The prospects of the hydrogen economy are attractive, and the key technologies to realize the hydrogen economy await further advancement, which mainly involves:
(1 ) Production of large quantities of hydrogen is required:
Electrolysis of water – Using electric current, water molecules can be easily broken down into pure hydrogen and oxygen. An important advantage of this approach is that there are no site restrictions.
Reformed Fossil Fuels - Oil and natural gas both contain hydrocarbons, molecules composed of hydrogen and carbon. The hydrogen contained in hydrocarbons can be used by easily separating the hydrogen from the carbon using a device called a fuel transformer or reformer. The remaining carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, which could be a good interim measure during transit.we are moving towards a hydrogen economy. It's the easiest way to get hydrogen to power your car's fuel cell.
(2) The source of electricity for hydrogen production is enormous: its demand is enormous and requires various forms of energy to meet it. Let's just take the United States as an example: if all cars in the United States use hydrogen as an energy source, hydrogen will be produced by electrolysis of water, and nuclear power generation will be used to provide the source of hydrogen to electrolyze water. tons of uranium ore will be needed to supply 2,000 to 600 megawatts of power plants, or $840 billion, or $2.50 per GGE unit.
(3) To solve the problems of Hydrogen storage and transportation: Hydrogen is a problem. bulky gas under normal conditions, so it's not like gasoline. So easy to use. The compressing hydrogen requires energy, and compressed hydrogen provides much less energy than the same volume of gasoline. For example, the key problem in putting hydrogen vehicles into operation is the storage and transportation of hydrogen. Solutions to solve the hydrogen storage problem have already emerged. For example, hydrogen can be stored as a solid in a chemical called sodium borohydride, made from borax, a common ingredient in many detergents. When sodium borohydride releases the hydrogen it contains, it is reconverted into borax, thus achieving its recycling. Once the storage problem has been resolved and standardized, it will be necessary to build a network of hydrogen stations and hydrogen transport infrastructure around it. Only when a storage technology generally accepted by the market is developed can hydrogen stations develop rapidly.
Hydrogen transportation pipelines are very demanding, higher than any electric wire pipeline and almost three times more expensive than natural gas pipelines. Because hydrogen will accelerate the fragmentation (hydrogen embrittlement) of general steel pipes, thereby increasing maintenance costs, leakage risks and material costs. Therefore, entering the era of the hydrogen economy requires significant investments in pipeline infrastructure to store and distribute hydrogen to end users of hydrogen vehicles.
(4) Hydrogen energy conversion equipment: After hundreds of years of development, the fossil economy or carbon economy has formed a complete economic system with various hydrogen energy conversion equipment. energy, such as boilers, internal combustion engines, generators, electric motors ----, reasonable matching, technolmature ogy and experience. How to convert hydrogen energy into various other forms of energy and electricity. Regardless of technology, equipment and experience, all must be researched, designed, manufactured and used correctly.
Hydrogen is one of the gases with the lowest specific density, ventilation losses are therefore low. The fan on the generator rotor in the turbine generator set has high mechanical efficiency. Hydrogen has high thermal conductivity and can dissipate quickly. generator heat, high cooling efficiency. Hydrogen does not support combustion. The oxygen content of the generator is less than 2%, so the risk of fire is very low if the generator winding fails.
The generator of the turbogenerator group must therefore be cooled by hydrogen.
A generator whose stator and/or rotor are cooled by hydrogen.There are mainly all-hydrogen cooling and stator windings with internal water cooling, the rotor winding and stator core are hydrogen cooled (water hydrogen), and the windings stator and rotor windings with internal water cooling, the stator core is hydrogen cooled (water hydrogen). ).
The windings and iron core of the generator generate heat during operation. In order to avoid burns due to excessive temperature, coolants include air, water, hydrogen, oil, freon, etc. , among which hydrogen is the most widely used because hydrogen has the advantages of good thermal conductivity (thermal conductivity is 8.4 times that of air), low density and diffusion fast. It has a good cooling effect and is easy to carry. and can be recycled.