Seelamprem's Weblog

Visit to Ecological Village Kempele Oulu, Finland

Reformer — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 17:15:32 +0000

Fortel Oy company involved in bio-energy business, created a ecological village at Kempele near Oulu. The ecological village consists of 10 houeses including the smart electric grid, a wind mill and a pilot gasification plant which produces Combined Heat and Power. The residential houses are demonstration area to create ecological homes which uses renewable energy like bioenergy and windmill.
The CHP plant uses wood chips as feedstock to gasify the wood or wood waste to produce wood gas in a gasifier (which are burn using fuel and O2). The wood gas basically consists of CO, CO2, CH4, H2, etc flue gases which are cooled using water and waste heat is recovered using heat exchangers, and the cooled gases are fed into a piston ICE using air to combust and to produce electricity. One Kg of dry wood to produce 1 watt electricty + 3 watts heat for district heating and warm water (at 65 deg C). The visit was really fantastic to watch a pilot scale CHP unit and people are warmly welcomed us and delivered a short presentation on the ecological village.

Solar PV paper material, a novel material

Reformer — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:33:51 +0000

http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=233909609&…

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Battery Vs Fuel Cell

Reformer — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:14:03 +0000

Comparison Between BEV (battery electric vehicle) and FCV (Fuel cell vehicle)
The alternative vehicles like gasoline-powered hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), PHEV, BEV, FCEV’s making impact on low or no-emissions vehicles in the market for future. The combination of bio-fuels, electric and fuel cell vehicles will reduce the emissions and as well consumption of oil. Moreover it will be ultimate solution for all three problems i.e. 3E’s (Energy-Environ-Economic). Still ICE modifications needed or to be replace by electric or battery cars in order to reduce substantially GHG emissions. FC or battery should store the energy and able to deliver max amount of energy at the desired power density by smallest possible weight and volume. Terms used in FC or battery are storage capacity, energy density, power density (watts/kg), voltage efficiencies, life time, etc. The comparison made the manufacturing and refueling costs of a BEV and a FCV capable of delivering HP and driving certain distance.

Both fuel cell and batteries need energy to generate electricity, FC – energy from Hydrogen stored or on-board production will supply electricity in the vehicle, whereas batteries will get energy stored from electricity grid by charging.

Percentage of new cars sold over the 21st century for the hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) scenario, showing the mixture of gasoline internal combustion engine vehicles (ICV), followed by gasoline-powered hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), (cellulosic) ethanol-powered plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and finally the hydrogen-powered FCEV.

Two main factors are important while comparsion made between FC and BEV, for FC the hydrogen production and effeciency of the process is the main factor in deciding the cost and out put power density. Considering renewable H2 producion then we should specify what type and efficency value, for eg. wind energy integrated with electrolyser might not efficient incomparsion with Battery as mentioned in the literature, if you consider other alternatives like natural gas reforming to produce H2 with 75-80 % reforming efficiency then the final output effeciency would be much greater than Battery. At the moment the BEV performs much better in terms cost, durability, manufacturing, charging, etc. FC face many challenges in order to compete with BEV and in order to eneter commercialization in next 10-20 years, one major advantage in case FCV is refuelling time is very short comapred to rechargin time (many hours).

A compressed hydrogen powering a fuel cell can provide electricity to a vehicle traction motor with five times more energy per unit mass than current NiMH batteries used in most gasoline HEV, and two times more than advanced Lithium-ion batteries but H2 FC exhibits have low energy per volume (liter) comapred to abtteries or BEV. For shotr range distance less than 250-300 miles a BEV much better option comapred to FCV, but abover 400 km the FCV is advantageous for long range distances it gives much higher efficiencies than BEV.

Fuel cell electric vehicles are superior to advanced lithiumion
full function battery electric vehicles, since the fuel
cell EV: weighs less, takes up less space on the vehicle, generates less greenhouse gases in most of the US
costs less (lower vehicle costs and life-cycle costs), requires less well-to-wheels natural gas or biomass
energy, takes much less time to refuel.
Battery electric vehicles have three advantages compared to
fuel cell EVs: lower fuel cost per kilometer, less well-to-wheels wind or solar energy per kilometer, greater access to fueling capability initially.

Source of Information:
Fuel cell and battery electric vehicles compared by C.E. Thomas*
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 34, 2009, 6005-6020.
H2Gen Innovations, Inc., 4740 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia, 22304, USA.

