1. Introduction.
1A. Transport and electricity generation use Internal Combustion (IC) engines for power. These IC engines typically burn Fossil Fuels (FF), and emit Greenhouse Gases (GG), which trap heat in our atmosphere, worsening our climate crisis.
1B. To elaborate: Trucks and automobiles burn diesel and gasoline; Stationary power plants and little portable electricity generators burn gaseous fuel, gasoline and diesel fuel; airplanes burn kerosene; and large ships burn bunker fuel (a thick, economical fossil fuel). Burning these fuels produces the GGs carbon dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and others, worsening our climate crisis. For perspective: GG% by source: Transport:17%; Electricity/Heat Generation: 32%.(1)
1C. But IC engines burning methane (within gaseous fuels) deplete one GG, while releasing another, far less potent GG; carbon dioxide. Also, IC engines may emit aerosols which can reduce atmospheric heating.
1D. Electric vehicles (EVs) are replacing some IC-powered vehicles, but mineral resources constrain future EV production.(2) Thus EVs can not replace all FF vehicles, given existing and even feasible future mining technologies, and Earth’s finite resources. Furthermore, mineral ore mining rate constraints curtail EV adoptation in the next decade.
1F. Fueling existing IC engines with Sustainably-Generated Hydrogen (SGH) might allow completion of, and speed, the green transition.
2. Vehicular Combustion of SGH.
2A. A recent revelation in freight truck onboard hydrogen fuel storage, bodes well for other SGH IC engine conversion.(3) Scientists, considering the hydrgenation and dehydrogenation of oils; a hydrogen storage method, realized that IC engine exhaust could supply needed heat for on-truck dehydrogenation reactions to supply hydrogen fuel.
2B. This combination (of 1. internal combustion engine exhaust heat and 2. dehydrogenation of hydrognated oils), can help sustainably fuel other vehicular and stationary IC engines, in these ways:
2B1. Diesel engines can run partially on gaseous fuels, like SGH, with 15% diesel for ignition, when gaseous fuel carburators supply mixed air and fuel into a normal diesel engine intake manifold.
2B2. Spark-ignited IC engines can run on SGH, when gaseous fuel carburators replace liquid fuel carburators, or when existing carburators are adapted to burn gaseous fuels like SGH. Both of these have been done.
3. Stationary Combustion of SGH.
3A. Perhaps SGH can take over the existing gaseous fossil fuel ‘Natural Gas’ pipeline network, replacing fossil fuel with SGH within the pipe network, accompanied by conversion of all appliances to burn SGH.
3B. Alternately, or beforehand, if SGH is added in moderate percentages to existing gaseous ‘Natural Gas’ fuel supplies, partial sustainablity could be achieved with little conversion needed.
3C. Stationary electricity generation plants can run on on SGH: Diesel plants can run predominently on SGH, while turbines fueled by gaseous fossil fuel can burn SGH.
4. Alternate Diesel Ignition Fuel Possibility.
4A. Alternately, diesel IC engines predominently burning SGH might ignite that SGH by injecting a fraction of the hydrogenated oil, instead of injecting diesel fuel.
5. SGH use in IC engines – Pro and Con:
5A. Pro: Uses much existing IC infrastructure, thus speeding green transition and reducing its cost. Burning SGH within an IC engine emits mostly water, and no carbon dioxide.
5B. Con: IC engines are still constrainted by the Carnot limit,(4) even when SGH-fueled; unlike fuel-cell-powered EVs. Hence fuel cell power will probably replace IC engines over time. Also, dehydrogenation units small enough to supply hydrogen to automobiles might be difficult to design or construct.
7. Increasing SGH Supply.
7A. William Heronemus proposed an offshore array of floating wind-powered electricity generators, the output of which hydrolyzed water at the extreme pressures of the deep ocean, yielding pressurized hydrogen and oxygen. These would supply our industries by being piped to shore through economical thin tubing, made feasible by the deep ocean pressure.(5)
7B. Excess solar or wind electrical power can split water into hydrogen and oxygen, when renewable energy supply exceeds demand.
7C. Ashore, generated hydrogen could be stored via oil hydrogenation. In the deep ocean, hydrogen might be stored within economical thin film bags made feasible by the pressure of the deep ocean. Other hydrogen storage methods include 1. Compression at sea level, and 2. Adsorption onto metal or activated carbon particles, 3. Liquification via compression and cooling.
8. Summary
8A. SGH might rapidly begin to power transport and electricity generation through:
8A1. Quickly building massive arrays of floating wind turbine generators, powering at-sea water electrolyzers, linked to pipe electrolyzed SGH to shore.
8A2. On-vehicle dehydrogenation of oil hydrogenated with SGH, releasing hydrogen.
8A3. Incorporation of SGH into 'Natural Gas' networks.
End.
Footnotes:
1. https://www.climatewatchdata.org/ghg-emissions?breakBy=sector&chartType=percentage&end_year=2016§ors=agriculture%2Cindustrial-processes%2Cland-use-change-and-forestry%2Cwaste%2Cbuilding%2Cfugitive-emissions%2Cmanufacturing-construction%2Cother-fuel-combustion%2Ctransportation&source=Climate%20Watch&start_year=1990
2. https://tupa.gtk.fi/raportti/arkisto/42_2021.pdf
3. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.3c01919
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnot%27s_theorem_(thermodynamics
5. http://theheronemusproject.com/THP/library/WEH.2001%20Presentation.pdf
http://theheronemusproject.com/THP/library/Patent7075189.pdf
