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| Water=2Hydrogne+Oxygen Source: Roman From Pixabay |
Green
Quirk part 6
Hydrolysis
and Hydrogen:
permanent solutions
for a healthy
environment
Hydrogen
is
increasingly becoming
the
alternative Green
fuel replacing
fossil fuel burning, complying
with
Canada’s
Clean Electricity Regulations
of
net-zero carbon emissions by
2035,
and the
global
net-zero
targets by 2050.
Hydrogen
is produced using several different methods. Nearly all hydrogen is
generated
from
fossil fuels. Most of the hydrogen comes from petroleum and is created
through steam methane reforming, which is a reaction between steam and
methane (natural gas). Gray
hydrogen is the most common and is produced using this
process.
This
process
has
a medium carbon footprint, and for one tonne of hydrogen, about 6.6-9.3
tonnes of carbon dioxide is emitted, and
if
carbon capture and storage is used to remove the CO2
emissions,
then the product is known as blue hydrogen. Green
hydrogen is produced from the electrolysis of water and has a minimal
greenhouse gas footprint. Less
than 1% of the hydrogen produced is low-carbon, i.e. green and blue
hydrogen, and hydrogen produced from biomass.
On
Earth, hydrogen
is mainly
locked in water and hydrocarbons. At
normal room temperatures, it’s
colourless, odourless, and tasteless, making detecting
leaks
difficult. It
is
nontoxic
at
low concentrations; however, higher
hydrogen
concentrations in a reduced oxygen environment can
create nausea, headaches, dizziness,
and loss of consciousness. Under extremely high concentrations, it
can lead to asphyxiation.
Hydrogen
becomes a liquid at -253°C or lower. It
produces
a light blue, almost invisible flame
in oxygen at temperatures
of 2660°C
and in air at 2045°C with
a heating value 3-3.5 times less than natural gas.
Hydrogen
is extremely
flammable
and
explosive, with
a very low flash point and ignites at extremely
low temperatures. It is highly reactive and can ignite spontaneously
in the presence of oxygen. If the hydrogen concentration in air is
between 4-75%, it will ignite as
compared
with natural gas at 5-15%.
It
has 15 times lower spark energy to ignite than natural gas. Under
certain conditions, hydrogen will ignite without oxygen when
a spark is applied.
It
can cause metal materials to become brittle and fracture under stress, posing a hazard in pipelines and storage tanks.
Burning
hydrogen produces very little pollution. When
burned
in oxygen or
air, it
produces water vapour; however,
small
amounts of nitrogen oxides
are
produced when
burned in air due to the reaction of
atmospheric
nitrogen and oxygen molecules at temperatures greater
than 1500°C.
Hydrogen’s
potential in clean electric energy generation is becoming increasingly
recognized globally, while its use in vehicles is becoming
questionable.
Hydrogen
vehicles have limited production and have been vastly
outpaced by electric vehicles. The two main manufacturers of hydrogen vehicles are Toyota’s Mirai with
a range of 647 km (402 miles) and
Hyundai’s Nexo with a range of 612 km (380 miles). The
Mirai and Nexo are only available in California.
Honda’s CR-Ve:FCEV is a plug-in hybrid EV and hydrogen fuel cell
SUV. BMW’s iX5 hydrogen is a
fuel-cell SUV still in its concept stage. California
has the most developed hydrogen vehicle
refuelling network
in North America. Canada has a sparser network in Vancouver,
BC, Ontario,
and Quebec.
Hydrogen
vehicles are very
expensive to buy, and their performance is
similar to an electric vehicle and an internal combustion engine. The
refuelling costs are similar to or
slightly lower than
gas vehicles. The
downside of the hydrogen vehicles
is
the
limited refuelling networks,
their
uncertain
future,
and
the
high cost of replacing fuel cells, which
in some cases are more than the initial purchase price of the
vehicle.
Hydrogen
is also used in portable and large stationary backup power
generators. It’s
widely used in the chemical manufacturing industry and the production
of
ammonia for fertilizers.
Green
hydrogen
fuel
is
the most likely
substitute
for the
polluting coal,
biomass,
and natural gas
facilities and can easily be converted
to
hydrogen.
