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![More especially during epidemics does fear play havoc. From the
most remote antiquity physicians have observed that the timid die
more easily. Giorgio Baglivi, in his celebrated book 'Praxis
Medica,’[34] describing the effects of an earthquake which took place
in Rome in 1703, says that although not a single person was killed,
several died of fever through fear, many women miscarried, and all
bedridden invalids grew worse. Larrey had already noticed that on
the fields of battle and in the lazarets soldiers belonging to the
conquered army succumbed more easily to their wounds, while the
victors more speedily recovered. This was confirmed in the war of
1870.
Fear alone may develop all the symptoms of a pestilential malady,
even when the epidemic causes are totally wanting. Just recently, in
one of his works on hysteria and hypochondria, Jolly relates the case
of a patient of his, a lady in Strasburg, who received the news of the
death of a relative from cholera in a distant country. She was very
much frightened, and imagined that she herself was attacked by it.
She lost her appetite and suffered for eight days from violent attacks
of diarrhœa, and only after convincing her that there was not a
single case of cholera in Strasburg, and that she was a prey to her
own imagination, was it possible to allay the serious intestinal
disturbances produced by fear. As soon as a report of cholera
spreads through a town, all hypochondriacs feel worse.
Physicians who have described the dreadful spectacle of the lazarets
during epidemics, mention the great number who die victims to fear,
in many of whom the symptoms of the plague had not even
appeared. Some have died suddenly from the fear of being taken to
the lazaret, others have committed suicide, as we are told the
cowardly have been seen to do in battle, who, terrified at the sight
of death, or weary of suffering, have placed their chin on the muzzle
of their gun and blown out their brains.
What horror we should feel could we read year by year the story of
those who have succumbed to nostalgia, grief, humiliation; in misery,
winter-cold, or want of food! Of men who have died hopelessly in](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/35770-250228105322-e8d6e613/75/Alternative-Fuels-The-Future-of-Hydrogen-2nd-Edition-Michael-Frank-Hordeski-53-2048.jpg)
![the snow or lost in the sands of the desert, of others who have been
shipwrecked and thrown upon the rocks, and whom a little courage
might have saved; of men who have languished in gloomy prisons,
in lonely monasteries or in exile, and who have died rather of mental
than of bodily suffering.
III
Maladies which have their origin in fear must be distinguished from
those morbid conditions which are suddenly aggravated by the effect
of a strong emotion.
There are many who, when they receive a fright, become for the
first time aware of some infirmity, which then increases so rapidly as
to endanger their life.
Lamarre tells the following fact.[35] A lady, seventy-five years of age,
had suffered for about ten years from defective action of the valves
of the heart without this disease having hindered her housewifely
activity. Dr. Lamarre, who was her physician from 1865 to 1870, was
called a few times to her. The hypertrophy of the heart sufficiently
counterbalanced the defect of the valves, and the pulse was regular.
When the Franco-Prussian war broke out in 1870, her sons agreed to
keep her in ignorance of it, lest she should be afraid, she having
already witnessed the plundering of her father’s house by the
Prussians in 1815. They succeeded easily in keeping all news of
national disasters from her, for they lived isolated in the country, and
their mother read no newspapers.
On September 4, 1870, she suddenly heard of the defeats of the
French, and of the march of the German army upon Paris. It was
such a terrible shock to her that her face became livid, and she
scarcely had the strength to cry, as she pressed her hand to her
heart, 'I am suffocating—I am suffocating!’ Three-quarters of an
hour later she died in her sons’ arms.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/35770-250228105322-e8d6e613/75/Alternative-Fuels-The-Future-of-Hydrogen-2nd-Edition-Michael-Frank-Hordeski-54-2048.jpg)
![hot, and then told his little patients he had given orders that all
those who had fits should be burnt.
