oil. Trying to power anything more conveniently will only get you into trouble. The oil companies have taken over, and will not step down for a man who wants to make the world a better place. Just be careful what you're messing with....

Answer 4

There is no economical way available today. Industry uses millions of tons of Hydrogen a year for many processes. If it could be produced cheaper, they would.

It is a good idea, but not practicle.

The best option for isolated areas is a solar system. It is still expensive power compared to grid power, but does work.

Answer 5

The only economically feasible way would be to produce the electricity you need for the electrolysis of water from something like solar or wind energy.  Obtaining the electricity from coal, oil, etc. makes no sense ... you would better off burning the fossil fuels directly instead of first creating hydrogen.  

This is actually an interesting idea because one of the major drawbacks of wind and solar is that they're not available all the time.  So, if you used them to produce hydrogen, you could at least store the hydrogen and use it at night or when the wind isn't blowing.

Now, before you jump on this as the world's energy saving solution, keep in mind that you would need VAST solar cell or wind farms to make this practical.  In other words, it works in theory, but would cost a lot of money to make it practical.  I've actually helped build 2 prototypes, but they're very small.

There has also been recent discussion of producing hydrogen using nuclear power, and this is considered to be much more efficient than electrolysis.  But, the public (so far) is dead set against the expansion of nuclear power plants.

Answer 6

Unflortunately it takes approximately 50 kilowatt hours of electricity to produce one kilogram of hydrogen from water, but you only get approximately 18 kilowatt hours of electricity back when you run it through a fuel cell to generate electricity.

If you have a large excess of electricity such as the out put of a nuclear power plant at night that is not being used, producting hydrogen from water is one way to capture some of that energy, however this is a relatively inefficient process when you only get back 18 kilowatt hours for every 50 kilowatt hours spent.

Answer 7

The power required to separate hydrogen from water will exceed the power output from the generator. If you already have the power in the first place there is no need to convert it to hydrogen except for cases were you can't connect a wire or need a huge amount of power all at once ( launch the space shuttle, for example).

A much more practical scheme, where you have lots of sunshine, would be something solar based. Solar cells for small power uses such as radios, phones, and computers. For larger applications, use the sun to power a Stirling engine that can drive a generator.

Answer 8

The only economic approach to using hydrogen to fuel power generation is to react water with hydrocarbons.  This process frees hydrogen from both the hydrocarbon and water.  The biproduct of this process is carbon dioxide, which can be collected and sequestered, preventing its emission into the atmosphere.  Energy is required to do this, but this can be provided by burning some of the hydrogen produced, or by burning some of the carbon containing feed stock.  There are several commercial scale projects currently in development that use this approach.