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History of dirty hydrogen



Nowadays, the transition to hydrogen energy is being actively discussed, and therefore the option of using a mixture of hydrogen with other combustible gases now looks like the latest technology. However, this idea is not new, and has analogues in the past.

The first ICE is hydrogen!


It is a well-known fact that the first car was invented by Karl Benz and ... this is not entirely true.

The reason is that he invented the first mass car! And in fact, the first car was created by François Isaac de Rivaz, and Etienne Lenoir made a practically suitable apparatus for stable movement.

If in more detail, then the story here is this.



The design of the first engine was simple - one cylinder working on a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen (50/50) coming from a ball.

In 1808, De Rivaz installed this ICE on a simplified carriage, which he conducted the first test run. Later, a model working on coal gas (luminous gas) was developed.

In 1813, the inventor built a second car six meters long,
equipped with wheels with a diameter of two meters. He calls it “Grand char mecanique” and conducts trials in Vevey (Vaud). The length of the cylinder is 1.5 meters, and the piston moves 97 centimeters with each combustion.

With each stroke of the piston, the car moved a distance of four to six meters. The tests are carried out on an inclined track along which the Grand char mecanique traveled a distance of 26 meters, with 4 people on board and a load of 700 kg. The car moved at a speed of 3 km / h.

An interesting fact is that the mixture ignited not automatically, but manually!

Those. each stroke of the piston, the ignition timing and the moment of the explosion was controlled by the “driver” looking at the movement of the piston of the machine.

It is not surprising that the Academy of Sciences at that time claimed that the internal combustion engine would never compete with the steam engine, but less than half a century had passed and a machine appeared more successful in terms of movement.

After tests on hydrogen, Rivaz switched the engine to supplying with coal gas (lighting), but the percentage of hydrogen content did not change (the same 50%)!



In 1860, Etienne Lenoir of France invented the 1-cylinder two-stroke Hippomobile. Lenoir Hippomobile was named so because it received fuel by electrolysis of water and used hydrogen to power a small horizontal engine.

The Hippomobile engine worked on natural cycles with the absorption of the fuel mixture and the down stroke burning the spent fuel. Later, Lenoir adapted the engine for burning “coal” gas.

In 1863, Hippomobile made a test drive from Paris to Joinville-le-Pont: the maximum speed of about 9 km in ~ 3 hours.

The ignition of the mixture in Lenoir’s car was already automatic - at the expense of Rumkorff coils.

In addition to the driver, the car could also carry passengers. One can say from this moment it was already an application for success, and despite the fact that subsequently his car did not receive development - his competitor Otto was able to provide the basis for automotive ICEs precisely due to a partial copying of the Lenoir motor.

Otto engines in the future could also run on hydrogen, but, as before, other engines survived adaptation to coal gas (light). The source of this gas - coal, was much more accessible and easier to use than the process of extraction and use of hydrogen.

If we draw a few analogies with modern hydrogen engines, the best of the existing hydrogen ICEs now uses the principle of layered separation of the charge of hydrogen injection. Simplified it can be described as follows: “The idea is that gas and air should be arranged in layers in the cylinder so that at the flash point in the piston the mixture contains as little light gas as possible” (this proposal is taken from the description of the Otto-Langren motor, which bypassed by exhibition engine Lenoir).

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Balloon-like cars.


The beginning of the 20th century can be considered the time of the birth of airships, but the "gas bags" were massively used not only in the sky!



Gas cylinders could be seen on buses during the years of the first and second world war.



The same bags were in those years on trucks.





And passenger private transport was no exception. The main difference was only that for the bags they tried to make a solid frame for better aerodynamics.



Even motorcycles and light boats had cigar-shaped cylinders!

This is not an attempt to imitate balloons, but just a repetition of Rivaza technology at a new technological level.

All this transport did not use hydrogen, but all the same coal-gas!

The characteristics of such cars were modest due to the small amount of fuel that could be stored in the bubbles, and the energy efficiency of the system was low: three cubic meters of gas produced as much energy as one liter of gasoline. As a result, it made it possible to drive no more than 80km at one "gas station" with gas from a cylinder.

Nevertheless, the simplicity and reliability of the design allowed the use of this exotic fuel system in large quantities on buses and trucks.





As you can see, the refueling process was even simpler than it is now, but the frequency of this operation does not go to any comparison with our time.



Uncompressed gas was used not only in the USA and Europe. In China, such gas buses were operated until the 90s! The gas at that time was no longer a hydrogen-containing mixture, but methane (which, however, would not hurt to use H2 mixing or the same coal gas if necessary).

In addition to civilian tasks, the bags were also used for military equipment.

So a special example of the use of uncompressed gas is hydrogen cars from the time of the siege of Leningrad.



Usually after watching such a video there is a slight precipitate of a beautiful fairy tale (and the fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it!).

Therefore, you can clarify some points ...
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But so far they have only learned to copy ancient technology for entertainment purposes.