This inhuman method gave rise to repulsive applications in the
treatment of epilepsy, but cases of cure resulting are so exceptional
that they certainly do not counterbalance the aggravated sufferings
of those uselessly subjected to a cruel emotion. This notion, that
maladies produced by strong emotions may be cured by others
equally strong, is found in the oldest books on medicine. Pliny
relates that the blood of the gladiators used to be drunk as a cure
for the falling-sickness.[36]
We read miraculous stories of persons who suddenly became dumb,
and of others who have regained their speech; and, indeed, such
occurrences take place still, although they lose the dignity of the
miraculous as soon as they are studied in the infirmaries.
The following is a case recently described by Dr. Werner.[37] A girl,
thirteen years old, suffered a great fright by falling under a carriage.
She escaped with a slight scratch, but suddenly lost her speech. Dr.
Werner tried to cure her by various methods during thirteen months,
without any result. At last he had prescribed bromide of potassium,
when one day the girl threw herself into her mother’s arms and said,
in a laboured voice, 'Mamma, I shall speak again.’ After one week
she spoke as before.
Wiedemeister tells a story of a bride who, as she was taking leave
after the wedding breakfast, suddenly lost her speech and remained
dumb for several years, until, overcome with fear at the sight of a
fire, she cried out 'Fire! Fire!’ and from that time continued to speak.
Pausanias, too, relates that a youth recovered his speech in the
fright caused by the sight of a lion, and Herodotus, in his history,
narrates that the son of Crœsus was dumb, and that, at the taking
of Sardes, seeing a Persian with drawn sword about to kill his father,
he cried out, overcome with fright, 'Kill not Crœsus!’ and from that
moment he was able to speak.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/35770-250228105322-e8d6e613/75/Alternative-Fuels-The-Future-of-Hydrogen-2nd-Edition-Michael-Frank-Hordeski-58-2048.jpg)
![If one takes two hounds exactly alike (of the same mother and the
same litter) and accustoms the one to the chase, the other to watch
the house; if one then allows them to breed separately, so as to
form two distinct families, one to start the game for man when
hunting, the other to guard his house against strangers, we may be
certain that after four or five generations their instincts will be
profoundly modified. If after ten years one takes a litter from each of
these families descended from a common ancestor, and rears them
in the same room under the same conditions, far from every noise,
and brings them when they are grown into a meadow, it will be seen
that, at the report of a gun, the offspring of the dogs trained for the
chase will look around as though trying to espy a bird, while the
others run off terrified.
On the shores of certain almost desert islands birds are found which,
like the Phalaropus of Iceland,[38] are very much afraid of man,
while those living in the interior of the island are not at all timorous.
If one reads Brehm’s 'Animal Life,’ one finds similar instances of fear
transmitted from generation to generation, with marked differences
in the same species according to the relations which the animals
have with man. Although monkeys in general are very timid, and
always flee at the sight of man, the Semnopithecus entellus, which
the Indians worship and honour as a divinity, has become so bold
that it enters the gardens, steals everything, plunders the houses,
rummages in the trunks and cupboards of the Europeans, and
snatches food from off the table or out of their hands. A missionary
relates that he was once in a disagreeable predicament, because he
had nothing to offer to these impudent monkeys, and that, if he had
not defended himself in time with a stick, the animals would have
whipped him.[39]
The mechanism by which these far-reaching changes in the instincts
of animals are accomplished and transmitted by means of heredity
to successive generations is one of the most obscure facts in
medicine. The drunkard begets children predisposed to madness,
just as the syphilitic transmit their curse to the innocent victims to
whom they give life, but we know nothing of the manner of](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/35770-250228105322-e8d6e613/75/Alternative-Fuels-The-Future-of-Hydrogen-2nd-Edition-Michael-Frank-Hordeski-65-2048.jpg)
![Neither may we say that it is all the effect of imagination, of fancy,
because the modification of the circulation in the brain of one who
resolutely determines to overcome a difficulty produces such an
increase of energy in the nerve-centres and in the tension of the
muscles that we sometimes see deeds performed by the
pusillanimous such as were never expected of them, however strong
and robust they may be physically.
