HYDROGEN
THE ANSWER TO GLOBAL WARMING?
THE DREAM AND THE REALITY
by Dee Finney
2-13-02 - The radio was on with Art Bell and the topic was hydrogen. DREAM - I went to a church with my husband and we listened to a lecture by a couple of men who were looking for volunteers to take a copy of a packet of papers which were labeled SENATE. My husband and I both decided to take a copy and make our decision at home. Personally, I was quite taken with the subject and started passing the word amongst retired people to go listen to the next lecture. One of the men, who was sitting in a rocking chair, had been the person who tried to get the Senate to listen to him many years ago and they wouldn't. Now a program was gaining ground and finally becoming known. Sometime in this process - I had a vision of this date: September 6, 1988 This is the information on Art Bell's guest: Guest: Harry Braun The following pages all have this date on them, and the reference of hydrogen. |
| From:
http://www.energy-concepts.com/patents.html
Patent 4,769,055 Companded Total Condensation Reboil Cryogenic Air Separation. September 6, 1988 |
| From: http://gorhamme.virtualtownhall.net/Public_Documents/GorhamME_Codes/%23549422
SECTION 17 "pH" shall mean
the logarithm of the reciprocal of the hydrogen-ion concentration. The
concentration is a weight of hydrogen ions, in grams, per liter of
solution. Neutral water, for example, has a pH value of 7 and a
hydrogen-ion concentration 10-7. |
| Water and Sewers |
| CANADA - On September 5, 1988,
the government also announced a new policy concerning the
regulation of electricity exports and international power lines. Under the new policy, the
regulatory practices pertaining to exports of electric power were simplified and streamlined
thus making electricity exports easier and quicker.
In 1991, Canada passed the Energy Efficiency Act which came fully into force on January 1, 1993. The Act delivers on the Green Plan (December 1990) commitment that legislation would be introduced to allow the federal government to set minimum energy-efficiency performance standards on equipment, to require the energy consumption labeling of equipment, and to gather information and data on Canadian energy consumption and the use of alternative energy. |
| The internal-combustion engine may be replaced with a drivetrain consisting of fuel cells that operate on hydrogen, combined with an electric motor. Technologies are being developed for converting gasoline into hydrogen to feed to these fuel cells and utilize the existing gasoline pumping station infrastructure. In fact, it is not inconceivable that automobiles would be fueled directly with hydrogen at pumping stations. Significant use of these alternative fuels, however, is not expected before 2010.
Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Russia lead the world in development of Hydrogen fuel and its applications. Mercedes and BMW have experimental fleets of hydrogen-powered automobiles. Japanese automakers are testing hydrogen-powered cars. Where is the United States? Hydrogen may very well replace both gas and oil as the fuel we use for all energy. Hydrogen burns easily and releases vast amounts of heat, best of all, there is but one by-product created by the process, useful water. The process to remove hydrogen from water is called hydrolysis where an electric current runs through the water. This technology, currently, is very costly in that it requires an enormous amount of electric power to perform the hydrolysis. We may one day see our energy needs for all aspects of life, including aircraft and automobiles met by using this nonpolluting, lightweight, and efficient fuel.
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| Conversion Kits to Convert Your Car to Hydrogen | ||||||||
| National Hydrogen
Association
Hydrogen Information Network Home Page Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter Hydrogen International Association for Hydrogen Energy |
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| Hydrogen Systems . Com Custom engineered Hydrogen solutions. Shell Hydrogen ... Shell Hydrogen in brief Growing environmental awareness and concerns about the sustainability of a hydrocarbon fuel economy have led to a world-wide revival Hydrogen Guide Global news service providing up to date information on current affairs and the latest news. Why Hydrogen? Ten Reasons Why the United States Should Switch to a Hydrogen Energy Economy. |
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| Harnessing Hydrogen: The Key to Sustainable Transportation
Facts You Should Know About Hydrogen ENERGY FACTS: ALTERNATE FUELS
... are several ways of converting different types of biomass ... have both developed experimental
automobiles which burn hydrogen in modified internal combustion ...
