HYDROGEN- FUEL of the FUTURE

A PROJECT REPORT
IN
Chemistry (AC-101)

Submitted by:
MOHUL KATYAL
2k20/A9/71
KUNAL SINGH
2k20/A9/54

Under the supervision of

Dr. Saurabh Mehta

DELHI TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

(Formally Delhi College of Engineering)
Bawana Road, Delhi-110042
MARCH 2021
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 ABSTRACT

I Mohul Katyal, 2k20/A9/71 in collaboration with Kunal Singh,

2k20/A9/54 are making a case study and innovative project on
the topic of “HYDROGEN-FUEL of the FUTURE”, here we are
critically analysing and following the progress of advancements
made in the field of using hydrogen as a potential fuel source,
right from the start till the current research that is going in the
field along with suggesting ideas and methods through which
dream of using hydrogen as a fuel in our daily life is achieved.
At first there is a need to understand why this is so important.
Electricity production by renewable sources like solar, wind and
tidal hydraulics now offers the foremost promising solutions to
our current energy demands, taking a clean environment into
consideration. However, the electricity produced directly from
sources, such as wind and solar, may be negatively impacted
by fluctuations in relevant geographical factors. This then
results in an interrupted supply of the renewable- energy,
hence renewable energy must be stored then used on demand
for specific applications. Among the varied energy storage
technologies, storage within the sort of hydrogen is taken into
account most preferable, thanks to the power to store large
amounts of energy for brief and long periods of your time,
which may be decoupled upon demand

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 CONTENTS

Title page i
Abstract ii
Contents iii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 History and Path to its Development 1
1.2 Current Uses of the Available Technology 7

CHAPTER 2 DIFFERENT ASPECTS 10

2.1 Advantages 10
2.2 Disadvantages and Risk Involved 11
2.3 Electrolysis for large-scale hydrogen 13
Production

CHAPTER 3 EPILOGUE 16
3.1 Cost Factor 16
3.2 Conclusion 17

REFERENCES 18

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 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1 History and Path to its Development

In today’s world we are studying fuels for the future. But in
Science so as to try this we must study the past to form this
plausible in today’s world of Hydrogen Fuel and Hydrogen Fuel
cells. So, let us look.

In 1776 hydrogen was first identified as a definite element by

British scientist Cavendish after he evolved hydrogen gas by
reacting zinc metal with acid. In a demonstration to the Royal
Society of London, Cavendish applied a spark to hydrogen gas
yielding water. This discovery led to his later finding that water
(H2O) is formed of hydrogen and oxygen. In 1778, building on
the discoveries of Cavendish, French chemist Lavoisier gave
hydrogen its name, which was derived from the Greek words—
“hydro” and “genes,” meaning “water” and “born of.” Then in
1800 English scientists William Nicholson and Sir Anthony
Carlisle discovered that applying current to water produced
hydrogen and oxygen gases. This process was later termed
“electrolysis”. [1]

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 Fig. 1- Illustration of Cavendish’s Experiment for making Hydrogen gas

The cell effect was discovered in 1838, combining hydrogen

and oxygen gases to supply water and an electrical current,
was discovered by Swiss chemist Christian Friedrich
Schoenbein.

It was in 1845 when Sir William Grove, an English scientist and

judge, demonstrated Schoenbein’s discovery on a practical
scale by creating a “gas battery.” This earned him the title
“Father of the Fuel Cell” for this achievement. But it had been
only in 1874 when Verne, an English author, prophetically
examined the potential use of hydrogen as a fuel in his popular
work of fiction entitled “The Mysterious Island”.

Then in 1889 Ludwig Mond and Charles Langer attempted to

create the primary cell device using air and industrial fuel. They
named the device a fuel cell. Straightforward to 1920s when
German engineer, Rudolf Erren, converted the interior
combustion engines of trucks, buses, and submarines to use
hydrogen or hydrogen mixtures. British scientist and Marxist
writer, J.B.S. Haldane, introduced the concept of renewable

