Cryogenic Water Fuel Sustainability

SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH CRYOGENIC WATER FUEL
V.Prasanth1
, Dr.R.Gnanaguru2
1 Final year Mechanical, Narasu’s Sarathy Institute of Technology,Salem.
Email: prasanthvbala@gmail.com
2 Professor & Head / Mechanical, Narasu’s Sarathy Institute of Technology,Salem.
Email: nsithodmech@gmail.com
ABSTRACT:
Today we're going to pour a
few drops of water into our car's fuel tank,
and triple our mileage; we're going to
electrolyze hydrogen from our municipal
water supply and run our house; and with a
cup of seawater, The most plentiful
substance available on earth. We’re going to
extract energy from water and solve the
world's energy crisis. But the existing
hydrolysis process suffers a serious of
disadvantages; thereby the idea is to apply
cryogenic principle in hydrogen gas to
convert it in the form of liquid hydrogen for
the better utilization as a fuel in the
automobiles. Thus it serves as a renewable
source of energy.
Keywords: Cryogenics, Electrolysis,
Hydrogen.
1. INTRODUCTION
In this, hydrogen is separated
from water through a process known as
electrolysis. In the electrolysis hydrogen is
separated from water by passing current to
the water through electrodes. The hydrogen
is trapped separately from the electrolysis kit
and mixed with air for better calorific value.
This mixed hydrogen and air is sent to the
engine and the combustion is made. The
exhaust produced will be a water vapor and
this helps to minimize pollution.
2. PROPERTIES OF HYDROGEN
Hydrogen is the simplest, lightest
and most plentiful element in the universe.
Hydrogen is made up of one proton and one
electron revolving around the proton. In its
normal gaseous state, hydrogen is colorless,
odorless, tasteless and non-toxic and burns
invisibly and over eleven thousand times
lighter than water. It is very abundant, being
an ingredient of water and of many other
substances, especially those of animal or
vegetable origin. It may produce in many
ways, but is chiefly obtained by the action of
acids (as sulphuric) on metals, as zinc, iron,
etc. It is very inflammable, and is an
ingredient of coal gas and water gas. It is
standard of chemical equivalents or
combining weights, and also of valence,
being the typical monad. Symbol H. Atomic
weight 1.
3. COMBUSTION OF
HYDROGEN
Hydrogen has also combustion
qualities as a fuel and energy source. The
hydrogen must first be broken out from its
compound form with oxygen as water (H20)
using electrolysis or gathered by other
means as it does not naturally occur by
itself. Hydrogen cannot be mined or drilled
as with fossil fuels. For production of
hydrogen by electrolysis process requires
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CURRENT TRENDS IN ENGINEERING RESEARCH, ICCTER - 2014
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ISBN: 378-26-138420-01

