[Tech1] Slightly different energy

[Alan Taylor]

Hydrogen is a very promising fuel for vehicles, either as fuel for an IC engine, or to produce electricity via a fuel cell.  Either way, the only waste emission is water vapour. 

Mindful of the images of the Hindenburg disaster, people are intuitively fearful of what might happen to hydrogen tanks in the event of an accident, but it’s generally regarded as safer than petrol.  Petrol leaking from a tank forms puddles on the ground and a petrol fire  burns from ground level upwards until the fuel has burnt. Hydrogen dissipates very rapidly into the atmosphere and if there is a fire, it burns above the storage tank, not below it. 

There are videos on YouTube of hydrogen tanks for vehicles being shot at with anti tank rounds.  

I remember reading an article ten to fifteen years ago about how Iceland  was planning to use geothermal power to split water and to load the hydrogen into tankers and ship it to other countries as a green fuel. It sounded like a great idea, but I’ve heard nothing since. 

There have also been recent reports of successes in efficiently splitting water by other means, which could pave the way for hydrogen being generated where it is sold, further reducing the use of fossil fuels. 

I have no doubt that electric cars will be the norm soon, but I suspect that the real future will be for electric cars using hydrogen fuel cells instead of storage batteries. 

Alan Taylor

> On 2 Feb 2020, at 18:50, Roger E Long <relong at btinternet.com> wrote:
> 
> My son works for a Norwegian oil co in Aberdeen
> Hydrogen is the new buzz
> Its made from cracked gas and then added to the domestic supply @ 2% and considerably reduces Carbon Footprint
> Gas can take up to 15 % Hydrogen before boilers and burners need redesign.
> Hydrogen is obviously the fuel of the future, much more effective than battery power for vehicles.
> Problems lie with Petro Chem production  , Shell can’t pay its dividends this yr and investment has stopped in capital projects.
> Pensions Funds world-wide are heavily invested in Oil and Gas, they may need support!
> QE for the Carbon Industry….
> Roger
> 
>>> On 31 Jan 2020, at 18:21, David Newbitt via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Picking up on Alan’s mention of tidal energy I wonder if there is much awareness in the UK of the scheme centred on Alderney? My wife and I have something of a love affair with the island and although it is now almost five years since we last visited we try to follow developments there including the tidal energy scheme based on seabed turbines in “The Race”, the 8 mile wide section of the English Channel between the island and the Normandy coast.
>>>  
>>> The Race boasts the most powerful tidal movement in Europe (some say in the world) so the incentive is huge. So is the development cost which has been no small factor in the slow pace to implementation – the process began certainly 15 years ago. Current expectation (pardon the pun!) is for in excess of 250 turbines generating some 400 Megawatts. Possibly up and running by 2022 though as with most huge projects target dates have come and gone and so might this one. Obviously an island oft described as “2000 alcoholics clinging to a rock” doesn’t need 400 Megawatts so the bulk of the output is destined for France. The installation will be in Alderney’s territorial waters however so the benefit to the island’s economy will be huge. Present electricity supply on the island is achieved by diesel generators, all the fuel having to be shipped in with a resulting cost to the consumer of approximately double the unit charge on Jersey.
>>>  
>>> With the possible exception of Iona I think Alderney must be the most peaceful place I have visited in the British Isles. If it wasn’t quite so expensive to get to it would have my unreserved recommendation for ‘getting away from it all’.
>>>  
>>> Dave Newbitt.
>>>  
>>> From: Alan Taylor via Tech1
>>> Sent: Friday, January 31, 2020 12:03 PM
>>> To: Tech-Ops-chit-chat
>>> Subject: Re: [Tech1] Slightly different energy
>>>  
>>> With regard to renewables, I’d prefer more development in tidal energy for the UK.  Obviously you only get energy at certain states of the tide, but the nature of our tides means that there is always somewhere in the UK where the tides are favourable and we have higher tidal ranges than most countries.
>>>  
>>> Unfortunately politicians regard tidal energy as an excuse to build massive barrages, or to refuse to consider such schemes because of the cost of building barrages,  but there are other options which are smaller in scale and with fewer environmental issues.
>>>  
>>> Alan Taylor
>>> 
>>> On 31 Jan 2020, at 11:11, Bernard Newnham via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk> wrote:
>>> 
>>>  Energy companies, including Shell and Ovo, are very big on saying how they use renewables.   All good stuff, but what happens when you get a big blocking high pressure system and all the windmills stop?
>>> 
>>> It would be really good if someone managed to make fusion work, but it's always been "ten years away", through my whole life, I think.  For at least a decade now, successive governments have preferred to play party politics than actually get their energy act together, so we have huge slow nuclear projects that will probably not be ready in time to stop the brown outs.
>>> 
>>> Meanwhile, Rolls Royce have been saying "We can do that" and seem to have been largely ignored. RR are really good at building small, extremely safe, nuclear reactors - and they put them in submarines, right next to people who live with them for months on end.  It's a very proven technology - it doesn't solve the "where do we put the left overs?" problem, but we have that anyway.  
>>> 
>>> Finally, I think someone high up has noticed - 
>>> https://newatlas.com/energy/rolls-royce-plans-mini-nuclear-reactors-in-britain/ 
>>> 
>>> The parts arrive on lorries, apparently. There is an old rumour that in the sub-sub-sub basement under Whitehall one of them has been running for many years.
>>> 
>>> B
>>> 
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