We have seen that of itself the brain can originate nothing; at the
most it seems to us free to choose amongst the various things
presented to it. But, however heavily liberty may be fettered, it is yet
beyond doubt that we may give a certain direction to our mind, and
the aim of education must be to keep the attention continually fixed
on those things which can strengthen the character.
In his celebrated book on the 'Passions of the Soul,’ Descartes says,
[40] 'Pour exerciter en soi la hardiesse, et ôter la peur, il ne suffit pas
d’en avoir la volonté, mais il faut s’appliquer à considérer les raisons,
les objets ou les exemples qui persuadent que le péril n’est pas
grand; qu’il y a toujours plus de sûreté en la défense qu’en la fuite;
qu’on aura de la gloire et de la joie d’avoir vaincu, au lieu qu’on ne
peut attendre que du regret et de la honte d’avoir fui, et choses
semblables.'
VI.
What is most difficult in education is persistence; what is most
efficacious is example. Severity is useless, perseverance it is which
wins the day; there is nothing more harmful and fatal than
inconstancy of purpose.
The paramount object of education should be to increase the
strength of man, and to foster in him everything which conduces to
life. Children whom parents teach to attribute too much importance
to every little pain are thus predisposed to hypochondria. Sadness is](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/35770-250228105322-e8d6e613/75/Alternative-Fuels-The-Future-of-Hydrogen-2nd-Edition-Michael-Frank-Hordeski-70-2048.jpg)
![a languor of the body, and we know by long experience that the
melancholy and the timid oppose less resistance to diseases than
others.[41]
In women one minute of intense fear produces far more frightful
effects, and inflicts far more serious injuries, than in men, but the
fault is ours, who have always considered the weakness of women a
charm and an attraction; it is the fault of our erroneous system of
education, which only seeks to develop the affections of the woman,
neglecting what would be more efficacious—the creation of a strong
character. We sometimes imagine that the most important branch of
culture is that which we attain through education and study, that the
progress of humanity is wholly represented by science, literature,
works of art which are handed down from one generation to
another; but in ourselves, our blood, there is a no less important
factor. Civilisation has remoulded our nerve-centres; there is a
culture which heredity transmits to the brain of our children; the
supremacy of present generations depends upon the greater power
in thinking, the greater skill in acting. The future and the power of a
nation do not lie solely in its commerce, its science, or its army, but
in the hearts of its citizens, the wombs of its mothers, the courage
or cowardice of its sons.
Let us remember that fear is a disease to be cured; the brave man
may fail sometimes, but the coward fails always.
PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Œuvres de Descartes, Les passions de l’âme, xxxvi.
[2] Charles Darwin: The Expression of the Emotions, pp. 345 and
364. London, 1872.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/35770-250228105322-e8d6e613/75/Alternative-Fuels-The-Future-of-Hydrogen-2nd-Edition-Michael-Frank-Hordeski-71-2048.jpg)
![[3] Maudsley: The Physiology of Mind, p. 305. London, 1876.
[4] Ch. Bell: Anatomy and Physiology of the Human Body, v. ii., p.
394. London, 1826.
[5] 'Les Ptomaïnes.’ Archives italiennes de Biologie, ii. p. 367; iii.
p. 241.
[6] Fontana: Veleno della Vipera, i. p. 317.
[7] L. Rolando, Saggio sopra la vera struttura del cervello e sopra
le funzioni del sistema nervoso, Sec. III. p. 140. Turin, 1828.
[8] Plinius: Historia naturalis, lib. xi., p. 480.
[9] F. Goltz: Ueber die Verrichtungen des Grosshirns, p. 61, and
following. Bonn, 1881.
[10] Th. Ribot: Les Maladies de la Mémoire, p. 9. Paris, 1881.