electrical energy input. With this generated
hydrogen combustion can be made.
4. PARTS NEEDED FOR
EXTRACTION OF HYDROGEN
GAS
 Electrolysis kit (To do
electrolysis process)
 Compressor (To compress
the hydrogen produced by
electrolysis process
 D.C.Motor (To drive the
compressor)
 Rheostat (To vary the speed
of the compressor)
 L.P.G Tank (To store the
hydrogen at a high pressure)
 Gas kit (to fix on the tank for
safety)
a. Electrolysis Process
Battery: The battery is an electro-chemical
device for converting electrical energy into
chemical energy. It stores the electrical
energy in the form of chemical energy and
provides a current for the electrolysis
process. It is a 12V battery which supplies a
7Amps of current. Electrical wires are
connected between the battery and the
electrodes for the passage of current from
battery to electrodes.
Fig1: Battery and electrode.
Electrolysis Kit: Electrolysis kit is made
with safety measures. Cooker is used as a
electrolysis kit. In the top of the kit two
graphite electrodes are inserted. Water is
filled inside the electrolysis kit and then
current is passed through electrodes to break
the water.
Fig2: Electrolysis process in cooker.
A safety valve is a valve mechanism
for the automatic release of a substance from
a boiler, pressure vessel, or other system
when the pressure or temperature exceeds
preset limits. It is part of a bigger set named
pressure safety valves (PSV) or pressure
relief valves (PRV). The other parts of the
set are named relief valves, safety relief
valves, pilot-operated safety relief valves,
low pressure safety valves, vacuum pressure
safety valves.
Adding Electrolyte: Electrolysis of pure
water is very slow,. Pure water has an
electrical conductivity about one millionth
that of seawater. So, due to the mixing of the
some electrolytic solution must be added
like Sulphuric acid H2So4 or a base or salt, it
will make easier to split up the hydrogen and
oxygen.
Electrolysis Process: The process by which
we generate hydrogen (and oxygen) from
water is called electrolysis. The word "lysis"
means to dissolve or break apart, so the
word "electrolysis" literally means to break
something apart (in this case water) using
electricity. Electrolysis of water is the
decomposition of water (H2O) into oxygen
(O2) and hydrogen gas (H2) due to an
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electric current being passed through the
water. This electrolytic process is used in
some industrial applications when hydrogen
is
needed.
The calorific value of the hydrogen
produced from electrolysis is 13,000
KJ/m3
Electrolysis of Water: An electric power
source (Battery) is connected to the two
electrodes i.e. (positive & negative).When
electricity is sent to water through that
electrodes, the oxygen atoms are attracted to
the anode(positive electrode), and the
hydrogen atoms are attracted to the
cathode(negative electrode).These splitted
atoms are appeared by a small bubbles. The
generated amount of hydrogen is twice the
amount of oxygen.i.e more bubbles come
from cathode. Because in water hydrogen
atoms is more than oxygen atoms (H2O).i.e.
two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom
b. Compressor: A machine that increases
the pressure of a gas or vapor (typically air),
or mixture of gases and vapors. The pressure
of the air is increased by reducing the
specific volume of the air during passage of
the air through the compressor. When
compared with centrifugal or axial-flow fans
on the basis of discharge pressure,
compressors are generally classed as high-
pressure and fans as low-pressure machines.
Fig 3: Compressor
Role of Compressor: In this compressor is
used to compress the hydrogen produced by
electrolysis process. Because the hydrogen
produced by electrolysis process will not be
at a sufficient pressure to store in a tank. So
a compressor must be use for boosting the
pressure of the hydrogen.
c. D.C Motor: When a current passes
through the coil wound around a soft iron
core, the side of the positive pole is acted
upon by an upwards force, while the other
side is acted upon by a downward force.
According to Fleming's left hand rule, the
forces cause a turning effect on the coil,
making it rotate. To make the motor rotate
in a constant direction, "direct current"
commutators make the current reverse in
direction every half a cycle (in a two-pole
motor) thus causing the motor to continue to
rotate in the same direction.
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Role of D.C Motor
D.C motor is used to run the
compressor. There must be an input to run
the compressor and so the motor is used to
drive the compressor. The input for the
motor is 12v battery. The current from the
battery will run the motor, since the chain
drive is taken between the motor and the one
end of the compressor, the end is for the
gear drive. The compressor will can able to
run.
Fig4: Compressor and Motor
e. Rheostat: A rheostat is an electrical
component that has an adjustable resistance.
It is a type of potentiometer that has two
terminals instead of three. The two main
types of rheostat are the rotary and slider.
The symbol for a rheostat is a resistor
symbol with an arrow diagonally across it.
They are used in many different
applications, from light dimmers to the
motor controllers in large industrial
machines. In this technology, rheostat is
used to vary the speed of the compressor in
a required torque.
Fig5: COMPRESSOR, MOTOR AND RHEOSTAT
f. Hydrogen tank: When the electrolysis
process is going since the engine is also
running by hydrogen. After some time there
will not be hydrogen to continue the running
the engine, when the hydrogen tank is not
present. Because the electrolysis process is
very slow. So due to the above reasons the
hydrogen is stored with a high pressure in a
2kg cylindrical tank. This tank consists has a
two valves., inlet and outlet. The inlet is for
taking the compressed hydrogen gas from
the compressor. The other valve is for
releasing the gas present in the tank to the
vaporizer. The gas regulator is employed at
the outlet valve to prevent the backfire
when it occurs.
g. Gas regulator: A gas regulator is also
proposed for a safety measures. If the gas
regulator is not present in this system, the
produced backfire will burst the tank as like
as our cooking cylinder. This gas regulator
is fixed at the top of the tank
Fig6: Tank with Gas Regulator
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ISBN: 378-26-138420-01

