Re: Using Solar Energy to Generate Hydrogen

On Jan 2, 9:47 am, Eeyore <rabbitsfriendsandrelati...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
tyrone schneider wrote:
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe

No.

COMPOUNDS of hydrogen are abundant. However elemental hydrogen itself is
one of the rarest elements on this planet.

Graham

Hydrogen is abundant. That's because hydrogen is easily obtained from
water by electrolytic decomposition of water using solar energy.
Anyone with a battery and two wires can make hydrogen from water.
Many have when they were kids.

Now, the total mass of the hydro-sphere is 1.4e21 kg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean

Of this total 1/9th or 155e18 kg is hydrogen. This hydrogen by any
measure is readily available for human use once a primary source of
energy is found to release it.

Solar energy and nuclear energy are two possible sources.

ALL chemical fuels now in common use started out as solar energy. So
the oil and coal and natural gas that we burn, even the hydropower
that we tap into, or the wind power that we tap into - ALL ORIGINATED
WITH SUNLIGHT! So, there's no reason we can't add hydrogen to the mix
using sunlight.

To get the scale of sunlight lets work through a few numbers.

Solar energy amounts to 1,366 watts/m2 in space. The Earth's disc
intercepts a total of 173.9e15 watts of power at Earth's location in
space.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_energy

To get an idea what this MIGHT do to the water of the world, consider
that if ALL this energy were somehow made available to electrolyze
water - producing 1 kg of gas for every 50 kWh produced, ALL THE WATER
ON EARTH would be converted to hydrogen and oxygen in 5,084 years.
This is a very short period of time on the astronomical scales we're
talking about!!

So, there's plenty of solar energy, and plenty of hydrogen - so
availability isn't the issue. The technology to do it cost
effectively IS!!

More realistically...

The human race consumes energy at 15e12 watts rate. That is solar
energy arrives at Earth 12,000 times greater than humans use energy.
So, there's plenty of energy there for our needs and plenty of
hydrogen to store that energy when we need it.

Hydrogen burns under conditions that all other fuels burn - so
hydrogen easily replaces ALL other fuels, if you have hydrogen at the
right price. Hydrogen doesn't produce carbon dioxide - it produces
only water. IF improperly burned it CAN produce Nitrous Oxides - but
ANY fuel improperly burned does that. That's because AIR is made up
of oxygen AND nitrogen. Taking care in the details of the burner
design, resolves this problem. In fact, BECAUSE of the SIMPLICITY of
hydrogen when compared to more COMPLEX hydrocarbon fuels - efficient
low NOx burners - actually PERFORM BETTER than comparable burners
designed for carbon based fuels. For this reason, despite the ease an
unsophisticated burner can be made to produce NOx (due to the high
temperatures possible with hydrogen) - a well designed hydrogen burner
actually produces less than 0.3% the NOx of a well designed fossil
fuel burner.

Now, back to our industrial demand for fossil fuels.

Humanity consumes 15e12 watts of power principally by burning the
following fuels

23.8 billion barrels of crude oil
5.5 billion metric tons of coal
2.2 billion metric tons of natural gas

per year - at a cost of $4 trillion per year.

ALL these fuels are easily replaced (that is with few technical
requirements) by 3.34 billion metric tons of hydrogen gas each year,
created by the electrolytic reduction of 30 billion metric tons (30e12
kg) of water each year by applying 167,000 TWh of DC electricity to
that water each year.

Using solar panels to provide this DC electricity requires that panels
be placed in sunny locations. Since most places on Earth rarely
receive more than 1,700 hours of intense sunlight per year, this
requires 100 TW of solar panels be installed in sunny places. At 180
MW per square kilometer, this translates to 556,000 sq km of solar
panels be in operation.

To maintain strong economic activity it is desireable to charge no
more for the hydrogen than would be charged by an equivalent heat
value from the other fuels mentioned, discounting that cash flow for
the minor infrastructure changes to deliver store and use the hydrogen
on the scale needed.

This translates to an $800 per metric ton cost, or $2.67 trillion per
year for the hydrogen.

This requirement gives us the price point we need for the solar panels
and solar driven variable load electrolyzers and water system to feed
the hydrogen infrastructure just mentioned.