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| HYDROGEN FROM WATER SEARCH | ||||||||
| Dr. MALLOVE KILLED - EXPERT ON COLD FUSION - HYDROGEN FROM WATER | ||||||||
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Drivers Eye Vegetable Oil As Cheap Fuel
By LAURA WALSH, Associated Press Writer WESTON, Conn. - As the nation grapples with pumped-up gas prices, car owners are turning to their favorite restaurants for a solution: recycled vegetable oil. Environmentalists have been using the fuel alternative for years as a way to cut back on sooty emissions, but as gas prices soar above $2 a gallon, they say their "veggie cars" are also a great way to save some cash. Every two weeks, Etta Kantor drives to a local Chinese restaurant to fuel her blue Volkswagen Jetta. She calls ahead and the owner knows to put aside a few buckets of used oil just for her. At home, Kantor uses a colander and a bag filter to remove water and any food particles. The vegetable oil is then poured into a 15-gallon tank that sits in the back of her Jetta, where a spare tire would usually be kept. With a touch of a button, located above the radio, Kantor can switch from diesel fuel to vegetable oil in seconds. "Oh, I zip around town, go fast on highways. It's not any different," said Kantor, 58, of Weston. Restaurants have to pay to get rid of their old vegetable oil and are happy to give it away for free. "It saves us a couple of dollars and it helps to save the environment a bit so I thought, 'Why not?'" said Shawn Reilly, a co-owner of Eli's On Whitney, a restaurant in Hamden. Reilly estimates that it costs between $40 and $60 a month to have the oil removed otherwise. The restaurant's only oil collector, Bridgeport resident Aaron Schlechter, says he picks up about 30 or 40 gallons twice a month from Eli's. He uses it to fuel his car for his 170-mile commute every day to his job as an environmental consultant in Staten Island, N.Y. "The only way that I can assuage my guilt by driving this awful distance is by driving something that isn't consuming fossil fuels and has much more environmentally friendly emissions," Schlechter, 29, said. Vegetable oil is becoming such a rage that a Massachusetts company called Greasecar, is buying it in bulk from a distributor and selling it to local customers. It sells for 90 cents a gallon, said company founder Justin Carven. Since 2001, Greasecar has also been selling conversion kits, like the one in Kantor's car, that allow diesel cars to run on the recycled oil. The kits only work on diesel engines. About 200 kits were sold in the past year, Carven said. A standard conversion kit sells for $800 at Greasecar. "Once you install it, though, you are saving hundreds and hundreds of dollars," he said. "The product usually pays for itself within the first year." Using the conversion kit, the car must be started and stopped on diesel fuel. A separate fuel tank is installed to hold the vegetable oil. Once the car is running and the vegetable oil has heated up, it can be switched over to run on just the vegetable oil. The oil must be heated because it is thicker and tends to congeal in the cold weather, Carven said. Similarly, Liquid Solar in Ithaca, N.Y., has contracts with a few local restaurants to collect their used vegetable oil. And in Santa Rosa, Calif., a group of 50 people have formed a co-op to buy the oil in bulk from a local manufacturer and then filter it for their own use. Although the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) has given a stamp of approval for vegetable-based biodiesel, it hasn't approved any recycled oil for sale, said Christine Sansevero, an environmental engineer for EPA. "You just don't know what's in that oil," she said. "There could be metals, other chemicals that, when burned, could create something you didn't intend to burn. It could also be fine, but it's an unknown." Biodiesel is a fuel derived from plant oil or animal fat, Sansevero said. It can be used in pure form but it is often blended with regular diesel. The most common form is B20 — a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel. Veggie car owners agree that biodiesel is another renewable fuel source, but say it isn't as cost effective or eco-friendly. Pure biodiesel costs about $1 more per gallon than diesel, Sansevero said. B20 costs about 20 cents more per gallon than diesel, she said. The trend is catching on, especially for those who have a distance to drive. The Healing Waters Band had a Greasecar conversion kit installed in its bus for a recent seven-week tour across the country. The band used a blended biodiesel mix to start and stop the engine, and vegetable oil for the rest. The band left its hometown of San Diego on a full tank of vegetable oil and then filled up again at a Chinese restaurant in Missouri before buying 500 gallons during a stop at Greasecar in Massachusetts. "We only spent $200 that would have normally cost us about $1,200, and we probably could have done it all for free if we kept stopping (at restaurants)," said Tony Thorpe, 34, a bassist and vocalist for the band. In Connecticut, Kantor is hoping to start her own small distribution center so she and others won't have to rely so heavily on restaurants for fuel. "You know that expression, 'If you build it, they will come.' Well, if we make it accessible, people will use it," Kantor said. |
