New generator can halve cost of hydrogen used to power buildings, cars

[nationalize the fed]

Lucas Mearian | Computerworld | May 4, 2016

California start-up H2 Energy Renaissance today announced it has built a hydrogen generator that's inexpensive to manufacture and produces on-demand affordable hydrogen.

"This technology shall reduce the costs of electricity and fuel transport at least by 50%," the company said in a statement.


H2 Energy Renaissance's hydrogen generator. Credit: H2 Energy Renaissance

The company claims its H2 Energy Renaissance hydrogen generator can produce the gas for 50 cents to $1 per kilogram.

The generator uses tap water, aluminum and a small amount of electricity -- from 50 to 150 watts. The electricity can come from a small solar panel, a mini wind turbine, a wall socket or a self-charging battery similar to those used in cars.

The aluminum and chemical catalyst can be changed every few days to every few months, depending on the generator's size, the company said.

Large amounts of hydrogen are produced by using hydroelectric shock applied to plates of aluminum placed in water. The hydroelectric reaction burns at a temperature hotter than the sun and creates a pressure of more than 100,000 atmospheres at a micro level....snip
Full Article: http://www.computerworld.com/article/3066072/sustainable-it/new-generator-can-halve-cost-of-hydrogen-used-to-power-buildings-cars.html

Time is running out

Deadly fossil fuels are poisoning our water and air. They’re causing climate change and killing wildlife and people.

We have a solution

The Energy Renaissance Hydrogen Generator is completely clean and safe, is 50% cheaper than fossil fuels and can power anything. It is simple and revolutionary – and ready NOW...

Over the past eight years, a team of the world’s top PhD scientists (with backgrounds including NASA and top research centers) have been working to develop a clean, safe and affordable new fuel source.

The result is an intricate combination of 16 physical and chemical processes that are combined and tuned to work in unison to produce clean, affordable hydrogen.

Our patented technology uses a water solution, basic metals and a tiny amount of electricity, and it’s ready to license now. All we need is you...

Hydrogen is cheaper

Hydrogen isn’t just cleaner than fossil fuels – it’s cheaper too: Hydrogen costs the equivalent of 2-4 cents per 1 kWh kilowatt hour. Compare this to the current price of 1kWh in homes of about 20-30 cents. 1 kg of hydrogen costs about $1 to produce. A car can travel up to 60 miles on 1 kg of H2.

http://www.h2energyrenaissance.com/

For those who say Hydrogen will never work- please inform our European friends. TIA
https://www.youtube.com/user/H2FCHannover/videos

Everywhere-H2 is #1

[scscholar]

1. Republicans love H because of H embrittlement

which makes it dangerous and kills people. This doesn't do anything about that problem.

[nationalize the fed]

2. Oh please....

This is not a Republican or Democrat or Libertarian thing.

If embrittlement was so bad why are many companies like Wal Mart and BMW switching out their dirty battery powered forklifts to clean hydrogen fuel cells?

http://www.plugpower.com/customer/whos-using-gendrive/

You might also want to inform the crew of Germany's Hydrogen powered submarine.

Imagine how stupid (and frightened!) they will feel when you inform them of this danger.



The German Type 212 class, also Italian Todaro class,[6] is a highly advanced design of non-nuclear submarine developed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW) for the German and Italian Navies. It features diesel propulsion and an additional air-independent propulsion (AIP) system using Siemens proton exchange membrane (PEM) compressed hydrogen fuel cells

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_212_submarine

[scscholar]

3. There is a Wikipedia page on it...

so it certainly does exist no matter what those people say:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_embrittlement

This endangers the public. It is something too dangerous to use. Too dangerous to use.

[OxQQme]

5. scscholar, you might want to consider NASA's knowledge

Last edited Thu May 5, 2016, 10:41 PM - Edit history (1)

about compressed h as they've been using it for decades.

Or google 'hydrogen trucks'.

Besides which the above 'invention' states that it produces h 'on demand' and nothing about pressurizing it.
Although the description did describe h's benefits vs carbon based fuels.

Speaking of carbon based fuels, how do you feel about hauling 20-40 gallons of that terribly polluting stuff
around on a freeway at 70 mph in heavy traffic.
BOOM!

I'd bet there's more of those BOOMS daily across the world than embrittled h cannisters going off.

If we could switch to h, the exhaust product of 'burning' it is mostly H2O.

How could that be bad.

