As I said in my previous post, The Energy Art Movement has launched an initiative to promote Green, Renewable, Clean Energy with the use of Dynamic, Energetic, and Visionary Art. I spent a few weeks thinking about which type of energy to work with, and didn't really come up with anything. Then, during finals week of course, I decided I wanted to work with water. Hydroelectric energy? Tidal power? Marine Current power? Ocean thermal energy conversion? Osmotic Power?  Water. Blue.

I woke up to find myself playing around with a photograph of ocean waves and quickly all ideas sunk in and subsided. After a few days of work on the image I'll post next week, it became apparent that I was looking into the actual structure of water and the energy released from splitting and joining hydrogen and oxygen. Hence, my entry was about Hydrogen Energy. And this post has a bit of info about this particular type of energy.


image of hydrogen in the periodic table of elements

Hydrogen and Hydrogen Energy

Contemporary scientists say that hydrogen is the simplest element we know of. Its atomic structure can be observed with as little as one electron and one proton. Hydrogen also appears as the lightest element, behaving as a gas at earthly temperatures and pressures. Apparently, hydrogen is one of the most abundant gases in the universe as we currently understand it.

Through fusion in the Sun’s core, hydrogen atoms combine to form helium atoms, giving off radiant energy. In one way or another, the Sun’s energy sustains life on earth as we commonly understand it. The Sun makes the air come into movement, the air acts upon the water, and the water acts upon the earth. Plants use sunlight for photosynthesis, making energy available to other life forms. The Sun’s energy is also stored as chemical energy in fossil fuels. The combination of hydrogen and carbon yields different compounds such as methane (CH4), coal, and petroleum. Hydrogen is readily found in water (H2O) and in all growing things (as biomass). It is also an abundant element in the earth's crust.

Hydrogen has the highest energy content of any common fuel by weight (about three times more than gasoline), but the lowest energy content by volume (about four times less than gasoline). Like electricity, hydrogen can behave as an energy carrier. Hydrogen can be produced or extracted from a variety of resources, including water (via biological production in an algae bioreactor, or by electrolysis), as a byproduct of other chemical processes (such the production of chlorine), with the use of heat (by thermolysis), or via extraction from biomass. Unlike electricity, large quantities of hydrogen (in liquid or gas) can be easily stored and transported to be used when needed.

Electrolysis is the decomposition of water (H2O) into oxygen (O2) and hydrogen gas (H2) due to an electric current being passed through the water. It results in no emissions. Nonetheless, current technological, economic, social, and political arrangements can make this technology seem somewhat expensive and/or inefficient. Renewable energy can be used to power electrolyzers, providing a sustainable system that is independent of petroleum products and is nonpolluting. After the hydrogen is produced it can be used in a fuel cell to produce electricity. The fuel cell process yields water and heat as by-products. If fuel cells operate at high temperatures the system can be set up as a co-generator, with the “waste” energy used for heating.

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is the primary user of hydrogen as an energy fuel; it has used hydrogen for years in the space program. Liquid hydrogen fuel lifts the space shuttles through the atmosphere and into orbit or beyond. Hydrogen batteries power the shuttle’s electrical systems. The only by-product is pure water, which the crew uses as drinking water.

Small hydrogen fuel cells can power electric cars. Large fuel cells can provide electricity in remote places with no power lines. Currently, portable hydrogen fuel cells are being sold to provide longer power for laptop computers, cell phones, and military applications.

Hydrogen, manufactured locally using water, wind and sun, can serve as a secure, renewable, inexhaustible, emission-free fuel for just about any application we can think of. We just have to find ways to make the technology more popular and a lot cheaper!


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