08-12-2016PRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN } Table of contents page Introduction 2 What is a big disadvantage of fossil fuels? 3t/ma How is hydrogen obtained? 5t/m6 What are the disadvantages of the combustion of hydrogen? 7t/m8 Give the balanced reaction equation for the decomposition of water 9 ‘What is added to water in order to improve the conductivity? 1ot/m11 Why can hydrogen contribute to a cleaner environment? 12 Why is the production of hydrogen by algae a sustainable solution? 13 Give a disadvantage of the production of hydrogen by algae. 14 Sources 15 What we learned 16 TOM ROELANTS | REIN MARTENS | ASHeee te We chose the subject ‘the production of hydrogen’, because we were told that it had to do with the global warming. We were very interested in this subject. because it is a important thing to think about. The subject is also a lot thinking about new ideas which can change the world, this is very interesting if you ask us! In this project we will be explaining a lot about fossil fuels, hydrogen as a new fuel and how hydrogen is obtained with different methods. On the usb stick we included, there is a video about our experiment with water electrolysis that we did! TOM ROELANTS | REIN MARTENS | A3HWhat is a big disadvantage of fossil fuels? In fact, fossil fuels are accumulated remains of living organisms that were buried millions of years ago. When a certain organism died, it was covered by layers of sand, rock and mud Those layers, later formed sedimentary rock. As those layers of rock became thicker and thicker, the pressure on the organic matter became larger and larger. Over the millions of years, this high pressure transformed the decomposed plants and animals matter into the one of the most used sources of energy; oil. coal and natural gases. The oil is used a lot in industry, cars and power plants etc. The natural gas is most of the time used for household. coal The oil and the natural gases are very handy as you can see, but they also bring many disadvantages when over using it When you combust fossil fuels. it releases carbon dioxide. nitrogen dioxide. sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and some other gases. The reaction needs oxygen to produce those gases, so it is an endothermic reaction. These gases can cause serious air pollution The carbon dioxide that is released is one of the primary gases that causes global warming. The global warming causes polar ice caps to melt. The consequences of this, is that the sea level will rise and eventually will let to floodings in low lying areas (also the Netherlands), The second this advantage of the fossil fuels is acid rain. The acid rain is caused by the sulphur dioxide that is released with the combustion of the fossil fuels. The acid rain can cause serious damage on monuments and crops. TOM ROELANDS | REIN MARTENS | A3HPRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN The third disadvantage of using fossil fuels is that it can have effect on human health. You can get asthma COPD and lung cancer. Long term exposure can even cause respiratory infections in general people. Children and elderly people are to most sensitive to those gases that are released when burning the fossil fuels. The last big disadvantage of using fossil fuels is that it cannot be used forever. Once we will run out of those fuels. In the graph at the left you can see when this is gonna happen. Oil, which is needed for cars for example, will already be runned out in 2050. But coal, which we do not use often anymore, will run out around 2090. 1000 900 z 800 -_ 6 Z) é $00 Coat 5 * Gas soi 2011 2021.--2031,- 204120512051 20712081 TOM ROELANDS | REIN MARTENS | A3HMUU RU ela) Electrolysis of water (See video) Another way to get pure hydrogen is by the electrolysis of water (H20), water consist of the compound H, so it contains hydrogen With the electrolysis of water, an electric current splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. 3% of all the hydrogen in produced with this method. At the cathode site this reaction occurs: (negatively charged electrons) 2 H2OW + 2e- = Ha(g) + 2 OH-faq) And at the anode site this reaction occurs: (positively charged electrons) 4 OH-faq) = O2(g) + 2 H2OWW + 4 e- When you combine either half reaction, hydrogen and oxygen is produced. 2 H2OW — 2Halg) + O2(g) ‘As you can see, 2H2 is formed, this is pure hydrogen. TOM ROELANTS | REIN MARTENS | A3HPRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN What are the disadvantages of the combustion of hydrogen? Hydrogen energy is an important part of the clean energy plan. As gas, hydrogen can be used in a fuel cell to power an engine, There are many advantages of using hydrogen as a fuel, but there are a few disadvantages. that’s why itisnt used very often nowadays The first big disadvantage is that it is very expensive. This is because it takes a lot of work to separate hydrogen from other elements, as we showed above. When the technology is better, so we will be able to separate them much faster. it will be much cheaper and more affordable to everyone. The second disadvantage is that steam reformation has some negative effects on the environment. for example health and global warming Health: - Natural gas and methanol can contain toxic contaminations such as sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. - Hydrogen is extremely combustible, and can start a fire. hydrogen burns very fast with a lot of power, Global warming - When hydrogen is used more often, more hydrogen has to be obtained. When hydrogen is obtained, carbon dioxide is released. This causes a greenhouse effect, which means that the earth warms up. This will cause many serious problems in the future, sea level will rise, more extreme weather incidents, less ice and snow, more drought and more floodings (also in the Netherlands). TOM ROELANTS | REIN MARTENS | ASHaie UU LCA RU NUCL The third disadvantage is that hydrogen is obtained by fossil fuels, but fossil fuels will run out on earth approximately at 2050/2090. When the fossil