[TexasProgresive]

4. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

So if this thing works we only hear about the cost of the electricity to generate the H2. Nothing in the full article about the cost of replacing the aluminum which is sacrificed in the process and if you have to replace the catalyst - well platinum is so cheap these days.

I'm not even granting that the process works as suggested.

[Binkie The Clown]

6. Hydrogen is NOT an energy source. It is an energy STORAGE medium.

The energy it stores has to come from somewhere.

The best case is that hydrogen could become an efficient replacement for batteries, but it will never, ever, from now until the laws of physics are repealed, become a replacement for fossil fuels, and anybody who tells you different is either misinformed, or a con artist.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Exactly! I believe the catch here is the aluminum, which requires lots of energy to produce ...

There have been a number of schemes to power cars etc. from H2 generated by reaction of Al with alkali. Problem is, the low cost of aluminum is predicated on the efficient recycling of Al (> 90 %); if Al is diverted to fuel use instead the cost will rise. Also, whenever someone mentions a "catalyst" be suspicious -- their "catalyst" may not be recoverable, or even a catalyst at all. I suspect this is just the old Al/NaOH scheme repackaged and rehyped -- and the writing seems to be outstandingly imaginative ("hydroelectric shock applied to plates of aluminum placed in water. The hydroelectric reaction burns at a temperature hotter than the sun and creates a pressure of more than 100,000 atmospheres at a micro level ...&quot . It's enough to make you laugh, or cry, or both.

The practicality of this scheme has nothing to do with the advantages or disadvantages of H2, and everything to do with the high energy cost of producing aluminum by electrolysis.

NOT the first post on such schemes in EE, at all.

[progressoid]

12. Maybe they use discarded soda cans.

There seems to be a lot of them lying around.

[eppur_se_muova]

15. If those soda cans aren't recycled, the price of aluminum goes up.

cf. http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1127&pid=68500

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Crossposting in Skepticism, Science, and Pseudoscience.

for comparison:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1127&pid=68500

http://www.democraticunderground.com/112717076#post3

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/eppur_se_muova/42

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/eppur_se_muova/44

[mackdaddy]

9. I wish these companies would be less BullShit & Obfuscation with their stories.

This may be a true advancement in efficiency of converting electrical energy in to units of hydrogen gas out. But that simple fact of how much H2 out do you get for a specific amount of electrical energy input, and how this compares to other methods is totally buried in misleading or just plain wrong happy horseshit!

Anytime one of these outfits starts glossing over the really important facts, and goes into "baffle you with bullshit" mode I start to believe that they really do not have anything at all except a new bottle for the snake Oil.

As stated in other posts above, H2 in only an energy storage medium, it is not an original energy source. It must be generated from other energy sources, purified, compressed, stored, and then converted back into other energy forms (electricity, heat, mechanical) to do useful work. This device potentially improves the first step, converting electricity (and consumables like the aluminum) into a quantity of H2.

Compare this to storing energy in a battery on a Dollar in to Dollar value out and we can tell if we have something yet.

[eppur_se_muova]

10. That would attract fewer suckers, ahh, that is, investors.

Something about their Web site just screams "hype". I'm afraid the whole point is to gather investment money to support the lifestyle of the "inventors", not to actually develop anything remotely useful.

You might want to Google "Blacklight Power" to see how long such a scam can be maintained. You'll either laugh or die of apoplexy. http://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/blacklight_power_and_hydrinos

Oh, and there's some interesting discussion in this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x223493 -- DUer Nnadir actually visited their facility. Let's just say it met expectations, for those who really know what to expect.

[mackdaddy]

11. More of the Underpants Gnomes business profit plan.

This is like the Cons favorite collapse Solendra. Their big idea was to slice up solar panels into strips mounted into glass tubes similar to florescent tubes, and mount them into a rack. You could then spin the tube instead of mounting a similar panel at an angle. They were able to get a half billion dollar plus loan on this "invention". Of course it was never competitive with standard solar panels and mounting methods, and when standard panels dropped 80% the crazy ran out and they finally went poof. But they had really nice facilities, and I am sure the execs were paid very well while it lasted.

The Underpants Gnome Plan for all the underpants they were stealing:

[NNadir]

13. Wow. A perpetual motion machine. I don't know if this is true, but I heard the patent office...

...will only patent perpetual motion machines if the patent application is presented with a working model.

[NickB79]

14. Does it use steel wool pot scrubbers like you proposed in a previous post?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/112768476