 |
|
New storage system design brings hydrogen cars closer to reality
April 03, 2009Researchers have developed a critical part of a hydrogen storage system for cars that makes it possible to fill up a vehicle's fuel tank within five minutes with enough hydrogen to drive 300 miles.
The system uses a fine powder called metal hydride to absorb hydrogen gas. The researchers have created the system's heat exchanger, which circulates coolant through tubes and uses fins to remove heat generated as the hydrogen is absorbed by the powder.
The heat exchanger is critical because the system stops absorbing hydrogen effectively if it overheats, said Issam Mudawar, a professor of mechanical engineering who is leading the research.
"The hydride produces an enormous amount of heat," Mudawar said. "It would take a minimum of 40 minutes to fill the tank without cooling, and that would be entirely impractical."
Researchers envision a system that would enable motorists to fill their car with hydrogen within a few minutes. The hydrogen would then be used to power a fuel cell to generate electricity to drive an electric motor.
The research, funded by General Motors Corp. and directed by GM researchers Darsh Kumar, Michael Herrmann and Abbas Nazri, is based at the Hydrogen Systems Laboratory at Purdue's Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories. In February, the team applied for three provisional patents related to this technology.
"The idea is to have a system that fills the tank and at the same time uses accessory connectors that supply coolant to extract the heat," said Mudawar, who is working with mechanical engineering graduate student Milan Visaria and Timothée Pourpoint, a research assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics and manager of the Hydrogen Systems Laboratory. "This presented an engineering challenge because we had to figure out how to fill the fuel vessel with hydrogen quickly while also removing the heat efficiently. The problem is, nobody had ever designed this type of heat exchanger before. It's a whole new animal that we designed from scratch."
The metal hydride is contained in compartments inside the storage "pressure vessel." Hydrogen gas is pumped into the vessel at high pressure and absorbed by the powder.
"This process is reversible, meaning the hydrogen gas may be released from the metal hydride by decreasing the pressure in the storage vessel," Mudawar said. "The heat exchanger is fitted inside the hydrogen storage pressure vessel. Due to space constraints, it is essential that the heat exchanger occupy the least volume to maximize room for hydrogen storage."
Conventional automotive coolant flows through a U-shaped tube traversing the length of the pressure vessel and heat exchanger. The heat exchanger, which is made mostly of aluminum, contains a network of thin fins that provide an efficient cooling path between the metal hydride and the coolant.
"This milestone paves the way for practical on-board hydrogen storage systems that can be charged multiple times in much the same way a gasoline tank is charged today," said Kumar, a researcher at GM's Chemical & Environmental Sciences Laboratory and the GM R&D Center in Warren, Mich. "As newer and better metal hydrides are developed by research teams worldwide, the heat exchanger design will provide a ready solution for the automobile industry."
The researchers have developed the system over the past two years. Because metal hydride reacts readily with both air and moisture, the system must be assembled in an airtight chamber, Pourpoint said.
Research activities at the hydrogen laboratory involve faculty members from the schools of aeronautics and astronautics, mechanical engineering, and electrical and computer engineering.
Purdue University
"The hydride produces an enormous amount of heat," Mudawar said. "It would take a minimum of 40 minutes to fill the tank without cooling, and that would be entirely impractical."
Researchers envision a system that would enable motorists to fill their car with hydrogen within a few minutes. The hydrogen would then be used to power a fuel cell to generate electricity to drive an electric motor.
The research, funded by General Motors Corp. and directed by GM researchers Darsh Kumar, Michael Herrmann and Abbas Nazri, is based at the Hydrogen Systems Laboratory at Purdue's Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories. In February, the team applied for three provisional patents related to this technology.
"The idea is to have a system that fills the tank and at the same time uses accessory connectors that supply coolant to extract the heat," said Mudawar, who is working with mechanical engineering graduate student Milan Visaria and Timothée Pourpoint, a research assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics and manager of the Hydrogen Systems Laboratory. "This presented an engineering challenge because we had to figure out how to fill the fuel vessel with hydrogen quickly while also removing the heat efficiently. The problem is, nobody had ever designed this type of heat exchanger before. It's a whole new animal that we designed from scratch."
The metal hydride is contained in compartments inside the storage "pressure vessel." Hydrogen gas is pumped into the vessel at high pressure and absorbed by the powder.
"This process is reversible, meaning the hydrogen gas may be released from the metal hydride by decreasing the pressure in the storage vessel," Mudawar said. "The heat exchanger is fitted inside the hydrogen storage pressure vessel. Due to space constraints, it is essential that the heat exchanger occupy the least volume to maximize room for hydrogen storage."