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hydrogen in his paper Science and therefore the Future by
proposing that “there are going to be world power stations
where during windy weather the excess power are going to be
used for the electrolytic decomposition of water into oxygen and
hydrogen.” In 1937 after ten successful trans-Atlantic flights
from Germany to the us, the Hindenburg, a dirigible inflated
with hydrogen gas, crashed upon landing in Lakewood, New
Jersey. The mystery of the crash was solved in 1997 as a study
concluded that the explosion was not due to the hydrogen gas,
but rather to a weather-related static electric discharge which
ignited the airship’s silver coloured, canvas exterior covering
which had been treated with the key ingredients of solid rocket
fuel. The us formed the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA). NASA’s space program currently had
been using the most liquid hydrogen worldwide, primarily for
rocket propulsion and as a fuel for fuel cells since 1958. In
1959, Francis T. Bacon of Cambridge University in England
built the first practical hydrogen air fuel cell. The 5-kilowatt (kW)
system powered a welding machine. He named this fuel cell
design the “Bacon Cell.” And later in that year, Harry Karl Ihrig,
an engineer for the Allis—Chalmers Manufacturing Company,
demonstrated the first fuel cell vehicle: a 20–horsepower
tractor. Hydrogen fuel cells, based upon Francis T. Bacon’s
design, have been used to generate onboard electricity, heat,
and water for astronauts aboard the famous Apollo spacecraft
and all subsequent space shuttle missions.

Electrochemist John O’M. Bockris coined the term “hydrogen

economy” in 1970 during a discussion at the General Motors
(GM) Technical Centre in Warren, Michigan. He later published
Energy: The Solar Hydrogen Alternative, describing his
envisioned hydrogen economy where cities within the us might
be furnished with energy derived from the sun.

The 1972 Gremlin, modified by the University of California

entered the 1972 Urban Vehicle Design Competition and won

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first prize for rock bottom tailpipe emissions. Students
converted the Gremlin’s combustion engine to run on hydrogen
supplied from an onboard tank. Then in 1973 the OPEC oil
embargo and the resulting supply shock suggested that the era
of cheap petroleum had ended and that the world needed
alternative fuels. This is when was the development of
hydrogen fuel cells for conventional commercial applications
began.

In 1974 National Science Foundation transfers the Federal

Hydrogen R&D Program to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu of the University of Miami, FL,
organized The Hydrogen Economy Miami Energy Conference
(THEME), the primary international conference held to debate
hydrogen energy. Following the conference, the scientists and
engineers who attended the THEME conference formed the
International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE). In 1974
International Energy Agency (IEA) was established in response
to global oil market disruptions. The activities of IEA activities
included the research and development of hydrogen energy
technologies. The National Hydrogen Association (NHA)
formed within the us with ten members in 1989 today has
nearly 100 members, including representatives from the car
and aerospace industries, federal, state, and local
governments, and energy providers. The world organization for
Standardization’s Technical Committee for Hydrogen
Technologies was also created. It was the year 1990 when the
world’s first solar powered hydrogen production plant at Solar-
Wasserstoff Bayern, a search and testing facility in southern
Germany, became operational. To increase its reach, the U.S.
Congress passed the Spark M. Matsunaga Hydrogen,
Research, Development and Demonstration Act (PL 101566),
which prescribed the formulation of a 5-year management and
implementation plan for hydrogen research and development
within the us and The Hydrogen Technical Advisory Panel
(HTAP) was mandated by the Matsunaga Act to make sure \

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consultation on and coordination of hydrogen research.

Work on a methanol fuelled 10-kilowatt (kW) Proton Exchange

Membrane (PEM) cell began through a partnership including
GM, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Dow Chemical
Company, and Canadian cell developer, Ballard Power
Systems. In 1994, Daimler Benz demonstrated its first NECAR I
(New Electric CAR) fuel cell vehicle at a press conference in
Ulm, Germany and in 1997 retired NASA engineer, Addison
Bain, challenged the assumption that hydrogen caused the
Hindenburg accident. The hydrogen, Bain demonstrated, didn't
cause the catastrophic fire but rather the mixture of electricity
and highly flammable material on the skin of the airship.
German car maker Daimler-Benz and Ballard Power Systems
announced a $300million research collaboration on hydrogen
fuel cells for transportation. It was in 1998 Iceland unveiled an
idea to make the primary hydrogen economy by 2030 with
Daimler-Benz and Ballard Power Systems.

