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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 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, in higher hydrogen concentrations the reduction of oxygen can create nausea, headaches, dizziness, and loss of consciousness. Under extremely high concentrations it can lead to asphyxiation.
Hydrogen becomes a liquid at -253C or lower. It produces a light blue almost invisible flame in oxygen at temperatures of 2660C and in air at 2045C 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 hydrogen concentration in air is between 4-75% it will ignite as compared with natural gas at 5-15%. It has a 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 1500C. 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 the electrical vehicles. 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 or slightly lower to gas vehicles. The downside of the hydrogen vehicles are 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 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 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 smoke stack. They are non-polluting compatible with small communities and scaleable, 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 being replaced by clean and 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
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Temperatures Table For Different Fuels Source: ThoughtCo |
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Charles Kuss
2025
Updated: 2-18-2025