fuels are runned out, we cannot obtain hydrogen anymore from those fossil fuels. We have to obtain it from water, or improve our technology The fourth advantage is that hydrogen is pretty difficult to store and that it is hard to move around. Oil can be moved around via oil pipes and coal can be transported by trains and trucks, with hydrogen this isn’t the case. This makes hydrogen impractical for most functions. The fifth and last disadvantage of hydrogen fuel is that many appliances and building have to be adapted, so that they can function with hydrogen fuel. Examples of this are petrol station and cars (they have to be refitted, which will cost a lot of money). TOM ROELANTS | REIN MARTENS | ASHoO) ULL CANTO Ol mabe) ay) Give the balanced reaction equation for the decomposition of water 2H2O\liquid) + 2Ha(gas) +Oaigas) 2 J. 2 .2® Water is decomposed by electrolysis (See video). The decomposition of water is separating water into hydrogen and gas. You can electrolyse by the Hoffmann apparatus, which we've already explained above. TOM ROELANTS | REIN MARTENS | ASHWhat is added to water in order to improve the conductivity? When you want to increase the conductivity of water, the concentration of ions has to be increased. You can increase the concentration of ions by warming up of increasing the salinity. Increasing the salinity: Salinity is the concentration of all dissolved salts in water. When some substances which are good conductors of electricity (electrolytes) are mixed in water, one substance in positive charged and one is negative charged, this increases the conductivity. There are many different dissolved salts that lead to the salinity of water, examples are: Chloride (CU, natrium (Na), magnesium (Mg), sulfate (SO42-), calcium (Ca), potassium(K), bicarbonate (HCO3-) and bromine (Br), To increase the conductivity of the water. people can add these substances to the water. An example is natriumchloride, when natriumchloride (NaCU is dissolves in water, you will get Nat and Cl- ions. As you can see natrium is positive charged and sodium negative, this causes a higher conductivity. In our video, we also added natrium chloride alt) as you can see it clearly increases the conductivity. Ea TOM ROELANTS | REIN MARTENS | A3H“ HYDROGEN Increasing the temperature: The second thing you can do to increase the conductivity is increasing the temperature of the water. The electrical conductivity of water increases by 2-3% for an increase of 1 degree Celsius of water temperature. Temperature affects conductivity by increasing ionic mobility as well as the solubility of many salts and minerals. CONDUCTIVITY (uS/cm) TEMPERATURE ceo ia = On this graph, you can see how much the conductivity (in uS/cm) differs with the temperature of different water sources. The water which stands for the red line. is less conductive than the water which stands for the blue line. People improve the conductivity of the water, because then an electrical current can go through the water much faster. This is very handy for electrolysis and it is much more sustainable. As you can see on the table, seawater has the highest conductivity rate, this is because in seawater, there is much salt. So it’s very easy to let a current flow through seawater. TOM ROELANTS | REIN MARTENS | ASHWhy can hydrogen contribute to a cleaner environment? As we already mentioned, when fossil fuels are burned, lots of different gases are released. Those gases pollute the air and cause the greenhouse effect. Scientists have thought of a new fuel; hydrogen fuel. Hydrogen is a clean and energy rich full. gas, which releases no toxic gases when it is bumed. Different from fossil fuels, which are releasing lots of toxic gases when combusted. So hydrogen would be ideal for using it as a fuel for cars, planes etc. The production of hydrogen by the electrolysis of water or algae is also very clean, because it does not release any toxic gases that will pollute the earth. Hydrogen is also very efficient. so in fact, this means when you have 1 car with 1 liter hydrogen and 1 car with 1 liter benzine, the car with hydrogen will drive much farther. When you are producing hydrogen from algae, it will also reduce the amount of factories that are needed for stream-methane reforming. Because of these properties of hydrogen, using hydrogen as a fuel will lead to a cleaner environment TOM ROELANTS | REIN MARTENS | A3HPRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN WHY IS THE PRODUCTION OF Dek Bhar LN Uae VET ae Coleen aol Ed Bier RR cee Tato niet) RNa ececea S conductivity. so that the is less energy Reco CMM a Aer Coeic Urls way to get hydrogen. Hydrogen by le IS ameter Cot can Ne ene ols eo Sean ty Ne Cees MT aged E NYAS Pres WesdaNcee uN CVaS EU Sat TEN nelle ese Nel Cie encuentran eis Noman tute Tra el) Roar Cam cerlcenn clover aU] hydrogen (electrolysis). The oxygen is then released in the air and the hydrogen fern ec oumt Kec unaKeoltcrol oy and tumed into hydrogen gas. ADVANTAGES OF ALGEA FAST GROWTH ‘Algae cah gtow really fast. they can Corse edna and thus produce loads of hydrogen. ENVIRONMENT Dice ered Bieter rer tore) Poetic? SAVE SPACE eer edu se aoa cue neh peng ae ard Penal PURIFY WASTEWATER ree em Caen Pear ae etd Deer ae ec tae OTHER USE Algae can be used to produce many| Cae omit anny) De ich aie ere ise cate eis Celentano NOM rit ace eece nti fey etter ecru eras cakePRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN CON. ORC ele) THE PRODUCTION OF DAK mh a eA eee ert rouy eevee etodocec (emia is ec Peer Mua auger iin acy Nrdprokesvacnarcene tc more. At the right you can see some Cee emee eM decrees cy eeete eee ear ren cr) Wanieooc retary ceotienmata till now people have to develop the method much more. DISADVANTAGES OF ALGEA WATER CONDITIONS Bere cura) eee ae eae re kee a aera) CcOsT Were tenner ee pene arenes GENETIC ENGINEERING ‘Genetic engingering is needed to make Pe wert ered Pore suis NEED SPACE Bret ae eae t Pease r" TECHNIQUE Lae tener isc Pyreen tes iat aaa) eau Cee LIMITATIONS ees eee eee ee ae ety big field