Fig. 2- MB 100 – the world’s first fuel cell powered van: 1994

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The Royal Dutch/Shell Company committed to a hydrogen
future by forming a hydrogen division. Europe’s first hydrogen
fuelling stations were opened within the German cities of
Hamburg and Munich. A consortium of Icelandic institutions,
headed by the financial group New Business Venture Fund,
partnered with Royal Dutch/Shell Group, DaimlerChrysler (a
merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler), and Norsk Hydro to
make the Icelandic Hydrogen and cell Company, Ltd. to further
the hydrogen economy in Iceland. In 2000, Ballard Power
Systems presented the world’s first production ready PEM cell
for automotive applications at the Detroit Auto Show. And in
2003 President George W. Bush announced in his 2003 State
of the Union Address a $1.2 billion hydrogen fuel initiative to
develop the technology for commercially viable hydrogen -
powered fuel cells, such “the first car driven by a toddler born
today might be powered by fuel cells.” In 2004, U.S. Energy
Secretary Spencer Abraham announced over $350million
dedicated to hydrogen research and vehicle demonstration
projects. This appropriation represented nearly one-third of
President Bush’s $1.2 billion commitment to research in
hydrogen and cell technologies. The funding encompassed
over 30 lead organizations and more than 100 partners
selected through a competitive review process. In 2004 the
world’s first fuel cell powered submarine undergoes deep water
trials (Germany navy). And one step forward in 2005 twenty--
three states in the U.S. had hydrogen initiatives in place.

Today our vision for 2050 is that in the future, water will replace
fossil fuels as the primary resource for hydrogen. Page 1
Hydrogen will be distributed via national networks of hydrogen
transport pipelines and fuelling stations. Hydrogen energy and
cell power are getting to be clean, abundant, reliable, affordable
and an integral a neighbourhood of all sectors of the economy
altogether regions of the U.S.

Of course, all this might semes to be a far fetched idea for now

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but when we take a look on how far we have come I doubt if it’s
impossible clearly not.

1.2 Current Uses of the Available

Technology
Fuel cells produce electricity from variety of domestic fuels,
including hydrogen and renewables, and may provide power for
virtually any application from cars and buses to commercial
buildings.
Hydrogen is that the simplest element on earth—it consists of
just one proton and one electron—and it's an energy carrier,
not an energy source. Hydrogen can store and deliver usable
energy, but it doesn't typically exist by itself in nature and must
be produced from compounds that contain it. Hydrogen is often
utilized in fuel cells to get power employing a reaction instead
of combustion, producing only water and warmth as by
products. It is often utilized in cars, in houses, for portable
power, and in more applications. [2]
Hydrogen fuel cells produce electricity by combining hydrogen
and oxygen atoms. The hydrogen reacts with oxygen across an
electrochemical cell almost like that of A battery to supply
electricity, water, and little amounts of warmth.
Many different sorts of fuel cells are available for a good range
of applications. Small fuel cells can power laptop computers
and even cell phones, and military applications. Large fuel cells
can provide electricity for backup or emergency power in
buildings and provide electricity in places that aren't connected
to electrical power grids.

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 Fig. 3- Schematic Diagram of a Hydrogen Fuel Cell

The interest in hydrogen as a transportation fuel is predicated

on its potential for domestic production and use in fuel cells for
top efficiency, zero-emission electric vehicles. A cell is 2 to 3
times more efficient than an indoor combustion engine running
on gasoline. Hydrogen use in vehicles is a major focus of fuel
cell research and development.
Most hydrogen fuelled vehicles are automobiles and transit
buses that have an electrical motor powered by a hydrogen
cell. A few of these vehicles burn hydrogen directly. But the
high cost of fuel cells and the limited availability of hydrogen
fuelling stations have limited the number of hydrogen-fuelled
vehicles.

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Fig. 4 - The 2015 Toyota Mirai is one of the first hydrogen fuel cell Vehicles to be sold
commercially.

There are many companies working on hydrogen fuel vehicles.

some of them are Toyota, Mirai, which was the world’s first
mass produced fuel cell. Other than Toyota, Mirai, Hyundai and
Honda are also working on this idea. Countries like Japan also
aims to set up commercial hydrogen fuel supply chain by
2030. Already car manufacturers and many other
organisations around the world are investing billions of dollars
in research and development of this new technology.