A cost comparison of fuel-cell and batterynext term electric vehicles by Stephen Eaves and James Eaves*
Journal of Power Sources, Volume 130, Issues 1-2, 3 May 2004, Pages 208-212

Activation energy

Reformer — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 07:59:57 +0000

Chemical reactions ordinarily occur as a result of collisions between reacting particles.
In general, the number of collisions per unit time is directly proportional to the concentration of reactants.
In order for collisions to be effective, there must be considerable force in the colllisions. The slower moving molecules do not have enough kinetic energy to react when they collide…they bounce off one another and retain their identity.

Only those molecules moving at high speed have enough energy for collisions to result in a reaction.

Every reaction requires a certain minimum energy for the reaction to occur–it is called activation energy, Ea, and is expressed in kJ.
* it is a positive quantity, Ea>0
* it depends upon the nature of the reaction. “Fast” reactions usually have a small Ea; those with a large Ea usually proceed slowly.
* it is independent of temperature and concentrations.

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Ethanol production inside carbon nanotubes

Reformer — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:50:56 +0000

(Nanowerk Spotlight) Ethanol is all the rage these days. Although we have been drinking ethanol, an alcohol, for thousands of years (fermented beverages such as beer and wine may contain up to 15–25% ethanol by volume), the recent interest has been sparked by its use as a renewable fuel alternative to gasoline. Indeed, the largest single use of ethanol is as a motor fuel and fuel additive. Ethanol is produced by fermentation when certain species of yeast metabolize sugar. The process works with all biological feedstocks that contain appreciable amounts of sugar or materials that can be converted into sugar such as starch or cellulose. The primary feedstock for ethanol production in the U.S. is corn. In Brazil, the world’s leading ethanol producer, it’s mostly derived from sugar cane. While there is a heated controversy over the economic and ecological benefits of using biomass for producing ethanol fuel, it seems that nanotechnology’s jack-of-all-trades, the carbon nanotube (CNT), might provide a solution here as well. CNTs are increasingly recognized as promising materials for catalysis, either as catalysts themselves, as catalyst additives or as catalyst supports. Researchers in China now have used CNTs loaded with rhodium (Rh) nanoparticles as reactors to convert a gas mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen into ethanol. This appears to be the first example where the activity and selectivity of a metal-catalyzed gas-phase reaction benefits significantly from proceeding inside a nanosized CNT reaction vessel.
CNTs distinguish themselves from other carbon materials, e.g. activated carbon and carbon nanofibers, in that they have well graphitized graphene with semiconducting or metallic characteristics and a tubular morphology with well defined dimensions. Earlier theoretical studies have shown that the electron density is shifted from the inside to the outside of CNT channels, and that inside gas molecules exhibit a binding energy different from those outside of the nanotubes.
“We were curious about what would happen if we combined these graphene tubes with metal nanoparticles, which have interesting redox and catalytic properties by themselves” Dr. Xinhe Bao tells Nanowerk. “We previously found that the redox properties of iron and iron oxide particles are tunable via encapsulation within CNTs.”
Bao, a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Catalysis at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and head of the institute’s Nano and Interfacial Catalysis Group, found that, for instance, iron oxide particles within 4-8 nm wide nanotubes are auto-reduced at 600 degrees Celsius while the particles located on the outer surface of the nanotubes need 800 degrees Celsius. Furthermore, the auto-reduction temperature of inside particles decreases with the nanotube diameter. On the other hand, the oxidation of metallic iron nanoparticles is retarded inside nanotubes compared to those particles located on the outer surface of nanotubes. Both experiments indicate the modification of the redox properties of these particles inside CNTs and the stabilization of metallic Fe inside nanotubes (“Tuning of Redox Properties of Iron and Iron Oxides via Encapsulation within Carbon Nanotubes”).
“We suspected that the modification of the redox properties of metal particles inside CNTs is a general characteristic and that this could be exploited in catalysis” adds Dr. Xiulian Pan, a member of Bao’s group and first author of the team’s recent publication in Nature Materials, where they describe their CNT ethanol production method (“Enhanced ethanol production inside carbon-nanotube reactors containing catalytic particles”).
Carbon nanotubes for ethanol production
Schematic diagram showing ethanol production from syngas inside Rh-loaded carbon nanotubes. The black spheres denote carbon atoms, which form the graphene layers of the carbon nanotubes. The streams in light orange and green entering the nanotubes indicate the gas mixture of CO and H2, respectively. The three stacks of small spheres in rose, blue, green and red inside the tubes represent catalyst particles that may comprise more than one component. The streams in light cyan tailing behind the catalyst particles along the axis of the nanotubes represent ethanol. (Reprinted with permission from Nature Publishing Group)
“Therefore, we introduced a promoted RhMn catalyst for syngas conversion into carbon nanotube channels” she says. “Syngas is a 1:2 mixture of CO and H2. This reaction is known to be very sensitive to the redox states of Rh and Mn. Oxygenates containing two carbon atoms such as ethanol, acetyldehyde and acetic acid were produced, and surprisingly, the yield over the CNT-encapsulated catalyst was extraordinarily high, clearly exceeding that of the very good silica-supported catalyst. Furthermore, catalysts with metal particles confined inside CNTs were also significantly more active than those with the metal particles dispersed on the outer surface of the nanotubes, even though the latter are more easily accessible.”
The results of the Chinese scientists suggest a host-guest interaction between the confined metal particles and CNTs, which is different from that on the outside of the nanotubes. Other effects may also play a role, like the stringent size restriction of metal particles inside CNTs and the high affinity of hydrogen to the inner surfaces of opened CNTs as exemplified in their extraordinary hydrogen adsorption capacity. Pan says that she believes that other conversions could benefit in a similar way from taking place inside CNTs, in particular if they involve hydrogen. “We also anticipate that the study of the host-guest interaction within CNTs will attract greater attention as a result.”
TEM image of the Rh-based catalyst particles encapsulated within carbon nanotube channels
TEM image of the Rh-based catalyst particles encapsulated within the carbon nanotube channels. (Image: Dr. Bao, Dr. Pan)
Bao points out that experimental study of the redox properties and the electronic host-guest interaction in these systems is still a challenge and might require refined characterization techniques. “Other effects may also play a role in these catalysts” he says, “like the stronger size restriction of metal particles inside CNTs and the high affinity of hydrogen to the inner surfaces of opened CNTs. The understanding and distinction between these contributions needs to be advanced by further experimental and theoretical studies. Besides, we are currently looking at new experimental characterization techniques which provide deeper insight into the nature of these confined systems.”
Pan notes that, apart from the still considerable challenge of cost efficient, large-scale production of CNTs with precise diameter and chirality control, a further challenge pertaining to catalysis is the homogeneous dispersion of metal nanoparticles within the CNT channels, since this can strongly influences the activity of these catalysts.
Apart from applications in catalysis, such CNT encapsulates might also be interesting for composite materials which require a modulation of the electronic state, such as magnetic sensor or storage materials.
By Michael Berger, Copyright 2007 Nanowerk LLC

