“This
is the first of its nature in Jamaica. We can see immediately that it could
contribute to significantly reducing the import bill”
Minister of Science,
Technology Energy and Mining Philip Paulwell at the ACP/EU Solar-Hydrogen
Research Project at the Courtleigh Hotel in Kingston on Thursday October 25th
2012AD
UTECH
(University of Technology) has now gone on and done one better than just
planning to shave 10% off their Electricity Utility bill by going off the Grid
using Solar Power (and hopefully Wind Power!) thanks to the JPS Co (Jamaica
Public Service Company) as reported in my blog article entitled “JPS
Co to build 100 KW Solar Plant at UTECH - Marubeni of Japan and EWP (East West
Power) Benevolence as LNG Project now Taken 2 the next Level for 2015AD”.
They’ve
now decided to partner with the EU, the GOJ (Government of Jamaica) and UWI
(University of the West Indies) to develop Hydrogen Technology to make a replacement for the
Jamaicans cooking staple, the humble LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) Cooking Gas
Cylinder by 2015AD as stated in “Utech Launches Project to Develop
Hydrogen Gas for Cooking”, published Friday, 19 October 2012 10:37, by The Jamaica Information Service.
The
researchers hope the achieve the ambitious; replacing them with LPG Cooking Gas
Cylinder that use Hydrogen Gas produced via Solar-Powered Electrolysis in
research to be conducted over the next three (3) years as stated in the article
“New
project bottles Hydrogen as cooking gas”, published Sunday October 21,
2012, The Jamaica Gleaner and “Cooking
gas from water?”, published Friday, October 19, 2012 BY NEKIESHA REID
Business reporter, The Jamaica
Observer.
If
they succeed, they’ll help Jamaica to save some US$30-million (J$2.7 billion)
on our import bill for LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) and the Cooking Gas Cylinders
Technology and possibly usher in the beginning of the Hydrogen-Electron Economy
in Jamaica as predicted in my blog article entitled “Whither
the Hydrogen Economy for Jamaica”. No doubt LPG Cooking Gas Cylinder
Technology is also be imported, as we merely refill the cylinders when they are
empty. Jamaica has no local production facility to repair LPG Cooking Gas
Cylinder.
Commercial
viability is indeed guaranteed, to crib the words of Dr. Ruth Potopsingh,
School of Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship at UTECH who most
appropriately is a Project Manager for this venture, quote: “The research
initiative has strong potential for commercialization of the results. As a key
strategy for reducing unemployment and stimulating economic growth”.
They
have several hurdles to overcome aside from cost-effectiveness and Technology:
perception among the more educated public of the danger of Hydrogen Gas. As
part of their Research to make public acceptance of Hydrogen as a substitute
for LPG easier to accept, similar Safety Standards that exist for LPG Cooking
Gas Cylinders are being developed for the Hydrogen Equivalent:
1. Add
colour and scent to the Hydrogen Gas
2. Leakage
of Hydrogen Gas via a Flame Blow-Back Prevention System
3. Design
of a New Cylinder to store Hydrogen Gas
The
Research into developing the extraction of Hydrogen from Seawater (Hydrogen is
easier to extract from Seawater or Water with dissolved Salts) via Solar Electrolysis
is being conducted as a joint venture with the following partners:
1. University
of West Indies
2. Brunel
University from Britain
3. Bureau
of Standards Jamaica
4. Ministry
of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining
It’s
being funded by an EU (European Union) grant of €495,000 (J$58.4 million) given
to ACP (African Caribbean and Pacific States, a grant that covers 85% of the
project, with the partners picking up the slack. The principal research fellows
on the project are:
1. Dr.
Ruth Potopsingh, School of Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship at
UTECH as Project Manager
2. Dr
Earle Wilson, Lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering and Computing, UTECH as
Lead Investigators
3. Lecturers
and Students from both UWI (University of the West Indies) and UTECH
The
idea, which had its genesis back in August 2012AD and most likely was cribbed
from my blog article entitled “Senator
Phillip Paulwell chooses LNG over Coal - Power Engineers in Steven King's
Graveyard Shift” where the idea of a Hydrogen-Electron Economy was posited
as a spinoff of the LNG Power Plant Project. This assertion, by the way, is
based on blog traffic, which I can track and see who log on to my blog and from
where.
Irregardless
of the true origins of this Project, it has now become official at the
Courtleigh Hotel in Kingston on Thursday October 25th 2012AD, seems
geared towards the idea that the excess Energy from the coming 100KW
Photovoltaic Facility to be built in the next six (6) months can be used to
conduct this research.
