Hydrogen Application Uses of Hydrogen Gas
Hydrogen used as reducing agent in the reaction leading to formation of water, ammonia, methanol,hydrogen halide and vanaspati ghee etc. in space it is used as a rocket fuels. hydrogen gases also has the promising potential as non polluting fuel in near future {Hydrogen Economy}
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As a Reducing Agent :
As we know that addition of hydrogen is known as reduction. Hydrogen gives its electron easily to a electron acceptor species and forms protonium ion (H+). Hydrogen gas is act as good reducing agent when it reacts with non-metal.
e.g H2+ F2 —– > 2HF
When Hydrogen reacts with fluorine it gives HF, here hydrogen act as reducing agent and allows the fluorine to be reduced.
Synthesis of Ammonia:
The Major single use of hydrogen is in the synthesis of ammonia at industrial level which is further used in the manufacturing of nitric acid (HNO3) and various nitrogenous base fertilizers.
Hydrogenation of Vegetable Oils:
Hydrogen is widely used for the synthesis of vanaspati oils by the hydrogenation of polyunsaturated vegetable oils like soyabean, cotton seeds etc.
Synthesis of Methanol:
It is used in the manufacture of bulk organic chemicals, particularly methanol.
CO (g)+2H2 (g)——-> CH2OH { cobalt used as catalyst}
Formation Hydrochloride (HCl) :
It is used for the preparation of hydrogen chloride, a highly useful chemical.
In Metallurgical Processes: it is used to reduce heavy metal oxides to metals.
Oxy-Hydrogen Torch for Welding: it is used in the oxy-hydrogen torch for welding if temperature around 2500°C is required.
Atomic hydrogen torch for welding:
Atomic hydrogen atoms (produced by dissociation of hydrogen with the help of an electric arc) are allowed to recommend on the surface to be welded to generate the temperature of 4000 K.
Rocket fuel in space research:
In space programmers, it is used as a rocket fuel. In fact, it has promising potential for use as a non-polluting fuel of the near future (Hydrogen Economy).
In fuel cells:
Hydrogen is used in fuel cells for generating electrical energy. It has many advantages over the conventional fossil fuels and electric power. It does not produce any pollution and releases greater energy per unit mass of fuel in comparison to gasoline and other fuels.
In Formation of Metal Hydride:
Though the hydrogen is inactive at room temperature because of its very high negative dissociation energy, it combines with the entire element under appropriate conditions and formed hydrides. It is widely used for the manufacture of metal hydrides which are used for ultra purification of hydrogen gas. Some of the metal like Pd, Pt can accommodate a huge amount of hydrogen gas at their interstitial sites and can be used as storage media of hydrogen gas as a source of energy
Application of Metal Hydride :
A brief survey is given of the assorted classes of metallic alloys and compounds that place unit suitable for hydrogen-storage and energy-conversion applications. Comparisons place unit made of relevant residences as nicely as hydrogen absorption and natural procedure pressures, total and reversible hydrogen-storage capability, reaction-rate mechanics, initial activation requirements, fame to contamination, and sturdiness in the course of long-run thermal cycling. Hand-picked applications place unit hydrogen storage as a fuel, gas separation and purification, thermal switches, and sorption cryocoolers.
In the late 1960s, it was revealed that at 250-650 K, some inter metalic compounds directly and reversibly react with Hydrogen (H2) gas (e.g., Mg2Ni, LaNi5, and TiFe). Many intermetallic hydrides can absorb significant quantities of hydrogen gas
Most of the alloys which are made up of rare-earth or transition metals possess a significant storage Hydrogen (approx 1–2% w/w). However Alloys of Magnesium have storage capacities upto 3.3–7.7 % (w/w).
A number of intermetallic alloys have been identified for hydrogen-storage potential in view of the following criteria:
Reversible hydrogen capacity on the surface or interstitial place
Operating pressure/temperature range,
Kinetic of reactions,
Effective cost: The cost of metal hydride material is not significant when it compared with the total cost funding of space project.
Use of Hydrogen as Fuel
We know that hydrogen is flammable gas and it produce a large amount of heat on combustion.