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Algae promises cheap power WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hydrogen may be an ideal fuel when the supply of oil and natural gas runs out, but the problem has been finding a way to produce it cheaply. Scientists now say the answer may be an ordinary pond scum. Green algae, a simple plant that grows all over the world, has the unique ability to convert water and sunlight into hydrogen gas, researchers said Monday at the national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Now scientists have found a new way to force the algae to make hydrogen gas on demand, a process that could lead to an almost limitless supply of fuel that burns without pollution and produces only water as a waste product. Tasios Melis of the University of California, Berkeley, said that the algae, one of the most ancient plants known, evolved the ability to live in two radically different environments. When living in ordinary air and sunlight, it uses photosynthesis like other plants. This process converts sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into waste oxygen and the life-sustaining chemicals the plant needs. But when the algae is deprived of a key nutrient, sulfur, and forced to live in an anaerobic, or oxygen-free, environment, the plant reverts to an alternate lifestyle in order to survive. Under these conditions, the algae makes hydrogen, said Melis. ''It is sort of a metabolic switch,'' said Melis. ''It is an alternative way of breathing'' that the plant developed over millions of years to survive where there is no oxygen or sulfur. Those same conditions would kill other plants. In experiments, Melis said his laboratory first grows algae cells in the ordinary way, giving the plant sunlight, nutrients and water. The plant happily reproduces, growing millions upon millions of new cells. Then, the researchers cut off the supply of sulfur and oxygen to the algae, forcing it to click the metabolic switch to its hydrogen-producing lifestyle. ''Within 20 hours, the algae turns on its switch, converting from oxygen production to hydrogen production,'' said Melis. ''We have to seal the culture to prevent exposure to oxygen. Then we collect the hydrogen as it bubbles out of the culture.'' The gas comes out as pure, pollution-free hydrogen, he said. Melis said the hydrogen-making process has operated experimentally for up to four days, the time it takes for the algae to exhaust its internal resources. The researchers then converted it back to normal photosynthesis and the plant revives itself, ready to start another cycle. ''This has the promise of generating fuel from some of nature's most plentiful resources -- sunlight and water,'' said Melis. One liter of algae culture, a little over a quarter of a gallon, produces three milliliters of hydrogen, about a tenth of a fluid ounce, per hour, said Melis. Researchers believe this efficiency can be increased at least a hundredfold, but that has yet to be demonstrated. Algae growing in a small pond, he said, may eventually be enough to power 10 cars, although Melis admitted, ''I'm not saying how big the pond would have to be.'' The algae's alternate lifestyle uses an enzyme, along with sunlight, to extract hydrogen from water. The enzyme, hydrogenase, is not found in higher plants. Some researchers are looking at ways to transfer the gene for this enzyme into other plants and, possibly, to force the enzyme to work in the presence of oxygen. Hydrogen has long been promoted as a fuel to replace fossil energy sources. In the space program, hydrogen and oxygen are combined to make a rocket propellant, such as in the main engines of the space shuttle. Oxygen and hydrogen are an explosive mixture, but they can be combined in a fuel cell to produce electricity and water. Fuel cells electrify the space shuttle and were used successfully in the Apollo program. Margaret K. Mann of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a federal facility in Golden, Colo., said that automakers are already developing fuel cells to drive automobiles. Other researchers, she said, are studying ways of changing the nation's energy infrastructure -- pipelines, fuel transports and service stations -- to make use of hydrogen. She said it will be at least 20 years before hydrogen becomes a major part of the energy picture, but the gas could eventually power the nation, providing a renewable fuel source for both transportation and electrical generation. Right now, hydrogen is most commonly separated from natural gas. This makes hydrogen a negative in the energy equation, since natural gas is a cheaper, more efficient fuel. Hydrogen may come into its own for environmental reasons, said Mann. Carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of global warming, many believe. The only waste generated from hydrogen fuel is pure water, a resource that theoretically can be recycled to produce more hydrogen. Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. |