I’m
keeping this one hopeful and short, as I do like this idea, albeit I have my
doubts, mainly to do with practicality of Solar Electrolysis, even though
sunlight Energy is free and the cost-effectiveness of the Final Product, that
being bottled Hydrogen for Cooking. Hydrogen produced by Solar Power Electrolysis
as it has to be cheaper than Steam Reformation of Natural Gas, a by-product of
Oil Extraction and thus LPG in order for it to catch on with consumers.
Not
only that, a Public Awareness campaign has to be implemented to educate
Jamaicans as to the advantages of using Hydrogen over LPG as well as the safe
and proper handling of LHG (Liquid Hydrogen Gas).
After
all, it’s more practical to have a stove that uses Solar Power directly, or
even just converts the Sunlight to Electricity and be used for cooking, as
that’s more efficient. Using sunlight to split Hydrogen is itself a wasteful
use of Electricity from Solar Energy, no matter how free it is, especially as
it relates to the very real cost of the Equiptment to do Electrolysis of Seawater.
Other
methods exist to make Hydrogen, such as using Steam Reformation of Natural Gas,
as Natural Gas is now plentiful and is the focus of Oil Exploration and recent
large Natural Gas find as noted in my blog article entitled “Alternative
Energy and Natural Gas - Genesis of the Hydrogen-Electron Economy”.
There
is even the use of GMO (Genetically Modified) Bacteria to break down Seawater
or even Organic Waste via Anaerobic Digestion into Methane for Steam
Reformation or even directly into Hydrogen Gas as posited in my blog article entitled “Hydrogen
Economy and Natural Gas - Rise of the Oceanospirillales
Microbes” and “Hydrogen
Economy and Natural Gas - Wall-E and the
Rise of the Oceanospirillales Microbes”.
These
above examples are part of the classic Energy
Transportation problem of Hydrogen as posited by Dr. Ulf Bossel in his
published paper entitled “Why
a Hydrogen Economy doesn't make sense”, published December 11 2006, PhysOrg.com. No matter how free the source
of Energy, the mere fact that you have to use it to make Hydrogen which has to
be stored at sub zero temperatures as a compressed gas or a liquid means that
it’s a wasteful form of Chemical Energy Storage.
Despite
the free Energy used in the electrolysis, the Energy lost due to the Energy
needed to store Hydrogen as a Liquid or even a super-cooled Gas is a problem
that has to be overcome by the Researchers. The fact that some has to be
allowed to naturally leak to prevent a build-up of pressure in the storage
vessel makes Hydrogen a very inefficient and dangerous storage form of Energy.
I
even have concerns over the safe storage of Hydrogen, which has a habit of
exploding without necessarily being near a direct heat source and burning
rapidly with an explosive invisible flame; it only needs a heat source and
oxygen, not even direct flame, as Hydrogen exists as bonded pairs of Atoms;
easily excitable from Ground State to give up an electron in a reaction.
But
I’m still hopeful, as research needs to be done to Develop a Hydrogen Economy,
or at least a Hydrogen-Electron Economy as suggested in my blog article entitled “Whither
the Hydrogen Economy for Jamaica”.
This
as Hydrogen can be used for not only Cooking Gas, but like Natural Gas which is
used to make LPG, it can also power All-Electric Vehicles just like LPG as
described in my blog article entitled “JUTC,
Challenger and LNG - Journey to the Center of the Earth” and my Geezam blog article entitled “Auto LPG as a
Motor Vehicle Fuel”.
These
new class of All-Electric Vehicles can either use the Hydrogen in an onboard
Electric Generator to generate Electricity in Range Extender Technology
Configuration to recharge Lithium-Ion Batteries.
Alternatively,
the Hydrogen Gas can sequestered via suitable catalysts from Seawater, LPG or even
Gasoline and used directly in a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Configuration, with the Hydrogen
Gas being produced as suggested in my blog article entitled “Lithium-Ion
vs Hydrogen Fuel Cell - The Living Daylights” and “Alternative
Energy and Volvo - Tomorrow Never Dies for the
Hydrogen-Electron Economy”.
A
similar Promise exists for Energy Sector Liberalization. The large scale
production of Hydrogen Gas can be used to fuel the LNG Power Plant in the
future when LNG runs out for which JPS Co has been given the go-ahead to supply
with LNG and build as mentioned in my blog article entitled “JPS
Co to build 100 KW Solar Plant at UTECH - Marubeni of Japan and EWP (East West
Power) Benevolence as LNG Project now Taken 2 the next Level for 2015AD”.
In
essence, the beginning of the much, vaulted Hydrogen Economy as I’d predicted
in my blog article entitled “Senator
Phillip Paulwell chooses LNG over Coal - Power Engineers in Steven King's
Graveyard Shift”
So
how do the researchers plan to do this?