Energy from uranium nuclear reactors can result in radioactive
contamination in
the environment, as
we have seen
with Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island, not
to mention the
minor
accidents.
Nuclear reactors are expensive, costing
billions to
build.
Thorium
reactors are safer but also
extremely costly.
Wind
and
solar
are
green but
not cost-effective and
lack the efficiency
and
continuous reliability needed to
maintain the
current
large electrical
grid
system. Hydro
dams,
like
nuclear, are
expensive, costing billions,
upsetting
the ecology and
settlements
in the flood zone and downstream from
the dam.
This
leaves
green
hydrogen
as
a cost-effective, efficient, and reliable alternative and a healthy environmental solution for powering the electrical grid infrastructure.
Recently,
Alberta
has
been moving in that direction with their
Battle River Carbon Hub (BRCH) test project. This
is
the
world’s first using
hydrogen fuel
to
generate
clean electricity.
The
facility is located
14 km SW of Forestburg, Alberta. TransAlta
Corporation’s
(formerly
Heartland Generation) Battle
River Generating Station initially
had
coal-fired boilers and, through
the Hydrogen Burner Test Program, is being retrofitted to hydrogen-fired boilers, replacing
the
current natural gas operation. The goal of the test, according to
Alberta
Innovates, is “to
determine the optimal design and operating conditions to ensure safe,
reliable and effective operation of the boiler with hydrogen fuel.”
The
benefits of the successful testing to Alberta will
be a
major technical advancement in the transition from coal and natural
gas to hydrogen. The research findings will be shared across Canada
and the US. The
technical developments will significantly extend the operational life
of existing electrical generation assets, reduce carbon emissions, and promote the growth of hydrogen in
power generation.
The
project is also tied into
rural
economic development, projected to create 1200 plus jobs during
construction and development and 100 jobs during operations. The
test program began in March 2023 and ended in November 2024 with a
budget of $6.19 million, with
an additional award
of $2 million through the Government of Alberta’s Hydrogen Centre
of Excellence.
The
Battle River facility is one of eleven facilities eventually
planned
to be converted to hydrogen burning. Hydrogen
will be produced on-site using natural gas. From
a year-old post on Heartland’s
linkedin.com;
the
test
successfully
ignited and sustained hydrogen combustion without using natural gas
as a support fuel and achieved zero-carbon combustion for the first
time at the facility. This is the first step in a multi-phase
program to understand how to utilize hydrogen while maintaining the
facility’s safety and reliable track record. It’s
an excellent
project still in its early
test
stage, showing great promise with much more to come soon.
Another
Alberta company, Carbon
Alpha, is participating in TransAlta’s decarbonization project to
sequester 2.1
million tonnes/year of CO2 from BRCH
to
produce
800 tonnes of blue hydrogen/day
and
generate around 400 megawatts
of clean electricity. An
additional 5
million tonnes
of CO2/year
from other regional sources of emissions or carbon capture and
storage hubs will be sequestered.
TransAlta
is supporting Alberta’s natural gas industry to produce grey
hydrogen
using
the
steam methane reforming method.
The
added
step to sequester CO2 in
blue hydrogen production
could
be
eliminated
if a more cost-effective process
using the
water electrolysis process
were employed.
This
process can also be on-site using water which is abundant even if
drilling for it is necessary.
Hydrogen-burning
power plants can be built anywhere, requiring no smokestack. They
are non-polluting and
genuinely renewable, compatible
with
small communities and
scalable, growing with the community.
All
coal, natural gas, and biomass plants can
be converted
to hydrogen-burning
facilities.
Solar, wind, nuclear, and hydro can
become
a thing of the past and be replaced by clean, reliable, preferably
green,
hydrogen-powered
electrical generators.
Green
Quirk part 1
Introduction
Green
Quirk part
2
Radiation
Remediation and
Thorium Reactors
Green
Quirk part
3
Over
Unity/Free
Energy
Green
Quirk part 4
Internal
Combustion Engine Efficiency
Green
Quirk part
5
Electrogravitic Space
and Personal Vehicles
Green
Quirk part 6
Water
Electrolysis
and Hydrogen
 |
Temperatures
Table For Different Fuels Source: ThoughtCo |
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Charles
Kuss
2025
Updated: 04-21-2025