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| Hydrogen Application | Uses of Hydrogen Gas |
If we compared the energy release by the combustion of various fuels such as Hydrogen, Methane, LPG etc. in terms of the equal amount in mole, mass and volume as shown in below table
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Energy released on combustion in kJ per unit
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per mole
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per gram
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per litre
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Hydrogen in gaseous state
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286
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143
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12
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Hydrogen in liquid state
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285
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142
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9968
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LPG
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2220
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50
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25590
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Methane
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880
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53
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35
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Octane in liquid state
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5511
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47
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34005
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Table data reference @ NCERT text book
When one gram of fuel is used, it is clear from the above table that on the hydrogen release more energy than the other type of fuel like petroleum, LPG, methane in both liquid as well as gaseous state.
The most important advantage of hydrogen fuel is that it is less pollutant than other fuels. The pollutants formed in combustion of hydrogen are only of oxides of nitrogen. This is because nitrogen present as impurity with hydrogen.
However the pollutant of nitrogen oxides can also be minimized by lowering the temperature of cylinder with the injection of small amount of water.
How Hydrogen is the perfect fuel of FUTURE?
The fuels that are we using today’s world are carbon emitting and produce lots of pollution, pushing the earth towards Global warming and Green house effects. Also most of the present fuels have limited source and we drawing it rapidly.
Hence it is the utmost requirement to think about the sustainable future fuels which is non-polluting, can reduce the carbon emmition and has renewable source. .
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and has a large potential to produce energy. It is also environment welcoming fuel, helps to reduce green house gases.
So why don’t thinks about hydrogen fuels and driving car with hydrogen fuel to save environment. Hydrogen is best to replace carbon emmition petrol based fuels in future.
How hydrogen is the perfect Fuel of Future
The Hydrogen gas is compressed and filled in tanks. It also converted into the liquid state by cooling at 20K temperature. It is stored in tanks made up of metal alloy like NaNi5, Ti-TiH2, Mg-MgH2 etc. in small quantity
What are The Challenge for Hydrogen as Fuel?
Transportation : The cylinder of compressed hydrogen are about 30 times heavier than the taks of petrol fuel containing equal amount of energy.
Storage Temperature: For the storage of liquid hydrogen below 20 k temperature, the storage tanks required extensive insulation
This constrains force the researcher to find out the alternative technique to use hydrogen in an efficient way. in view of above the alternate technique is Hydrogen Economy
Hydrogen Economy: Future Scope of Hydrogen Energy
The term “Hydrogen Economy” is belongs to a vision of future energy using hydrogen as is known an environmentally energy source and it can be an alternative of petrol in vehicles and natural gas in burning. Energy can be generated from hydrogen by combustion to produce heat, by reaction with air in fuel cell to make electricity, – the interesting fact here is that by product is only water and no carbon dioxides.
The fundamental principle of Hydrogen Economy is the storage and transportation of power in the form of liquid or gaseous. The most benefit of Hydrogen Economy is that here energy is transmitted in the form of hydrogen and not as electric power.
Nowadays, hydrogen fuel cells are also used for generation of electric power. It is expected in the upcoming years economically practicable and safe sources of hydrogen will be acknowledged to make its habit as a common source of Energy.
Gas-Phase Applications of Metal Hydrides:
In view of to the large commercialisation of Ni-MH batteries, gas-phase functions of metal hydrides don’t have any longer a significant of commercial importance. An new outline of principal of various forms of energy storage and conversion applications for the hydrides has been investigated. These investigations originated a new approach toward storage media of energy.
Additional complete descriptions of those applications, as nicely as their necessities for binary compound properties,
Since the discharge worth of gas from a binary compound bed is restricted by suggests that of associate endoergic natural {process|natural action|action|activity} process, researchers have always claimed metal hydrides to be lots safer than each aggressive gas fuel or liquid gas for storage in transportation. There are many demonstrations since the 19 Seventies of different types of cars (i.e., vehicles, pickup trucks, vans, tractors, and buses) within the us, Germany, and Japan the usage of metal-hydride gas storage for internal-combustion engines.2 whereas the practicableness of binary compound storage has clearly been established, a spread of engineering been established, various engineering