Subject: Viridian Note 00032: The Viridian Refueling Project Key concepts: fuel cells, Proton Exchange Membranes, decentralized energy networks Attention Conservation Notice: Of interest mostly to technical specialists. Written in engineering jargon. Contains even more black humor than Note 00031. Links: http://www.thehub.com.au/~mitch/V- Notes/ViridianNote00010.html http://www.plugpower.com/ http://www.gate.net/~h2_ep/10kw_pem.htm http://www.anl.gov:80/OPA/news95/news950808.html http://mhv.net/~hfcletter/letter/december98/feature.html Entries in the Viridian "Fungal Typography" Contest: http://members.aol.com/stjude/ http://www.saunalahti.fi/~jtlin/viridian/ http://www.wenet.net/~scoville/Viridian/viridiantext.html From: eric@sac.net* (Eric Hughes) In Viridian Note 00010, Jim Thompson wrote about fuel cells. Here's his two-sentence description: "Basically, a fuel cell is like a battery where you put in some low-grade hydrocarbon (ethanol, methanol, kerosene, LP Gas, Natural Gas, diesel, methane). You get DC power out, with pure water and heat as the by-products." So far, so good. But then I wondered. Carbon goes in, but no carbon seems to come out of the cell. Something's missing. Here are some results of my looking around for it. 1) The Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell uses hydrogen (or hydrogen rich gas) as a primary fuel. There's no carbon in, so no carbon out. That's good, but there's no hydrogen fuel infrastructure today. 2) More practical fuel cell packages (Plug Power's for instance) generate hydrogen by converting it from a hydrocarbon fuel. These conversion devices are generally called "fuel reformers." Unfortunately, fuel reformers do pollute. They appear to pollute in a less noxious way than combustion pollutes, but they still make carbon dioxide. These points are not at all obvious on websites attempting to sell fuel cells. A cell with a fuel reformer is a combustion process after all. Combustion in the presence of a catalyst is cleaner than combustion inside an engine cylinder, but in terms of carbon loading of the atmosphere, it's identical. The eventual output is oxides of carbon. And what about possible nitrogen oxide emissions? And what about impurities in the fuel? You can bet that the CO -> CO2 converter is not 100% efficient; and carbon monoxide happens to be a potent greenhouse gas. Answers are by no means easy to find in a first-pass investigation of various fuel-cell websites. Here are some tentative conclusions. (1) Until we somehow build a hydrogen infrastructure, fuel cells will be a marginal improvement on internal combustion. However, fuel cells might finesse the system- bootstrap problem toward a true hydrogen economy, by creating an installed base of hydrogen demand, which also works on fossil hydrocarbons. Once the fossil fuels go, someone can figure out better sources of hydrogen supply. (2) Spreading out energy generation through use of fuel cells is a big systemic win. It greatly reduces energy distribution cost and lost efficiency. Fuel cells may have certain long-term problems, but they spread the network's power away from the center, and toward distributed endpoints. This is good. We can make the analogy: new power is to old power, as internet is to telephone. In my self-appointed capacity as pro tem. Viridian Minister of Science (duration: 1 message), I now suggest the possible development of a Viridian Fuel Reformer. This device would have the following characteristics. Like oxidizing fuel reformers, the Viridian Fuel Reformer will accept low grade hydrocarbon inputs, typically biomass. However, the VFR does not produce carbon dioxide gas. Catalytic oxidation reformers strip hydrogen ions (i.e. protons) off carbon by binding the carbon to oxygen. The Viridian Fuel Reformer will strip off hydrogen by binding carbon atoms *to each other.* Now this requires energy, so the fuel conversion ratio for Viridian converters will be lower. We admit this problem; but we have a higher aim. When you bind two hydrocarbon chains to each other, a hydrogen atom and a single longer hydrocarbon results. This is the reverse of the standard "cracking" reactions used in oil refineries. The Viridian Fuel Reformer is a relentless fuel *fossilizer.* The Stage One VFR outputs heavy hydrocarbons and leftover fuel impurities. In other words, it exudes a heavy, viscous black gunk that looks and acts very much like crude oil. The Stage Two VFR strips even more hydrogen from this goo, and leaves big dirty lumps of congealed carbon, in a solid form much like coal. In the fine tradition of satirical mimicry, the future Viridian Hydrogen Economy will dispose of its waste products by *dumping them back into the earth.* Waste "oil" will be carefully pumped into many convenient underground reservoirs, already formed by the pumping out of natural oil. Waste "coal" will be used as landfill for strip mines, and in the cautious shoring up of abandoned mine shafts. The end result of the Viridian Fuel Cell System is the restocking of the earth's fossil fuel supply. In this way, we not only save our atmosphere, but we wisely prepare our species for a possible complete breakdown of high-tech civilization. A store of carbon- rich re-fossilized fuel is a storehouse of wealth, that can be easily tapped to re-develop the knowledge and industrial bases of society, after some unfortunate collapse and a dark age. We may have already carried our short-sighted energy policies past the point of no return. Through the Viridian Refueling Project, however, we gracefully acknowledge our own impotence and incompetence in the face of Nemesis. The VRP is a serious and solemn enterprise. It is a funeral preparation for our collapsing industrial society, a sepulchral storehouse to accompany modern humanity into the bosom of the Earth, a tomb offering for distant generations. A constant memento mori for industrial hubris, it is a wellspring of enduring Viridian satisfaction. (((Ladies and gentlemen: the one, the only, Eric Hughes ))) Eric Hughes (eric@sac.net)