Carbon nanotube producing companies

Reformer — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:16:51 +0000

Carbon nanotube producing companies.

World’s smallest fuel cell promises greener gadgets – tech – 07 January 2009 – New Scientist

Reformer — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:21:55 +0000

World’s smallest fuel cell promises greener gadgets – tech – 07 January 2009 – New Scientist.

A new generation of catalysts

Reformer — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:38:34 +0000

A new generation of catalysts

09 February 2010
Researchers at Delft University of Technology, [Juan-Alcañiz et al., Journal of Catalysis (2010), 269, 221] have reported the synthesis of a new class of porous solids with outstanding bi-functional catalytic activity.

Added to this the simple one-pot synthesis is also proving more favourable over the usual multi-step preparation procedures more commonly found.

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted the attention of scientists all around the world during the last decade, resulting in an unprecedented explosion of publications on the topic. The combination of organic and inorganic subunits on fully crystalline porous materials has led to a vast chemical versatility, giving rise to more than 10,000 MOF structures.

Considering the vast number of structures discovered, only a few applications have been investigated fully, attention has focused on discovering new structures together with the characterization and identification of new and novel properties such as luminescence, magnetic properties, gas storage, and adsorptive separation.

The group at Delft successfully developed a procedure for the direct encapsulation of polyoxometalates (POMs) into MIL-101(Cr). The addition of phosphotungstic acid (PTA) to the synthesis mixture of MIL-101 leads to the direct encapsulation of chromium-containing polyoxometalates (POMs) inside the MOF structure with a good distribution over the MIL-101 crystals.