With discount rates typical in the power and fuel industries, and a 25
year lifespan, $2.67 trillion per year can support $40 trillion in
capital equipment. With 100 trillion watts installed that's $0.40 per
peak watt including all balance of system costs up to the hydrogen
distribution infrastructure.

My low cost solar panels

http://www.usoal.com

have a cost of $0.07 per peak watt including all balance of system
costs.

Others are working on systems that seek to break the $1.00 per peak
watt barrier.

ANY solar system that can be made for less than $0.40 per peak watt
(including all balance of system costs) has the potential to compete
head to head against ALL major energy companies.

So, I produce hydrogen at a cost that competes head to head with all
the other fuels mentioned, without subsidy or special set asides. The
way I'm proceeding with this technology is as follows;

(1) Acquire low-rank coal reserves for next to nothing
(2) Acquire large land holdings for next to nothing (mined out
lands)
(3) Install solar collectors on the land holdings - reclaiming the
land
(4) use hydrogen to produce liquid fuels from low rank carbon
(5) sell liquid fuels at market rates
(6) With cash flow and adequate access to liquid fuels, purchase oil
marketer
(7) Create integrated oil company using solar derived 'sunfuel'
(8) Add direct hydrogen sales at retail level
(9) Engage in price war to undercut oil companies and promote
hydrogen sales
(10) Maintain petroleum as loss leader putting downard pressure on
oil prices until oil companies go out of business
(11) Drop oil sales and sell 100% hydrogen when oil is no longer a
viable business

This is on the liquid transportation fuel side.

On the electric utility side the order of battle is as follows

(1) Acquire coal fired power plant capacity where it is cheap
(2) Switch to using hydrogen fuel in lieu of coal
(3) Use coal to make liquid fuels for process described above
(4) Use hydrogen pipeline to power plant as distribution point for
retail hydrogen sales
(5) Undercut natural gas prices and distribute hydrogen instead of
natural gas
(6) Displace coal and natural gas with hydrogen

My cost of production is around $200 per metric ton in the field, and
$270 per metric ton delivered to your home, car, or factory. Selling
price is $800 per metric ton which is competitive - except for coal.
But $800 per metric ton hydrogen is competitive with coal when carbon
costs are added (Kyoto)

A ton of hydrogen is worth;

24 barrels of crude oil
6.2 tonnes of coal
2.55 tonnes of natural gas

So, hydrogen
at $800 per tonne - this translates to $33 per barrel crude oil
at $800 per tonne - this translates to $40 per tonne coal + $25
per tonne carbon emissions
at $800 per tonne - this translates to $315 per tonne natural
gas

While providing handsome profits to me who makes hydrogen at this
price. Profits that I reinvest in expanding the production of
hydrogen from desalinated seawater and sunlight.

A special case in the interim is the conversion of low rank coals into
petrol using the Bergius process. I own several billion tons of low-
rank coal that is 40% by weight water.

1.7 tons of coal are converted through a vacuum dewatering process I
own to 1.0 tons of charcoal by burning 12 kg of hydrogen. The
dewatered charcoal is then converted to 7 barrels of liquid fuels by
the addition of 88 kg of hydrogen. The low-rank coal is worthless in
its present location. The charcoal is worth $80 per metric ton. The
7 barrels of liquid fuels are worth $700 at present prices. This was
all energized by 100 kg of hydrogen - so a metric ton of hydrogen in
this scenario produces $7000 worth of value - nearly 10x the $800
market price described above.

So, I am doing the following;

(1) Arranging the adquisition of mined out lands in sunny regions
that have significant low rank 'overburden'
(2) Installing a dewatering and coal-to-liquids facility at these
sites powered by solar panels
(3) Acquiring low-valued coal fired plants (those with increasing
costs or otherwise in trouble)
(4) Converting those plants to solar hydrogen
(5) Add the stranded coal to the coal-to-liquids facility

Then follow the procedure described above.

YOU NEED TO MAKE SUNFUEL WITH SUNLIGHT IN ORDER TO COMPETE HEAD TO
HEAD WITH MAJOR ENERGY COMPANIES IF YOU WANT TO END THEIR DOMINANT
POSITION IN THE ENERGY MARKETS

Historically it has been access to resources and markets that have
determined the success or failure of an energy company. Looking
forward low cost access to solar energy in a form that is easily used
(hydrogen from water) when competing against companies that are
running up against limits to supply - give solar hydrogen an
unbeatable competitive edge.


.

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