Purdue team pushes hydrogen research further

Prof. Woodall’s research on hydrogen production seems to be bearing fruit.  A recent press release indicates they have developed catalyst composition that optimizes hydrogen production.   Apparently, the trouble was a dual liquid-phase system that would emerge in attempting to reach the desired composition (in this case, the pathway matters).  The article describes how this was overcome:

The researchers had earlier discovered that slow-cooling and fast-cooling the new 95/5 aluminum alloy produced drastically different versions. The fast-cooled alloy contained aluminum and the gallium-indium-tin alloy apparently as a single phase. In order for it to produce hydrogen, it had to be in contact with a puddle of the liquid gallium-indium-tin alloy.

“That was a very exciting finding because it showed that the alloy would react with water at room temperature to produce hydrogen until all of the aluminum was used up,” Woodall said.

This is probably an accomplishment for a chemistry department, but dual liquid-phase dynamics is a core field of study in Chemical Engineering.  It’s no wonder it took less than a year to solve this “hurdle” (real hurdles are mass transfer issues like those found in aerobic fermentation systems).   Prof.  Woodall’s lab seems to be a great job of pushing this technology forward.

The article also indicates that the lab is thinking of using this technology as a means of hydrogen “transport” in cars.  Meaning you would have a gas tank full of these metal (aluminum-gallium-tin) brickettes that you would pour water on to generate hydrogen inside your car.

That sounds really cumbersome and prone to operational variability.   A better solution would be to build a low footprint hydrogen production system to generate hydrogen on-site at a gas station (or one central station that services a region of stations).  The water distribution part of the equation would be settled – use the tap with a water softener if necessary.  Drivers wouldn’t have to bother with brickettes – just filling with hydrogen which, albeit in early stages, has developed solutions already.

Furthermore, the amount of material that can be in circulation in the auto fleet would be significant.  Having an industrial-scale solution would seem to be an easier sell to customers, OEMs, and filling stations than managing the brickettes.

 We’ll keep an eye on this one.

Previous post:

-  Hydrogen from Metal

Why is ExxonMobil messing with batteries?

I couldn’t believe it when I first read about it. ExxonMobil is doing battery research? That just seems completely out-of-place. But when I sat down and thought about it some more, I got some different thoughts on the matter.

ExxonMobil is already known as the prototypical oil company. They epitomize everything that people stereotype about oil companies – stuffy, overpaid executives with no regard for their impact on the environment.

So what is there interest in developing technologies for batteries? I don’t know – but that won’t stop me from speculating.

Good Technology

Low Energy Separations

Researchers at the University of Twente in The Netherlands have developed molecular seives that operate at low temperatures (< 150C). This has many applications including those for separations in alcohol production (for drinking or driving), hydrogen production, and other types of filtration processes. It has the benefit of lowering the energy usage in these industrial processes.

…Read the press release.

Solar

Do we need a pollution exporting policy?

It occurs to me that there is a missing piece to the talk about what a future with biofuels would look like. In particular, if carbon-based pollution has a significant social cost – and indeed we discuss a pricing for carbon in cap-and-trade policies – do we need to more clearly regulate this issue in the future?

Biofuels, when successful, might close the gap on overall CO2 emissions. But they still do emit CO2 (and other stuff) when combusted in our cars; it’s still a local pollutant in cities where it is consumed.

Today, ethanol is grown in Iowa and shipped to, say, Illinois for refining then sold in Minneapolis or Chicago. The CO2 was removed from the atmosphere in Iowa, but re-emitted as a pollutant in Minnesota (who suffers all of the local effects).

Does Iowa “owe” Minneapolis or Chicago something for exporting its CO2 as a pollutant? Did these cities assume this risk when they decided to sell Iowa-based ethanol? How would anyone know where the ethanol came from to collect on such a debt? Should Chicago or Minneapolis only allow ethanol that was made nearby?

