India

Hydrogen production from butanol is a promising alternative when it is obtained from bio-butanol or bio-oil due to the higher hydrogen content compared to other oxygenates such as methanol ethanol or propanol. Catalysts and operating conditions play a crucial role in hydrogen production. Ni and Rh are metals mainly used for butanol steam reforming oxidative steam reforming and partial oxidation. Additives such as Cu can improve catalytic activity in many folds. Moreover support–metal interaction and catalyst preparation technique also play a decisive role in the stability and hydrogen production capacity of catalyst. Steam reforming technique as an option is more frequently researched due to higher hydrogen production capability in comparison to other thermochemical techniques despite its endothermic nature. The use of the oxidative steam reforming and partial oxidation has the advantages of requiring less energy and longer stability of catalysts. However the hydrogen yield is less. This article brings together and examines the latest research on hydrogen production from butanol via steam reforming oxidative steam reforming and partial oxidation reactions. In addition the review examines a few thermodynamic studies based on sorption-enhanced steam reforming and dry reforming where there is potential for hydrogen extraction.  

Fast depletion of fossil fuels and their detrimental effect to the environment is demanding an urgent need of alternative fuels for meeting sustainable energy demand with minimum environmental impact.  Expert studies indicate hydrogen is one of the most promising energy carriers for the future due to its superior combustion qualities and availability. The use of hydrogen in spark ignition internal combustion engine may be part of an integrated solution to the problem of depletion of fossil fuels and pollution of the environment. The broader flammability limits and fast flame propagation velocity of hydrogen ensures complete combustion of fuel and allows engine to be operated at lean ranges. Lean burn operation comparatively maintains NOx CO and HC emissions at a very low level. In the present work oxyhydrogen (HHO) gas is produced in leak proof plexiglass reactor by electrolysis of water using potassium hydroxide as electrolyte.  The HHO gas generator is attached to a spark ignition engine currently operating on the road without any modifications of the engine. The HHO gas produced is then added to the air which is being drawn into the engine.  Experiments were conducted on a 4-stroke single cylinder natural air cooled spark ignition engine to determine total fuel consumption specific fuel consumption air fuel ratio brake power and brake thermal efficiency and emissions CO CO₂ O2 NOx HC at different loads with and without addition of HHO gas to gasoline for lower speeds ranging from 700 rpm to 1500 rpm. Also mileage tests were conducted to find the speed at which the fuel consumption is optimum.

Emerging hydrogen energy technologies are creating new avenues for bring hydrogen fuel usage into larger public domain. Identification of possible accidental scenarios and measures to mitigate associated hazards should be well understood for establishing best practice guidelines. Accidentally released hydrogen forms flammable mixtures in a very short time. Ignition of such a mixture in congestion and confinements can lead to greater magnitudes of overpressure catastrophic for both structure and people around. Hence understanding of the permissible level of confinements and congestion around the hydrogen fuel handling and storage unit is essential for process safety. In the present study numerical simulations have been performed for the hydrogen-air turbulent deflagration in a well-defined congestion of repeated pipe rig experimentally studied by [1]. Large Eddy Simulations (LES) have been performed using the in-house modified version of the OpenFOAM code. The Flame Surface Wrinkling Model in the LES context is used for modelling deflagrations. Numerical predictions concerning the effects of hydrogen concentration and congestion on turbulent deflagration overpressure are compared with the measurements [1] to provide validation of the code. Further insight about the flame propagation and trends of the generated overpressures over the range of concentrations are discussed.

Hydrogen generated during core meltdown accidents in nuclear reactors can cause serious threat to the structural integrity of the containment and safe operation of nuclear power plants. The study of hydrogen release and mixing within the containments is an important area of safety research as hydrogen released during such accidents in nuclear power plants can lead to hydrogen explosions and catastrophic consequences. A small scale experimental setup called the AERB-IIT Madras Hydrogen Mixing Studies (AIHMS) facility is setup at IIT Madras to study the distribution of hydrogen subsequent to release as a jet followed by its response to various wall thermal conditions. The present paper gives details of the design fabrication and instrumentation of the AIHMS facility and a comparison of features of the facility with respect to other facilities existing for hydrogen mitigation studies. Then it gives details of the experiments conducted and the results of the preliminary experiments on concentration build-up as a result of injection of gases (air and helium) and effect of thermally induced natural convection on gas mixing performed in this experimental facility.

The manuscript firstly describes the data collection and validation process for the European Hydrogen Incidents and Accidents Database (HIAD 2.0) a public repository tool collecting systematic data on hydrogen-related incidents and near-misses. This is followed by an overview of HIAD 2.0 which currently contains 706 events. Subsequently the approaches and procedures followed by the authors to derive lessons learned and formulate recommendations from the events are described. The lessons learned have been divided into four categories including system design; system manufacturing installation and modification; human factors and emergency response. An overarching lesson learned is that minor events which occurred simultaneously could still result in serious consequences echoing James Reason's Swiss Cheese theory. Recommendations were formulated in relation to the established safety principles adapted for hydrogen by the European Hydrogen Safety Panel considering operational modes industrial sectors and human factors. This work provide an important contribution to the safety of systems involving hydrogen benefitting technical safety engineers emergency responders and emergency services. The lesson learned and the discussion derived from the statistics can also be used in training and risk assessment studies being of equal importance to promote and assist the development of sound safety culture in organisations.