Early
clues can be seen in the words of Dr. Ruth Potopsingh, quote: “There are some
areas which need to be perfected like reducing the Energy cost of splitting the
atoms in the Water to produce the Hydrogen, hence the use of optimised solar
panels”.
This
suggests that the Solar Panels used to build the 100KW Facility that will be
supplied by the JPS Co will most likely be fitted with Solar Concentrator
Mirrors, which will concentrate sunlight from all directions. Motorized
tracking of the Sun across the sky to ensure maximum incident light
perpendicular to the Solar Panel’s surface may also be part of the “optimized”
design.
The
use of Seawater as the source of Hydrogen is most likely, as the presence of
dissolved Sodium Chloride, Potassium and Manganese Salts are a by-product that
would offset the cost of the product. These could be exported internationally
of be packaged as Table salt as well as be used in the Pharmaceutical, Battery
and Food Processing Industry as additives to improve the nutritional value of
food.
The
use of Seawater would also generate Desalinated Water, another by-product which
along with Table Salt and other dissolved minerals in Seawater could be sold Locally
or exported internationally to offset the cost of using Solar Power to split Water
into Hydrogen and Oxygen as suggested in my blog article entitled “Water
Security Policy and Water Sector Liberalization Needed to avoid Drought”.
The Electrodes used in the Solar Power Electrolysis could be
designed so that instead of being flat metal plates, they’d be very thin membrane
electrodes made of inert non-metallic material e.g. Silica Glass, designed to be
porous and have an infinite surface area using Fractal Geometry methods. This
so that the Electrodes referred to as a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane is not
consumed during Solar Power Electrolysis, with the accumulated Salts being
easily removed via the use of a suitable inorganic solvent.
The
use of off-the-shelf components could also lower the costs, making such a
system to produce Hydrogen Gas on an Industrial scale competitive with Steam
Reformation of Natural Gas. But a more sensible option to Converting Seawater
to Steam and then transporting it to homes in Cooking Gas Cylinders would be to
develop a system that produce the Hydrogen Gas at the customer’s premises using
Solar Power Electrolysis.
Effectively,
this would solve the Transportation Problem of Hydrogen Gas by simply
transporting it in its safest form: De-mineralized Seawater. This counters all
the problems of converting Hydrogen to Gas, bottling it and designing Gas
Cylinders to Hydrogen in Liquid or compressed form, as Water is Hydrogen and
Oxygen combined.
The
Solar Power Electrolysis system could then be set up at the customer’s premises
funded by Banking Loans and possibly GOJ waivers on the importation of Solar
Panels, Wind Turbines and other Alternative Energy Gear as suggested in my blog article entitled “ScotiaBank and VMBS now
offering Alternative Energy Loans - Rise of the Guardians to make Solar Power
affordable to Jamaicans”. Ditto too for All-Electric Motor Vehicles,
which would generate the Hydrogen from integrated Solar Panels as the vehicle
drives around.
It
would then produce Hydrogen Gas for not only Cooking Gas purposes, but Heating Water
as well. The Generation of Electricity to power the house at night would then
be achieved by a Low-Noise Hydrogen Generator.
This
would make the customer’s house self-sustaining and able to make money via the
current Net Billing facility implemented by the Ministry of Science, Technology
Energy and Mining as mentioned in my blog article
entitled “Phillip Paulwell makes Net
Billing official with 11 licenses issued - JPS Co invited via Mavado's Come
Round a Mi Yard”.
In
effect, this research may yield a practical implementation of the Hydrogen-Electron
Economy for everything in Jamaica at competitive Prices by 2015AD,
particularly:
1. Cooking
Gas
2. Self-sustaining
Electricity for Houses
3. Fuel
for JUTC Public Transport Vehicles modified to use Hydrogen
4. All-Electric
Motor Vehicles that use Hydrogen in a Hydrogen powered Range Extender
Configuration or Hydrogen Fuel Cell Configuration
In
the process, useful by-products are produced to offset the cost of the project
such as:
1. Table
Salt
2. Dissolved
minerals such as Potassium and Manganese
3. Potable
Drinking Water
Potable
Drinking Water would also be a by-product that the customer could also resell
back to the company that installs the Solar Power Electrolysis system for Local
consumption or Export. Possibly it may even help to usher in Water Sector
Liberalization as described in my blog article
entitled “Water Sector Liberalization
and the RainCatch Cloak - Activated Charcoal makes Potable WaterWorld”.
For
these reasons, I’m very excited by the potential yields of this research, as in
three (3) years time, 2015AD, the Researchers should eventually come to the
above conclusions as they are currently Chasing Mavericks (2012) as it relates to the practicality
of a Hydrogen-Electron Economy in Jamaica as Peak Oil approaches in 2015AD.
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