These new catalysts show the highest activities reported to date at 313 K for the Knoevenagel condensation of benzaldehyde with ethyl cyanoacetate when using apolar toluene as solvent as well as when using polar DMF and ethanol, with TOFs exceeding 600 h−1. In addition, they exhibit a remarkable activity in two acid-catalyzed reactions, the esterification of n-butanol with acetic acid in liquid phase slurry operation and the dimethyl ether production from methanol in a fixed bed gas phase operation.

Source:

Newsweek: Finland World’s Best Country

Reformer — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:59:37 +0000

Newsweek: Finland World’s Best Country.

New process is promising for hydrogen fuel cell cars

Reformer — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:50:20 +0000

ScienceDaily (June 18, 2010) — A new process for storing and generating hydrogen to run fuel cells in cars has been invented by chemical engineers at Purdue University.

via New process is promising for hydrogen fuel cell cars.

The process, given the name hydrothermolysis, uses a powdered chemical called ammonia borane, which has one of the highest hydrogen contents of all solid materials, said Arvind Varma, R. Games Slayter Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and head of the School of Chemical Engineering.

“This is the first process to provide exceptionally high hydrogen yield values at near the fuel-cell operating temperatures without using a catalyst, making it promising for hydrogen-powered vehicles,” he said. “We have a proof of concept.”

The new process combines hydrolysis and thermolysis, two hydrogen-generating processes that are not practical by themselves for vehicle applications.

Research findings were presented June 15 during the International Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering in Philadelphia. The research also is detailed in a paper appearing online in the AIChE Journal, published by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal.

Ammonia borane contains 19.6 percent hydrogen, a high weight percentage that means a relatively small quantity and volume of the material are needed to store large amounts of hydrogen, Varma said.

“The key is how to efficiently release the hydrogen from this compound, and that is what we have discovered,” he said.

The paper was written by former Purdue doctoral student Moiz Diwan, now a senior research engineer at Abbott Laboratories in Chicago; Purdue postdoctoral researcher Hyun Tae Hwang; doctoral student Ahmad Al-Kukhun; and Varma. Purdue has filed a patent application on the technology.

In hydrolysis, water is combined with ammonia borane and the process requires a catalyst to generate hydrogen, while in thermolysis the material must be heated to more than 170 degrees Celsius, or more than 330 degrees Fahrenheit, to release sufficient quantities of hydrogen.

However, fuel cells that will be used in cars operate at about 85 degrees Celsius (185 degrees Fahrenheit). Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity to run an electric motor.

The new process also promises to harness waste heat from fuel cells to operate the hydrogen generation reactor, Varma said.

The researchers conducted experiments using a reactor vessel operating at the same temperature as fuel cells. The process requires maintaining the reactor at a pressure of less than 200 pounds per square inch, far lower than the 5,000 psi required for current hydrogen-powered test vehicles that use compressed hydrogen gas stored in tanks.

In some experiments, the researchers used water containing a form of hydrogen called deuterium. Using water containing deuterium instead of hydrogen enabled the researchers to trace how much hydrogen is generated from the hydrolysis reaction and how much from the thermolysis reaction, details critical to understanding the process.

At the optimum conditions, hydrogen from the hydrothermolysis approach amounted to about 14 percent of the total weight of the ammonia borane and water used in the process. This is significantly higher than the hydrogen yields from other experimental systems reported in the scientific literature, Varma said.

“This is important because the U.S. Department of Energy has set a 2015 target of 5.5 weight percent hydrogen for hydrogen storage systems, meaning available hydrogen should be at least 5.5 percent of a system’s total weight,” he said. “If you’re only yielding, say, 7 percent hydrogen from the material, you’re not going to make this 5.5 percent requirement once you consider the combined weight of the entire system, which includes the reactor, tubing, the ammonia borane, water, valves and other required equipment.”

The researchers determined that a concentration of 77 percent ammonia borane is ideal for maximum hydrogen yield using the new process.

The research has been funded by the U.S. Department of Energy by a grant through the Energy Center in Purdue’s Discovery Park.

Future work on hydrothermolysis will explore scaling up the reactor to the size required for a vehicle to drive 350 miles before refueling. Additional research also is needed to develop recycling technologies for turning waste residues produced in the process back into ammonia borane.

The technology may also be used to produce hydrogen for fuel cells to recharge batteries in portable electronics, such as notebook computers, cell phones, personal digital assistants, digital cameras, handheld medical diagnostic devices and defibrillators.

“The recycling isn’t important for small-scale applications, such as portable electronics, but is needed before the process becomes practical for cars,” Varma said.