[11] Brehm: Thierleben, p. 49. Leipzig, 1883.
[12] Brehm: Thierleben, p. 106. Leipzig, 1883.
[13] R. Accademia dei Lincei, vol. v. series 3a; Nuova Antologia,
March 1881.
[14] Foà e M. Schiff. La pupilla come estesiometro. In the
Imparziale, 1874, p. 617.
[15] Haller: Elementa physiologiæ corporis humani, tom. v., lib.
xvii. § vii.
[16] Darwin, chap. iii., p. 67.
[17] Mantegazza, chap. vii., p. 119.
[18] Darwin believed that animals show their teeth in order to let
their weapons be seen, and in this way to be more feared. This
explanation does not seem to me quite exact, as animals are
obliged to raise the lips when they bite, so that the soft parts of
the mouth covering the jaws may not be injured. It suffices to
watch a dog in order to convince oneself that the showing of the
teeth must be an act preparatory to that of biting.
[19] Principles of Psychology, vol. ii., pp. 542-43.
[20] J. Müller: Handbuch der Physiologie des Menschen, 1840, ii.
92.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/35770-250228105322-e8d6e613/75/Alternative-Fuels-The-Future-of-Hydrogen-2nd-Edition-Michael-Frank-Hordeski-72-2048.jpg)
![[21] Ch. Darwin: The Expression of the Emotions. London, 1872,
p. 10.
[22] A. Mosso: Sui movimenti idraulici dell’ iride. R. Accademia di
Torino, 1875.
[23] Ch. Darwin: The Expression of the Emotions, p. 225.
[24] G. B. Duchenne de Boulogne: Mécanisme de la Physionomie
Humaine (Paris, 1862), p. 32.
[25] Edward C. Spitzka: Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease,
1879, s. 69.
[26] Mosso e Pellicani: Sulle funzioni della vescica. R. Accademia
dei Lincei, vol. xii. 1881.
[27] Darwin gives another explanation of this phenomenon which
seems to me less probable. He states that animals erect their
dermal appendages that they may appear larger and more
terrible to their enemies.
But how can it be explained that these smooth muscles should be
originally dependent on the will? In order to avoid the doubly
improbable supposition that these muscles should have become
smooth and involuntary, although preserving the same functions,
Darwin has recourse to another explanation. 'We may admit,’ he
says, 'that originally the arrectores pili were slightly acted on in a
direct manner, under the influence of rage and terror, by the
disturbance of the nervous system.’ 'Animals have been
repeatedly excited by rage and terror through many generations;
and consequently the direct effects of the disturbed nervous
system on the dermal appendages will almost certainly have been
increased through habit and through the tendency of nerve-force
to pass readily along accustomed channels.’ 'As soon as with
animals the power of erection has thus been strengthened or
increased, they must often have seen the hairs or feathers
erected in rival and enraged males, and the bulk of their bodies
thus increased. In this case it appears possible that they might
have wished to make themselves appear larger and more terrible
to their enemies ... such attitudes and utterances after a time
becoming through habit instinctive.’