This is a strange sort of thinking on my part. I don’t know the answer to it and, frankly, I would hate to see what type of policy these politicians would mutate from this. What this scenario illustrates is that there are still issues to be solved regarding how we balance our global environmental opportunities with our local environmental responsibilities. While we all want to be carbon neutral (or, given the name of this blog, carbon-free), there’s always more to consider than just the technological capability.

GMC Denali XT Hybrid

(Images from Jilopnik.com).

GM is unveiling its Concept GMC Denali XT Hybrid. It’s a Flex Fuel, 2-Mode Hybrid with Active Fuel Managment. As Jalopnik.com notes, it’s very reminicent of an El Camino/Caballero.

It’s clearly a striking vehicle. But it’s also a bit of a far-out concept – GM is usually more reserved with its concept vehicles. This is a bit strange though, as is much of GM’s energy efficiency work.

Even in their website, they make no claims about expected fuel economy. Why go through all the trouble of shoving all of this fuel saving technology in a concept without at least speculating on MPG performance? It’s 326 HP number is pretty good. But I need more details.

E. Coli used to produce Hydrogen

Researchers at Texas A&M have modified E. Coli to produce hydrogen with extremely high throughput compared to the natural strain.

Press Release:

By genetically modifying the bacteria, Thomas Wood, a professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, has “tweaked” a strain of E. coli so that it produces substantial amounts of hydrogen. Specifically, Wood’s strain produces 140 times more hydrogen than is created in a naturally occurring process, according to an article in “Microbial Biotechnology,” detailing his research.

This is very interesting development as it could lead to a new usage for hydrogen. E. Coli is a very well-known and utilized throughout industry. So this type of development for a production of hydrogen makes a lot of sense from a technology perspective.

Essay Part 1: Energy Efficiency

There’s a lot of talk about the importance of “Energy Efficiency” these days. Apparently it’s the easiest and cheapest way to reduce GHG and our overall energy expenses. But what exactly is it? What does it mean? I want to try and create a basic framework about this subject.

A definition
“Energy Efficiency (EE)” implies getting more out of the energy that we use. While that’s a perfectly fine definition, I think we need to look at this through three separate extrapolations:

Reducing load
Much of EE is captured by simply reducing overall “load”. “Load” has many contexts from an engineering perspective. It could refer to “weight” in products like a car.  Less weight requires less pull from the engine and less gas consumed (there are some other considerations like safety and durability as well).  It could refer to the amount of current needed in a lightbulb.  Compact fluorescents and LED lighting provide light at a lower wattage. The point being that whatever products we design, we build in a lower demand for whatever energy source drives it – lightening the “load”.

Smarter response
Smarter response refers to building in better capabilities to capture produced energy. In cars, there has been a lot of development on using control systems to make engines more responsive to driving conditions. An example is in GM’s new 2-Mode hybrid which synchronizes the number of pistons fired in the gas engine along with the utilization of an electric “helper” motor. A more simple example is a programmable thermostat that you can install in your home. This device will turn your furnace to different temperature controls based on the time of day (no need to have it on while you’re out).

Essentially, making products “smart” allows us to not consume energy in non-value-added situations.

Reducing economic friction
I didn’t really know what to name this title. But I want to point to the direct relationship between energy consumption and GDP growth. You can pretty much use a linear equation to derive this relationship. And of course, the more the GDP grows, the more energy we consume.

The same could be said for any company or household. The more economic friction – gas bills, fuel demand, etc – the less money lying around for buying fattening foods and paying for college tuition.

The good thing is that this relationship doesn’t work the other way around. EE also must be looked at as an economic growth enhancer. Having high energy costs amounts to a tax for all people in that economy. Low taxes makes it easier for individuals to live and for businesses to use their earnings to grow (or squander depending on the company).

I will have several follow-up posts to this one where I discuss how each of these can be applied to different products. I don’t purport to be an expert in many of these areas, but I hope that it serves as a thought exercise for others to extrapolate into more complex applications.

Consortium to develop advanced power city

A consortium founded by Xcel Energy last month will select a location for “Smart Grid City” – a test site in which to test several advanced electrical grid technologies.