Plasmonic Ni nanoparticles were incorporated into LaFeO₃ photocathode (LFO-Ni) to excite the surface plasmon resonances (SPR) for enhanced light harvesting for enhancing the photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen evolution reaction. The nanostructured LFO photocathode was prepared by spray pyrolysis method and Ni nanoparticles were incorporated on to the photocathode by spin coating technique. The LFO-Ni photocathode demonstrated strong optical absorption and higher current density where the untreated LFO film exhibited a maximum photocurrent of 0.036 mA/cm² at 0.6 V vs RHE and when incorporating 2.84 mmol Ni nanoparticles the photocurrent density reached a maximum of 0.066 mA/cm² at 0.6 V vs RHE due to the SPR effect. This subsequently led to enhanced hydrogen production where more than double (2.64 times) the amount of hydrogen was generated compared to the untreated LFO photocathode. Ni nanoparticles were modelled using Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) analysis and the results showed optimal particle size in the range of 70–100 nm for Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) enhancement.

Noble metals are added to boiling water reactors (BWRs) to mitigate stress corrosion cracking of structural components made from steels and Ni-based alloys and this technology is referred to as Noble Metal Chemical Addition (NMCA) or NobleChemTM. There is a growing concern that NMCA can cause unwanted harmful effects on the corrosion and hydrogen uptake properties of Zircaloy-2 fuel cladding. To investigate this we have subjected Zircaloy-2 fuel claddings to out-of-pile BWR conditions in a custom-built autoclave. These claddings are oxidized in pressurized hot water (280 °C 9 MPa) for 25 60 and 150 days wherein Pt nanoparticles (~10 nm) were simultaneously injected. Cross-sectional focused ion beam cuts made at the oxide-metal interface reveal that the oxide growth is not significantly influenced by the local Pt loadings (≤ 1 µg·cm^-2). Surprisingly an inverse correlation was observed between oxide thicknesses and metal's hydrogen contents. Interestingly Pt catalysts have led to diminished hydrogen absorption in specimens with liner exposed to the hot water. Overall Pt catalysts exhibited no detrimental effects on the corrosion rate and hydrogen absorption in Zircaloy-2.

Understanding hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon that leads to deterioration of mechanical properties of metallic components is vital for applications involving hydrogen environment. Among these understanding the influence of hydrogen on the fatigue behaviour of metals is of great interest. Total fatigue life of a material can be divided into fatigue crack initiation and fatigue crack growth phase. While fatigue crack initiation can be linked with the propagation of short fatigue cracks the size of which is of the order of grain size (few tens of microns) that are generally not detectable by conventional crack detection techniques applicable for the long fatigue crack growth behaviour using conventional CT specimens. Extensive literature is available on hydrogen effect on long fatigue crack growth behaviour of metals that leads to the change in crack growth rate and the threshold stress intensity factor range (ΔKth). However it is the short fatigue crack growth behaviour that provides the fundamental understanding and correlation of the metallic microstructure with hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon. Short fatigue crack growth behaviour is characteristically different from long crack growth behaviour showing high propagation rate at much lower values than threshold stress intensity factor range as well as a strong dependency on the microstructural features such as grain boundaries phase boundaries and inclusions. To this end a novel experimental framework is developed to investigate the short fatigue crack behaviour of hydrogen charged materials involving in-situ observation of propagating short cracks coupled with image processing to obtain their da/dN vs a curves. Various metallic materials ranging from austenitic stainless steel (AISI 316L) to reactor pressure vessel steel (SA508 Grade 3 Class I low alloy steel) and line pipe steels (API 5L X65 & X80) are studied in this work.

In this study an energy exergy and environmental (3E) analyses of a plasma-assisted hydrogen production process from microalgae is investigated. Four different microalgal biomass fuels namely raw microalgae (RM) and three torrefied microalgal fuels (TM200 TM250 and TM300) are used as the feedstock for steam plasma gasification to generate syngas and hydrogen. The effects of steam-tobiomass (S/B) ratio on the syngas and hydrogen yields and energy and exergy efficiencies of plasma gasification _{(hEn;PG hEx;PG)} and hydrogen production_{(hEn;H2 hEx;H2 )} are taken into account. Results show that the optimal S/B ratios of RM TM200 TM250 and TM300 are 0.354 0.443 0.593 and 0.760 respectively occurring at the carbon boundary points (CBPs) where the maximum values of _{hEn;PG hEx;PG hEn;H2} and _hEx;H2 are also achieved. At CBPs torrefied microalgae as feedstock lower the_{hEn;PG hEx;PG hEn;H2} and _hEx;H2 because of their improved calorific value after undergoing torrefaction and the increased plasma energy demand compared to the RM. However beyond CBPs the torrefied feedstock displays better performance. A comparative life cycle analysis indicates that TM300 exhibits the highest greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and the lowest net energy ratio (NER) due to the indirect emissions associated with electricity consumption.

This review study attempts to summarize available energy storage systems in order to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy. Inefficient energy storage systems have been shown to function as a deterrent to the implementation of sustainable development. It is therefore critical to conduct a thorough examination of existing and soon-to-be-developed energy storage technologies. Various scholarly publications in the fields of energy storage systems and renewable energy have been reviewed and summarized. Data and themes have been further highlighted with the use of appropriate figures and tables. Case studies and examples of major projects have also been researched to gain a better understanding of the energy storage technologies evaluated. An insightful analysis of present energy storage technologies and other possible innovations have been discovered with the use of suitable literature review and illustrations. This report also emphasizes the critical necessity for an efficient storage system if renewable energy is to be widely adopted.