Conventional automotive coolant flows through a U-shaped tube traversing the length of the pressure vessel and heat exchanger. The heat exchanger, which is made mostly of aluminum, contains a network of thin fins that provide an efficient cooling path between the metal hydride and the coolant.
"This milestone paves the way for practical on-board hydrogen storage systems that can be charged multiple times in much the same way a gasoline tank is charged today," said Kumar, a researcher at GM's Chemical & Environmental Sciences Laboratory and the GM R&D Center in Warren, Mich. "As newer and better metal hydrides are developed by research teams worldwide, the heat exchanger design will provide a ready solution for the automobile industry."
The researchers have developed the system over the past two years. Because metal hydride reacts readily with both air and moisture, the system must be assembled in an airtight chamber, Pourpoint said.
Research activities at the hydrogen laboratory involve faculty members from the schools of aeronautics and astronautics, mechanical engineering, and electrical and computer engineering.
Purdue University
Hydrogen Current Events and Hydrogen News RSSWPI Researchers Take Aim at Hard-to-Treat Fungal Infections
A team of researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park has developed a new model system to study fungal infections.
Proton's party pals may alter its internal structure
A recent experiment at the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility has found that a proton's nearest neighbors in the nucleus of the atom may modify the proton's internal structure.
Berkeley Researchers Take the Lead Out of Piezoelectrics
There is good news for the global effort to reduce the amount of lead in the environment and for the growing array of technologies that rely upon the piezoelectric effect.
Vibrations key to efficiency of green fluorescent protein
University of California, Berkeley, chemists have discovered the secret to the success of a jellyfish protein whose green glow has made it the darling of biologists and the subject of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Earth's early ocean cooled more than a billion years earlier than thought: Stanford study
The scalding-hot sea that supposedly covered the early Earth may in fact never have existed, according to a new study by Stanford University researchers who analyzed isotope ratios in 3.4 billion-year-old ocean floor rocks.
UT Knoxville and ORNL researchers turn algae into high-temperature hydrogen source
In the quest to make hydrogen as a clean alternative fuel source, researchers have been stymied about how to create usable hydrogen that is clean and sustainable without relying on an intensive, high-energy process that outweighs the benefits of not using petroleum to power vehicles.
Central Africa's tropical Congo Basin was arid, treeless in Late Jurassic
The Congo Basin - with its massive, lush tropical rain forest - was far different 150 million to 200 million years ago. At that time Africa and South America were part of the single continent Gondwana.
Engineers image nanostructure of a solid acid catalyst and boost its catalytic activity
The catalytic processes that facilitate the production of many chemicals and fuels could become much more environmentally friendly thanks to a breakthrough achieved by researchers from Lehigh and Rice Universities.
'Dropouts' pinpoint earliest galaxies
Astronomers, conducting the broadest survey to date of galaxies from about 800 million years after the Big Bang, have found 22 early galaxies and confirmed the age of one by its characteristic hydrogen signature at 787 million years post Big Bang.
Computer predicts reactions between molecules and surfaces, with 'chemical precision'
Good news for heterogeneous catalysis and the hydrogen economy: computers can now be used to make accurate predictions of the reactions of (hydrogen) molecules with surfaces. An international team of researchers, headed by Leiden theoretical chemist Geert-Jan Kroes, published on this subject this week in the journal Science.