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 CHAPTER 2
DIFFERENT ASPECTS

2.1 Advantages
Hydrogen is often produced from diverse domestic resources
with the potential for near-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
Once produced, hydrogen generates electric power during a
cell, emitting only water vapour and warm air. It holds promise
for growth in both immobile and transportation energy sectors.
Hydrogen fuel cells are cleaner and more efficient than
traditional combustion-based engines and power plants.

Energy Security

Hydrogen is often produced domestically from resources like

gas, coal, solar power, wind, and biomass. When won’t to
power highly efficient cell electric vehicles, hydrogen holds the
promise of helping conserve petroleum and diversifying our
options for transportation of energy.

Public Health and Environment

The environmental and health benefits also are seen at the

source of hydrogen production if derived from low or zero-
emission sources, like solar, wind, and atomic energy and fossil
fuels with advanced emission controls and carbon
sequestration.[3]

Production Costs

To be competitive within the marketplace, the value of fuel cells

will need to decrease substantially without compromising

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performance. From a minimum of one original equipment
manufacturer, the anticipated cost of mass-produced cell
electric vehicles might be almost like the value of their hybrid
counterparts by 2025. Unlike A battery, where most of the value
comes from the raw materials won’t to make it, the foremost
expensive a part of a cell is in manufacturing the fuel cell stack
itself—not the materials to supply it.

Energy Efficiency

Currently most combustion engines operate with an efficiency

around 25% and power plants achieving a couple of 35%
efficiency; however, a stationary cell, when utilized during a
combined heat and power system, can have an efficiency level
of greater than 80%.

2.2 Disadvantages and Risk Involved

While it is true that hydrogen fuel cells do not emit harmful
gases during operation, the same is not true for the production
process to make hydrogen fuel. In fact, hydrogen power is
almost energy-neutral which suggests that it takes almost the
maximum amount energy to supply as what it produces.
Hydrogen is one among the foremost abundant elements on
earth, but it's typically bonded to other elements and must be
isolated to be used for energy purposes. A common way to
isolate hydrogen is to extract it from gas during a process
called reforming. This process is expensive and emits CO 2,
which is counterproductive to using an emission free energy
source. The other way to isolate hydrogen is through
electrolysis, where it's extracted from water and separated from

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the oxygen molecule using an electrical current. The source of
this electrical current is often anything, but today, electricity is
most ordinarily generated from natural gas powered plants. The
only truly carbon free thanks to use hydrogen cell power is to
use solar or wind generation (which isn't accessible in some
areas of the world) to get electricity for the electrolysis process.
Because the hydrogen fuel production process is so
complicated, it makes using hydrogen fuel cells more costly
than other sorts of energy. When looking into what energy
source to integrate into material handling equipment, fleet
managers got to confirm that hydrogen fuel and infrastructure
costs are going to be offset by the significant labour savings
compared to lead acid.

Hydrogen is often stored as either gas in high pressure tanks or

as a liquid in cryogenic temperatures, but it must be within the
gas form to be used for lift truck fuel cells. Both methods of
hydrogen storage involve an inherent loss of energy.
Compressing the hydrogen requires about 13% of the entire
energy content of the hydrogen itself, and if it's liquefied it loses
about 40%. [4]

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 Fig. 5- Components of a pressurized hydrogen storage tank.

Hydrogen gas is very flammable and may easily escape

containment. If hydrogen gas escapes containment, it can
corrode metals. This, in turn, can make these contaminated
metals brittle and susceptible to breaking. Organizations that
currently use hydrogen power can either have hydrogen gas
delivered to them via tube trailers for smaller quantities or if
they have a better quantity of fuel, they have to build a plant
onsite to get hydrogen gas. Setting up the infrastructure to use
hydrogen fuel cells requires an outsized capital investment.
Organizations will need to work with their government and local
department to urge approval, also as worry about costs that
accompany hydrogen gas deliveries or building an onsite plant
to generate hydrogen gas.

Hydrogen fuel cells are more energy efficient than combustion

engines. However, lithium-ion batteries are still the foremost
energy efficient and therefore the highest performing energy
source for forklifts. A CE rating may be a measure of battery
energy efficiency that examines the quantity of electrons that
are lost during a full charge-discharge cycle. At its highest, cell
energy efficiency is around 60%. Typical internal combustion
engines have 2030% efficiency. Lithium-ion batteries have one
among the very best CE ratings at 99%, while lead acid
batteries are around 90%. This comparison is in terms of the
“tank to wheels” efficiency; once you think about the losses
from production to utilization, hydrogen fuel cells have
significantly higher energy losses than batteries.