'It is even possible ... that the will is able to influence in an
obscure manner the action of some unstriped or involuntary](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/35770-250228105322-e8d6e613/75/Alternative-Fuels-The-Future-of-Hydrogen-2nd-Edition-Michael-Frank-Hordeski-73-2048.jpg)
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- 7. ALTERNATIVE FUELS— THE FUTUREOF HYDROGEN SECOND EDITION
- 9. ALTERNATIVE FUELS— THE FUTUREOF HYDROGEN SECOND EDITION BY MICHAEL FRANK HORDESKI
- 10. Library of CongressCataloging-in-Publication Data Hordeski, Michael F. Alternative fuels : the future of hydrogen / by Michael Frank Hordeski. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-88173-595-7 (alk. paper) -- ISBN 1-4200-8016-4 (distribution by Taylor & Francis : alk. paper) -- ISBN 0-88173-596-5 (electronic) 1. Hydrogen as fuel. 2. Fuel switching. 3. Hydrogen cars. 4. Automobile industry and trade--Forecasting. I. Title. TP359.H8H67 2008 333.79’4--dc22 2007050884 Alternative fuels : the future of hydrogen--second edition / by Michael Frank Hordeski ©2008 by The Fairmont Press, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published by The Fairmont Press, Inc. 700 Indian Trail Lilburn, GA 30047 tel: 770-925-9388; fax: 770-381-9865 http://www.fairmontpress.com Distributed by Taylor & Francis Ltd. 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33487, USA E-mail: [email protected] Distributed by Taylor & Francis Ltd. 23-25 Blades Court Deodar Road London SW15 2NU, UK E-mail: [email protected] Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0-88173-595-7 (The Fairmont Press, Inc.) 1-4200-8016-4 (Taylor & Francis Ltd.) While every effort is made to provide dependable information, the publisher, authors, and editors cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions.
- 11. Preface............................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1Fuels and Trends.........................................................................1 Chapter 2 The Evolution of Oil.................................................................33 Chapter 3 Fuel and Autos..........................................................................67 Chapter 4 Fuels for the Auto...................................................................101 Chapter 5 The New Transportation .......................................................125 Chapter 6 Fuels and the Environment...................................................151 Chapter 7 Hydrogen Sources, Biomass and Wind Power...................175 Chapter 8 Alternative Fuel Paths and Solar Hydrogen ......................213 Chapter 9 Infrastructure Choices and Nuclear Hydrogen .................235 Chapter 10 Trends in Fuels and Energy Technology .............................255 Index ..............................................................................................................284 TABLE OF CONTENTS
- 13. vii Oil prices hoveringat $100 a barrel, soaring Chinese demand, rocket- ing energy markets, climate-destabilizing carbon emissions, new energy investments at $500 billion/year, the energy world has lost its bearings. Not since the energy shocks of the 1970’s has the availability of energy been so important. A recent survey indicated Americans believe energy security should be a top priority of U.S. energy policy with wide support for a moon shot type of effort to develop a hydrogen economy. The dependence of the U.S. on oil creates a national security vulnerability that could result in wide- spread economic problems and increased global instabilities. Many factors affect our energy use, one of the most important is the availability of fuels. Mineral fuels can be divided into three types: solid, liquid and gas. In the first group are the coals. In the second group are the petroleum products which are rich in both carbon and hydrogen. These products provide a large range of fuels and lubricants. In the third group are the natural gases from petroleum deposits, the butane gases and coal and coke gas. Liquids include gasolines (or petrols). Their physical state allows them to be used directly in spark-ignition engines. The two principal combustible elements common in coal and petro- leum are carbon and hydrogen. Of the two, hydrogen is more efficient. The value of a fuel depends mainly in its calorific value. Pure carbon has a calorific value of 14,137 Btus while hydrogen has a value of 61,493 Btus. The higher the proportion of hydrogen a fuel contains, the more energy it will provide. The hydrogen content of liquid and gaseous fuels ranges from 10 to 50% by weight. They provide far more heat than solid fuels, which range from 5% to 12% by weight. The less oxygen in the fuel, the more easily the hydrogen and carbon will burn. The lower the oxygen content of a fuel, the better it will burn. The ideal fuel would be pure hy- drogen. Other factors used in assessing the merits of different fuels include moisture content, extraction, storage and transportation. Most fuels come directly or indirectly from carbohydrates; vegetable matter which result from photosynthesis occurring in green plants. The energy in these fuels is due to the sun. When burning fuels are extracted from living plants, we are recovering recent solar energy. When burning coal or gas, we are tap- PREFACE
