Ways To Produce Hydrogen Gas For Vehicle Use
Hydrogen gas is one of the most abundant elements on the planet. This makes it possible to produce the element in gas form using a wide variety of methods and raw materials providing possibly the most flexible fuel on the earth. In a traditional plant setting, producing hydrogen gas can begin with raw materials such as coal, water, natural gas, algae or biomass (natural organic composting materials).
Gasification is the act of producing hydrogen gas from a raw material like biomass or coal by a process that involves extreme heating and subsequent cooling of the raw material, separation and purification. The hydrogen produced in this way can then be used to generate electricity or for any regular fuel need. For power plants that are traditionally fueled by coal as a means to generate electricity, using coal gasification to produce hydrogen gas as the fuel source for this electricity results in much lower emissions.
The least polluting and environmentally clean way to produce hydrogen gas involves extracting it from water. Several different methods are used to accomplish this, but electrolysis is the best method. Electrolysis produces hydrogen gas from water by using electric current to separate out the hydrogen from oxygen. The by-products of such a process are hydrogen and oxygen gas. The electricity used to power the method can be derived from renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind generators. Geothermal or hydro power can also provide the initial energy source. Nuclear-generated power may also be used for the electrolysis method.
Thermochemical Water Splitting involves producing hydrogen gas from water through a chemical reaction between water and certain chemicals at a high degree of temperature. This is basically available at nuclear plants. The difference between High-temperature Electrolysis to produce hydrogen gas and that extracted by electricity is only that in the former, the water is brought to the required temperature by heat that is generated by nuclear power production whereas in the latter, the same is done by using electric current.
Steam Methane Reformation is the name of the technique used to extract hydrogen from natural gas. When natural gas is burned to create steam, a synthesis gas is produced that hydrogen is then extracted from. Ninety five percent of all the hydrogen used in the United States is produced this way; even though it is not as, “green,” as electrolysis.
By using a technique called Photo-Biological Production, hydrogen can be extracted from algae or bacteria contained in wastewater. In this method, the algae are kept from access to sulfur. This results in their emitting hydrogen instead of oxygen. This method uses waste and renewable materials as its feedstock, and is thus attracting a great deal of attention as being the “greenest” method.
When compared to fossil fuel production, producing hydrogen gas clearly provides numerous benefits going forward. The apparent abundance of hydrogen gives it a real future whereas fossil fuels have a very limited time line. No matter the exact production method used, plentiful sources of hydrogen make it clearly the fuel of the future. And it seems only a matter of time that new appliances and applications start to be produced to take advantage of this new fuel.
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