Reasons for Storing the Hydrogen
When the electrolysis
process is going since the engine is also
running by hydrogen. After some time there
will not be hydrogen to continue the running
the engine, if the hydrogen tank is not
present. Because the electrolysis process is
very slow. So due to the above reasons the
hydrogen is stored with a high pressure in a
2kg cylindrical tank.
5. SYSTEM WORKING
PRINCIPLE
Since the
motor is
running and it
runs the
compressor by
chain drive,
compressor
sucks the
produced
hydrogen to
compress it for
a high pressure.
From the outlet
of the
compressor the
pressurized hydrogen come out due to the
low pressure at the tank. When the low
pressure is created at vaporizer which is next
to tank, the compressed hydrogen flows to
the vaporizer through the gas regulator.
WORKING PRINCIPLE OF THIS
SYSTEM
The low pressure produced in
a vaporizer is due to the acceleration of the
vehicle as like as engine carburetor
principle. Now the pressurized hydrogen is
passed to the carburetor through the
vaporizer. And the hydrogen from the
carburetor is passed to the engine and where
the engine begins to start.
6. CRYOGENICS
The word cryogenics stems
from Greek and means "the production of
freezing cold". Cryogenics is the study of
the production and behavior of materials at
very low temperatures (below −150 °C,
−238 °F or 123 K). A person who studies
elements that have been subjected to
extremely cold temperatures is called a
cryogenicist. The field of cryogenics
advanced during World War II, when
scientists found that metals frozen to low
temperatures showed more resistance to
wear. Based on this theory of cryogenic
hardening, the commercial cryogenic
processing industry was founded in 1966 by
Ed Busch
7. PROPERTIES OF LIQUID
HYDROGEN
The byproduct of its combustion
with oxygen alone is water vapor (although
if its combustion is with oxygen and
nitrogen it can form toxic chemicals), which
can be cooled with some of the liquid
hydrogen. Since water is considered
harmless to the environment, an engine
burning it can be considered "zero
emissions." Liquid hydrogen also has a
much higher specific energy than gasoline,
natural gas, or diesel.
The density of liquid hydrogen is only
70.99 g/L (at 20 K), a relative density of just
0.07. Although the specific energy is around
twice that of other fuels, this gives it a
remarkably low volumetric energy density,
many fold lower.
Liquid hydrogen requires cryogenic storage
technology such as special thermally
insulated containers and requires special
handling common to all cryogenic fuels.
This is similar to, but more severe than
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liquid oxygen. The triple point of hydrogen
is at 13.81 K 7.042 kPa.
Fig7: Liquid Hydrogen stored in the tank
8. PROCESS OF
LIQUIFICATION
The hydrogen collected from the
various processes is subjected to the
liquefaction. The liquefaction of gases is a
complicated process that uses various
compressions and expansions to achieve
high pressures and very low temperatures. It
is done majorly by this two processes.
1. Linde's Process
2. Claude's Process
a. LINDE'S PROCESS
Air is liquefied by the Linde process, in
which air is alternately compressed, cooled,
and expanded, the expansion resulting each
time in a considerable reduction in
temperature. With the lower temperature the
molecules move more slowly and occupy
less space, so the air changes phase to
become liquid.
Fig8: Linde’s Process
b. CLAUDE'S PROCESS
Air can also be liquefied by Claude's
process in which the gas is allowed to
expand isentropically twice in two
chambers. While expanding, the gas has
to do work as it is led through an
expansion turbine. The gas is not yet
liquified, since it would destroy the
turbine. Final liquefaction takes place by
isenthalpic expansion in a Joule-
Thomson-Valve.
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9. FUEL TANK
The liquid hydrogen is the fuel that
we are going to use it in our system. The
pressure of the tank is maintained at the
350atmospheres. The idea is to use a closed
cycle helium refrigeration system to sustain
hydrogen as a liquid itself.
Fig 9: Hydrogen Storage Arrangement
10. WORKING PRINCIPLE
Since BHP produced in the
burning of liquid hydrogen is very large, it
cannot be used directly. Instead the idea is to
use a controlled injection system in this
operation. The stroke length of piston is
increased and the bore diameter is reduced,
so that all the power is transmitted to the
flywheel. The liquid hydrogen combines
with air, only in the combustion chamber.
Triple spark plug technology is used so that
all the fuel is burned away. Since large
amount of air is required for the combustion,
turbo charger is used and its motive power is
given to the blower to suck the air. When the
combustion takes place purely with the
oxygen alone, then the exhaust is just the
water vapor.
11. CONCLUSION
Well!! Water servers the good source
of energy for the fuel. This makes us to
imagine “Filling fuel from our water tank”
simply sounds awesome. Though applying
cryogenics seems to be costlier, when we
commercialize them it becomes very cheap
when compared to petrol or diesel.
REFERENCES
1. S.S.Dara “A text book of
engineering chemistry”.
2. "Cryonics is NOT the Same as
Cryogenics". Retrieved 5 March
2013.
3. Shaw, David (2009). Cryoethics:
Seeking Life After Death. Bioethics.
ISSN 0269-9702(print); 1467-8519
(online). 23:9, 515-521.
4. “Hydrogen as an Alternative Fuel”
Almc.army.mil. Retrieved on 2011-
08-28.
5. Thermophysical Properties of
Hydrogen , nist.gov, accessed 2012-
09-14
6. Handling, Transport and Storage of
Cryogens.
7. William Cullen, Of the Cold
Produced by Evaporating Fluids and
of Some Other Means of Producing
Cold, in Essays and Observations
Physical and Literary Read Before a
Society in Edinburgh and Published
by Them, II.
132
ISBN: 378-26-138420-01

Cryogenic Water Fuel Sustainability

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