More Hydrogen Current Events and Hydrogen News Articles
 |
Genesis Hydrogen Generator Complete Kit by Hydrogen-Water-Cars.com Here is a hydrogen generator built in its simplest form, taken and expanded from the Water4Gas technology. The Genesis is designed for those who want to get their feet wet and start improving on fuel economy without spending a lot of money to get results. The unit is self-contained and is quite simple to install and operate. We have hundreds of success stories and our customers love our technical help. We are not afraid to answerer our phones here at Hydrogen Water Cars. All of our generators are built with 316L stainless steel, this includes the washers and nuts and this will save you money in the long run as you will not see corrosion. We use quality components and craftsmanship so we can stand behind our products. You can feel comfortable purchasing from Hydrogen-Water-Carsdotcom, we... |
 |
Hydrogen: The Essential Element by John S. Rigden (Author) Seduced by simplicity, physicists find themselves endlessly fascinated by hydrogen, the simplest of atoms. Hydrogen has shocked, it has surprised, it has embarrassed, it has humbled--and again and again it has guided physicists to the edge of new vistas where the promise of basic understanding and momentous insights beckoned. The allure of hydrogen, crucial to life and critical to scientific discovery, is at the center of this book, which tells a story that begins with the big bang and continues to unfold today. In this biography of hydrogen, John Rigden shows how this singular atom, the most abundant in the universe, has helped unify our understanding of the material world from the smallest scale, the elementary particles, to the largest, the universe itself. It is a tale... |
 |
Double Punch Hydrogen Generator Electrode -316L Stainless Steel by Hydrogen Water Cars Used to produce Hydrogen On Demand, the heart of your generator. Quality 1/4" pre-cut Acrylic. Precision drilled holes spaced evenly. Keeps the wire tightly in place. Marine quality 316L Stainless steel, .032 diameter 20 awg. Comes already assembled. Feel free to call with any questions. 541-756-7050 hydrogen-generators-usadotcom |
 |
Revolution Smart Cell Hydrogen Generator - Complete Kit With Enhancement by Hydrogen-Water-Cars.com What Makes The Revolution Series Different From Others? AMP DRAW TEMPERATURE -HHO PRODUCTION ~Freezing Poing~When shopping for a hydrogen generator make sure they talk about all 4 of these factors. If they don't - be leery. ~ AMP DRAW - How Many amps does the hydrogen generator draw? This is what a hydrogen generator pulls from your vehicles battery. Your alternator supplies current to the battery and other electrical devices. To much current or amp draw taxes the alternator and will make the engine work harder, which in turn burns more gas. Many systems on the market, draw to many amps and end up requiring a PWM (pulse with modulator) to govern or throttle the amp draw. Some units, especially single cells are like runaway freight trains, climbing in amps the longer they run. Our... |
 |
HYDROGEN - Hot Stuff Cool Science 2nd edition: Discover the Future of Energy by Rex A. Ewing (Author) Discover the solid science and cutting-edge technologies behind hydrogen energy and fuel cells, and learn how we will use this energy in our homes and buildings, vehicles and public transportation, for electricity in remote areas and for backup power, and much more. Zed, the wise wizard of the Wasserstoff Farm, leads readers through chapters that include an overview of basic chemistry and energy transformation; a look at global warming and the annual U.S. energy consumption; electrolysis and other ways of extracting hydrogen from water; extracting hydrogen from coal, natural gas and biomass; ethanol and methanol production; nuclear energy and hydrogen production; using wind and solar energy for hydrogen production; hydrogen storage; internal combustion engines fueled by hydrogen; and fuel... |
 |
H-Racer & Hydrogen Fuel Station by Horizon Witness the power of new energy technology in the palm of your hand. Thats right - this car does not need batteries! The car uses a real fuel cell and its own on-board hydrogen storage system. Use this accessory to fuel the H-racer with an unlimited supply of clean energy. To create free hydrogen fuel at the flick of a switch, just add water to the stations tank! Fueling is animated by a special blue light display. Includes the NEW 2007 version H-Racer, Fueling Station, Instruction Guide and solar panel. The H-Racer requires about 20 minutes of simple assembly and will operate for about 4 minutes (or approx. 100m) from a full hydrogen tank. You'll want this car for it's educational "toy" appeal, but be advised it does not perform like a remote control car. |
 |
Deadly Passions by Hydrogyn Hot on the heels of the band's success with their Billboard charting (Bombshell) release in 2006, (Strip'em Blind Live) CD success in 2007, coupled with their relentless touring in Europe, Kentucky based rockers HYDROGYN return to form with the release of their new opus (Deadly Passions). The Haunting, yet powerful vocals of the beautiful Julie Westlake, and the stunning press photos taken by John Scarpati (Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson etc) will ensure that this band are front page news right across the Globe. |
 |
Campbell Hausfeld WE106200AV 7018 1/8-Inch High-Strength Low Hydrogen Welding Electrodes, 5-Pound Box by Campbell Hausfeld |
 |
Hydrogen (Bassjackers Remix) Randy Santino (Primary Contributor) |
 |
Hydrogen Age, The: Empowering a Clean-Energy Future by Geoffrey Holland (Author), James Provenzano (Author) Hydrogen stands out as the best alternative to traditional polluting fossil fuels for many reasons-it can be produced without pollution, is nontoxic and noncorrosive, and we can never run out of it. It is as safe as or safer than the fuels we currently use and can be made virtually anywhere. The Hydrogen Age explains this promising fuel, shows how it can be harnessed to serve virtually all of our energy needs, and reveals why hydrogen is destined to become the clean, safe, renewable fuel of choice for the future. |
| © 2009 BrightSurf.com |