IIT-Delhi professor tames hydrogen for engines

[bulbul]

Will this really works? people trying this from long time

New Delhi: An IIT Professor, who is hoping to us give a clean, green and hopefully inexpensive fuel, has developed an alternative to petrol and diesel. It's a dream Professor L M Das of the Centre for Energy Studies at IIT Delhi nourished for 25 years, using Hydrogen gas as an automobile fuel. "Hydrogen can be made from both renewable and non-renewable sources. It's made from water. On combustion, it gives back water. The noxious emission from burning petroleum products is almost completely absent here," said Professor Das.

Fifteen such three wheelers have been safely ferrying passengers at Pragati Maidan in Delhi for the past four months. Just one kg of gas is enough for 70 km. Fuelled by a company called AIR products, they're the only successful hydrogen powered engines in the world.

An international consortium will take the work forward and it's received a $500 million grant from the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. Das himself won an award from Lockheed Martin and India's Department of Science and Technology in 2012.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/iitdelhi-professor-tames-hydrogen-for-engines/251465-3.html

[Prakat]

:yay: will be very interesting to see how oil companies will deal with this. its not even like they can shift from petroleum to water delivery.

[bulbul]

:yay: will be very interesting to see how oil companies will deal with this. its not even like they can shift from petroleum to water delivery.

issue is people trying from long time and still not able to make it work wonder how they remove water? evaporation?

[Prakat]

Dump it on the road where drainage systems will collect all the water? I'm also guessing that at some point improvements to the engine will be made which will require special kind of water and not water right off the tap. This will then be regulated by government. There is a lot of security implications for engines which can be run with fuel which is practically free.

[Needforspeed]

I read somehwhere that Honda is running a project in California, with 92 Civics running on Liquid Hydrogen.

[flamy]

Dump it on the road where drainage systems will collect all the water? I'm also guessing that at some point improvements to the engine will be made which will require special kind of water and not water right off the tap. This will then be regulated by government. There is a lot of security implications for engines which can be run with fuel which is practically free.

Please explain.

[akshayxyz]

issue is people trying from long time and still not able to make it work wonder how they remove water? evaporation?

that has to be least of the problems. Hydrogen storage - and its controlled release for combustion is the main problem - people have been trying to solve for ages. Hydrogen is highly combustible and very light (lightest) - so very difficult to store efficiently.

[Tiger80]

To make hydrogen from water we need energy and from where this energy is going to come?

[Crookbond]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_production#From_water

[Prakat]

Please explain.

Right now, it is impossible to run any heavy duty machinery or industrial strength tools without the government knowing about it. Current power delivery systems for such needs depend on large quantities of diesel or 440V electric supply, both of which are regulated and their use monitored by the government. With the hydrogen powered engine, one could technically go under the radar, all you need is a large farmland and a plentiful well on it. A self-sufficient power block that is invisible to government, can be put to use in many ways that the government won't approve of.

[Clarke]

We hear of these things every other day. Is THIS the real revolutionary product ?

Dump it on the road where drainage systems will collect all the water? I'm also guessing that at some point improvements to the engine will be made which will require special kind of water and not water right off the tap. This will then be regulated by government. There is a lot of security implications for engines which can be run with fuel which is practically free.

Regulate the sale/use of engines themselves :hmmm:

I read somehwhere that Honda is running a project in California' date=' with 92 Civics running on Liquid Hydrogen.[/quote'] FCX Clarity, costs about a million or something to make.

[akshayxyz]

Right now, it is impossible to run any heavy duty machinery or industrial strength tools without the government knowing about it. Current power delivery systems for such needs depend on large quantities of diesel or 440V electric supply, both of which are regulated and their use monitored by the government. With the hydrogen powered engine, one could technically go under the radar, all you need is a large farmland and a plentiful well on it. A self-sufficient power block that is invisible to government, can be put to use in many ways that the government won't approve of.