Some of the technologies to be implemented include (from the press release):

 · Transformation of existing metering infrastructure to a robust, dynamic communications network, providing real time, high-speed, two-way communication throughout the distribution grid.
· Conversion of substations to “smart” substations capable of remote monitoring, near real-time data and optimized performance.
· Installation of thousands of in-home control devices and the necessary systems to fully automate home energy use.
· Integration of infrastructure to support up to 1,000 easily dispatched distributed generation technologies (including plug-in hybrid electric vehicles with vehicle-to-grid technology; battery systems; wind turbines; and solar panels).

This is an interesting list of technologies – I wonder if a city of 100,000 is too big for implementation purposes.  But there’s a couple in here that sound interesting.

Smart Metering
The smart metering has been talked about for decades now.  It’s actually pretty stupid that we have locally read meters. There’s a lot of reasons as to why that hasn’t changed much – none of which are particularly good reasons.  But if they can show that remote metering technologies yield better results, then it would go a long way towards implementing them in other communities.

Grid batteries 
Second, the usage of battery systems within the grid is intriguing.  While solar and wind have the opportunity to augment peak demand loads, batteries provide a whole new opportunity themselves.

On a grid-wide scale, they could make night production more productive.  Raise productivity at night and store to the grid; consume at night when demand is high.  That’s the whole theory behind vehicle-to-grid applications.  But installing your own batteries directly to the grid might also be a winner.

On  an individual scale, could batteries provide an opportunity for customers to take advantage of lower demand prices?  I might dream of a business model where I can buy and sell my own electric power that I store on a home battery to/from the grid.  Could I do this with my solar installation?  That might provide a new way of augmenting my own income by being able to buy/sell electricity in its own marketplace.  This has been the dream of many others, but has never come to fruition.

In any case, this would be a great opportunity for Xcel to garner some learnings.  I hope in their search they review a lower-income urban neighborhood.  In many ways, lower income households are in greater need of these technologies – the improvements might make life a little less hectic.

Hydrogen Energy to build IGCC facility in UAE

Hydrogen Energy will build their third IGCC facility in Abu Dhabi.

From the Hydrogen Energy Website:

Hydrogen gas would be used to fuel gas turbines and generate 420MW of low-carbon electricity. This project alone would provide more than 5% of all Abu Dhabi’s current power generation capacity at a cost equiv

The CO2 would be transported and injected into a producing oil field and used to replace natural gas that is currently being injected into the oil field to maintain pressure. This natural gas could then be used either domestically or for export. This process could be deployed at scale and release a significant amount of additional natural gas for Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates.

The CO2 injected into the oil field could also enable previously unrecoverable oil to be produced. If this technology was widely deployed it could boost Abu Dhabi oil production by some 1-3 billion barrels. As the oil is forced out the CO2 would remain stored securely and permanently beaneath the oil field’s natural impervious seal.

This is an interesting prospect as it will strictly use CO2 injection to replace the natural gas being used in this process.

Hydrogen Energy already has two such projects underway – Carson, California and Kwinana, Australia. This is a big project that should yield some great learnings around this type of system. Mostly the viability for long term CO2 sequestration underground. While CO2 injection is done regularly in the oil industry, none have been integrated into this type of operation.

E.P.A. Chief Defiant in Senate Hearings

Environmental Protection Agency Chief defended his refusal to support the State of California’s waver to regulate automobile emissions.

From the NY Times Article:

Defending his refusal to let California set limits on the greenhouse gas emissions of automobiles, the head of the Environmental Protection Agencyclimate change posed no “compelling and extraordinary” risk to the state. insisted before a Senate committee Thursday that

Describing such change as “not unique to” and “not exclusive to California,” the agency’s administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, called it “a global problem requiring a global solution or, at least at a minimum, a national solution.”

That is what has bothered me with regard to the Bush Administration’s activities regarding climate change. In many ways, it pays only lip service to global warming, but does nothing very progressive. But moreso, it seems to trounce on very traditional Republican policy in the process.