2.3 Electrolysis for large-scale hydrogen

production
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 Anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolysis is a
promising solution for large-scale hydrogen production from
renewable energy resources. However, the performance of
AEM electrolysis is still lower than what can be achieved
with conventional technologies. The performance of AEM
electrolysis is limited by integral components of the
membrane electrode assembly and the reaction kinetics,
which can be measured by ohmic and charge transfer
resistances. Extensive research is going on in this field like
quite recently, researchers have developed an emerging
third-generation technology “Anion Exchange Membrane
(AEM) Water Electrolysis”, which integrates the benefits of
both conventional PEM and alkaline electrolysis. The AEM
electrolysis technology adopts low-cost catalytic materials,
as in alkaline electrolysis, and a solid polymer electrolyte
architecture, as in PEM electrolysis technology. [5]

Fig. 6- (a) Schematic of anion exchange membrane (AEM)

electrolysis. (b) Schematic diagram of AEM water
electrolysis with EIS experimental setup.

14
AEM electrolysis technology operates in alkaline environment
(pH ~ 10), making it possible the use modest non-noble-metal
electrocatalysts, whilst accommodating a zero-gap architecture.
The membrane used in this type of electrolysis is a polymeric
membrane, containing quaternary ammonium salts. It is
relatively inexpensive and has low interaction with atmospheric
CO2. Thus, it is expected that this electrolysis technology
should offer better performances and at a lower overall cost.

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 CHAPTER 3
EPILOGUE

3.1 Cost Factor

Among its major findings is that, while it depends greatly on the
region, for power applications, the eventual costs of renewable
hydrogen matter. Today, renewable hydrogen from electrolysis
costs about $6/kilogram (kg). Generally, however, it concludes
that in the short-term (through 2025), hydrogen could become
competitive in transportation, mostly for large vehicles with long
ranges—trains and coaches, for example—and forklifts.
By 2030, if costs of hydrogen production and distribution
continue to fall, hydrogen solutions could compete with other
low-carbon alternatives in simple cycle hydrogen turbines for
peak power, hydrogen boilers, and industry heating.
While backup generators primarily use diesel or natural gas,
hydrogen fuel cell generators may be viable alternatives,
especially in remote locations where batteries and renewables
are unviable due to sub-optimal conditions. [6]
Currently, the two main factors influencing the cost of hydrogen
generators are the cost of the fuel cell and tank system, and the
cost of hydrogen production and distribution. Estimates suggest
the cost of fuel cells and hydrogen tanks is set to decline by
70% by 2030, driven by larger market volumes of fuel cells and
tanks across several applications, such as with transportation.
Though cost of this technology now is a bit alarming now but
we are clearly optimistic for the future as prices will be reduced
and we will be able to use it in our daily life.
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3.2 Conclusion
Production of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles is limited because
people won't buy those vehicles if hydrogen refuelling stations
are not easily accessible, and companies won't build refuelling
stations if they don't have customers with hydrogen-fuelled
vehicles. So, we can clearly see that this is a major
disadvantage of hydrogen fuel right now but these can be
overcome and surely it can be used as a fuel of the future and
for our daily needs and help in conservation of our resources.

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 REFERENCES

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ofhydrogen/555/#:~:text=1776%20Hydrogen%20was%20first%
20identified,to%20hydrogen%20gas%20yielding%20water.
[2] https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/hydrogen/use-of-
hydrogen.php#:~:text=Hydrogen%20fuel%20cells%20produce
%20electricity&text=Small%20fuel%20cells%20can%20power,
connected%20to%20electric%20power%20grids.
[3] https://www.fluxpower.com/blog/hydrogen-fuel-cell-
advantages-and-disadvantages-in-material-handling
[4] https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/physical-hydrogen-
storage\
[5] Vincent, I., Lee, EC. & Kim, HM. Comprehensive impedance
investigation of low-cost anion exchange membrane
electrolysis for large-scale hydrogen production. Sci
Rep 11, 293 (2021).
[6] https://www.powermag.com/how-much-will-hydrogen-based-
power-cost/

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