In addition to automobiles, uncompressed gas is also used for domestic purposes in our time. Now only methane is used in this way.


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HCNG? HLPG?


Hydrogen as the fuel of the future in the 21st century may again become relevant, and unlike the previous two periods in which it is difficult to find the role of hydrogen, this time everything is unambiguous.

What will happen if you get a mixture of combustible gases with hydrogen not as a result of chemical. Reactions, but by mixing H2 with gases?

This idea began its research work back in 1983 (Nagalim et al., 1983) where experiments with engines using mixtures of hydrogen and natural gas from 100/0, 80/20, 50/50 to 0 / 100.

In 1989, HCI (Hydrogen components Inc.) began testing gas mixtures at Colorado State University, after which they patented a mixture of hydrogen and methane called Hythane = Hydrogen + Methane ( H2 from 15% to 20% hydrogen of the total gas volume ).



Hythane emissions meet the highest environmental standards.



Hythane was tested on buses over the years in the United States, but this is not the only tested option for adding hydrogen to gas in the United States.



Between 2003 and 2004, the Arizona government service, with the help of a subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital Corporation, in collaboration with the US Department of Energy’s Vehicle Testing Organization, tested four hydrogen-enriched gaseous vehicles.

The test fleet included two Ford F-150s and one Dodge Ram Wagon Van. In this report, the two F-150s are distinguished by the names F-150 with a low percentage and F-150 with a high percentage. The low percentage F-150 blend was originally equipped with a factory engine CNG. It has been modified by NRG Technologies, Inc. in Reno, Nevada, to burn mixed fuel. APS operated this car with 30% hydrogen mixture (by volume). The F-150 blend with a high percentage was originally equipped with a factory gasoline engine. NRG Technologies modified it to burn up to 50% of a mixture of hydrogen and 50% LNG (by volume). APS tested the car for 30% hydrogen for several months. Then the carrier was transferred to 50% hydrogen (by volume).Dodge Ram Wagon Van is a specialized factory vehicle for transporting LNG. APS operated this car mainly on CNG. However, some operations and tests were carried out using a 15% mixture of hydrogen and CNG. The fourth car (Mercedes Sprinter Van), which worked on 100% hydrogen, was also tested. All four vehicles were powered by an APS alternative fuel pilot plant, which was designed to supply gaseous fuels, including CNG, a mixture of CNG and hydrogen, and pure hydrogen with a purity of up to 99.9999%.All four vehicles were powered by an APS alternative fuel pilot plant, which was designed to supply gaseous fuels, including CNG, a mixture of CNG and hydrogen, and pure hydrogen with a purity of up to 99.9999%.All four vehicles were powered by an APS alternative fuel pilot plant, which was designed to supply gaseous fuels, including CNG, a mixture of CNG and hydrogen, and pure hydrogen with a purity of up to 99.9999%.

The HCNG test car with a high percentage of the mixture is the model year Ford F-150, originally equipped with a factory-built gasoline engine. It has been modified to work on a mixture of LNG and hydrogen NRG Technologies, Inc. The vehicle arrived for testing at Arizona State Service (APS) on January 6, 2002. Subsequently, they operated the car at 30% hydrogen mixture (by volume) for 5 months. On June 1, 2002, NRG Technologies returned the engine to operate with a 50% hydrogen mixture (by volume). APS tested the car with a 50% mixture to balance the trial period.

There is only one conclusion based on the test results - no safety problems arose during refueling or operation of the F-150 using 30 or 50% fuel with a hydrogen mixture.

In India, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) has been testing hydrogen enriched compressed natural gas (HCNG).

The tested percentage of hydrogen content is 18%. It is planned to use the compact gas reformer developed by IOCL to create a mixture of HCNG, which would further use gas for refueling buses. The use of this gas in public transport will solve the problem of air pollution, as this mixture reduces CO emissions by up to 70% and provides fuel savings of up to 5%.

Competitor HCNG is a mixture of propane and hydrogen.

Research in this area is carried out in Japan.



In Russia and the Republic of Belarus, studies of the effect of hydrogen additives were carried out under certain conditions on motor stands.

The results and conclusions are similar.

The positive effect of H2 is best without conversion of the engine even with 2 -4% additive gas in total volume. This small amount reduces the total burning time of the fuel and increases the maximum pressure in the combustion chamber by 17 -23%.

The main environmental issue when adding H2 to propane to the mixture is the origin of the gas. Propane is a derivative of oil.

The common problem of adding hydrogen to methane or propane is the origin of hydrogen itself, because unlike light gas, it must be obtained separately from the second gas.

And here you can again turn to history ...

In the 20th century, R. Erren proposed to produce hydrogen through cheap night-time electricity ... in the 21st century, they propose to do the same, except for the fact that this energy will be taken from green energy sources, and theoretically it can be available during overproduction even during the day.

PS . “As you can see,“ dirty ”hydrogen has every chance for a clean future ... on earth. But in the air ... this will be the next article.

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