“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
They’ve now decided to partner with the EU, the GOJ (Government of Jamaica) and UWI (University of the West Indies) to develop the Technology to make a replacement for the Jamaicans cooking staple, the humble LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) Cooking Gas Cylinder by 2015AD. They are planning to replace 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.
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 articleentitled “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
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 me 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.
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.
So how do the researchers plan to do this?
Early clues can be seen in the words of Dr. Ruth Potopsingh, quote: “ 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 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.
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
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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