Extracting Hydrogen from water also requires some significant power source, technology, equipment. And not to mention challenges in hydrogen storage and using it as a fuel - safely and efficiently. So, it definitely wont be as simple as owning a waterbody in some remote farmland.

[Prakat]

We hear of these things every other day. Is THIS the real revolutionary product ? Regulate the sale/use of engines themselves :hmmm:

That is one way to go about it. Also depends on the complexity of the design which will determine if the engine itself can be replicated.

[Prakat]

Extracting Hydrogen from water also requires some significant power source, technology, equipment. And not to mention challenges in hydrogen storage and using it as a fuel - safely and efficiently. So, it definitely wont be as simple as owning a waterbody in some remote farmland.

We are working on the premise that the whole system will functional and self-contained in a four-wheeler meant for public. So by the time that becomes a reality all these concerns would have been addressed.

[akshayxyz]

We are working on the premise that the whole system will functional and self-contained in a four-wheeler meant for public. So by the time that becomes a reality all these concerns would have been addressed.

That premise is a monumental leap - nuclear powered car is more likely to be achieved first. P.S. Think about it for a moment - it does not even make sense - to have hydrogen generated within the vehicle and then 'burn' the hydrogen to power the vehicle. It would be better to use that power source ( that would split water) directly for moving the vehicle.

[Prakat]

That premise is a monumental leap - nuclear powered car is more likely to be achieved first.

OP clearly mentions that this is about using hydrogen as automobile fuel. Which is what this discussion is based on. If you are debating that then you should call up the good professor and enquire about his smoking habits.

[nballa]

To make hydrogen from water we need energy and from where this energy is going to come?

hydrogen is produced naturally in the earths upper atmosphere when the uv rays from the sun split the water vapor into h2 and o2, we just have to fly there and collect it.

[akshayxyz]

OP clearly mentions that this is about using hydrogen as automobile fuel. What are you on about?

It is ok to use it as a premise (water powered car) for fancy-fiction discussion. I was just commenting on the realistic possibility of that happening. If you are interested discussing along that line - read on. Using Hydrogen as fuel is one thing - but generating hydrogen from water within the vehicle and then using it as a fuel to power the vehicle is completely different thing - and most likely absurd, or very inefficient. Except for some remote possibility where a certain mechanism of generating hydrogen from water (or some other source) is extremely cheap (energy requirements wise) and using that energy source directly for powering the vehicle is not feasible - or is very inefficient. Lets say burning X gms Hydrogen releases E amount of energy. Reverse of that is - (assuming 100% efficiency) one needs at least as much (E) energy to split the water to produce X gms of Hydrogen. So, in this fictional water-powered-vehicle, you need a power source that gives E energy to produce X gms of Hydrogen from water, and then you are burning that to again get original E energy - to run the vehicle. In real world, there will be losses at each step, and eventually you will get only a fraction of E invested. So - why not just use that power source to directly run the vehicle. And that does not still consider the challenges in capturing and storing the hydrogen gotten from water -within the vehicle. Most certainly it wont be in liquid form - and will be required to compressed and moved to safe storage, usable by fuel-cell. So, realistically speaking, there will be companies specialized in generating and packaging/distributing Hydrogen - and we will have to get our Hydrogen-powered cars re-filled at filling stations.

[flamy]

Right now, it is impossible to run any heavy duty machinery or industrial strength tools without the government knowing about it. Current power delivery systems for such needs depend on large quantities of diesel or 440V electric supply, both of which are regulated and their use monitored by the government. With the hydrogen powered engine, one could technically go under the radar, all you need is a large farmland and a plentiful well on it. A self-sufficient power block that is invisible to government, can be put to use in many ways that the government won't approve of.

Ah, I see what you mean. So, "free energy" would create monumental chaos. Humans :hehe: :D

[Prakat]

Ah, I see what you mean. So, "free energy" would create monumental chaos. Humans :hehe: :D

True... And come to think about it alcohol=grid weed=untaxable intoxicant. :D