- 14. viii ping ancient solarenergy. Is a hydrogen economy a reality? When President George Bush pro- posed a $1.7 billion program to promote hydrogen-fueled cars in his State of the Union Address, both sides of the aisle applauded. Almost everyone supported a hydrogen economy. Hydrogen is the most abundant element on the planet. But it cannot be harvested directly. It must be extracted from another material. A wide variety of materials contain hydrogen, which is one reason it has attracted widespread support. Environmentalists envision an energy economy where hydrogen comes from water, and the energy used to accomplish this comes from wind. The nuclear industry sees a water-based hydrogen economy, but with nuclear as the power source that electrolyzes water. Nucleonics Week views nuclear power as the only way to produce hydrogen on a large scale without adding to greenhouse gas emissions. In the fossil fuel industry, they see hydrocarbons as providing most of our future hydrogen. They already have a head start since almost 50% of the world’s commercial hydrogen now comes from natural gas and an- other 20% is derived from coal. The automobile and oil companies are betting that petroleum will be the hydrogen source of the future. It was General Motors, that coined the phrase “the hydrogen economy”. A hydrogen economy will not be a renewable energy economy. For the next 20-50 years hydrogen will overwhelmingly be derived from fossil fuels or with nuclear energy. It has taken more than 30 years for the renewable energy industry to capture 1% of the transportation fuel market (ethanol) and 2% of the electricity market (wind, solar, biomass). A hydrogen economy will require the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars to build an entirely new energy infrastructure (pipe- lines, fueling stations, automobile engines). This will come from public and private money. Making hydrogen takes energy. We may use a fuel that could be used directly to provide electricity or mechanical power or heat to instead make hydrogen, which is then used to make electricity. We can run vehicles on natural gas or generate electricity using nat- ural gas now. Converting natural gas into hydrogen and then hydrogen into electricity increases the amount of greenhouse gases emitted. Hydrogen is the lightest element, being about eight times lighter
- 15. ix than methane. Compactingit for storage or transport is expensive and energy intensive. Another rationale for making hydrogen is that it is a way to store en- ergy. That could benefit renewable energy sources like wind and sunlight that cannot generate energy on demand. Many see hybrid vehicles as a bridge to a new type of transportation. Toyota and Honda have been selling tens of thousands of cars that have small gas engines and batteries. American automobile companies are fol- lowing their lead. Toyota and Honda and others are looking in the future to substitute a hydrogen fuel cell for the gasoline engine. That work will continue. This book will get beyond the glib, “we can run our cars on wa- ter,” news bites and assesses the reality to convert to a hydrogen economy. Some believe that the hydrogen economy has serious, perhaps fatal short- comings while others consider it the path to a future of relative energy independence. Topics include energy policy, fuel supply trends, statistics and pro- jections, oil reserves, alternative fuel scenarios, fuel utilization, sustain- able energy paths, cost analysis, fuels and development and regulatory issues. An energy evolution is taking place and will be pushed by changes in the environment, alternative fuels, sources of hydrogen, power genera- tion needs, fuel cell/electric vehicles and ultimately provide our power and transportation future. Chapter one is an overview of the barriers to implementation. It in- troduces the various technology and air emission issues, safety, and al- ternatives such as natural gas, hydrogen gas, methanol, ethanol and fuel cells. Chapter two investigates the evolution of oil supplies, coke and gas fuels, city gas, natural gas, petroleum and sulphur, sources, crude oil pric- es, refining and distribution. Fuels and autos are topics of Chapter three. It includes the auto fu- ture, electric cars, revivals, the auto industry, car designs and the impact of mass production. Chapter four investigates the impact of auto technology. It considers fuel cell electric cars, fuel cell cabs, the fuel cell future and recent advances in fuel cell auto technology. The new transportation is the theme of chapter five. Fueling stations are important for any alternative fuel especially hydrogen. Fuel cell ad- vances will also pace hydrogen cars as well as the level of government
- 16. x support. An interestingconcept for hydrogen cars is their proposed use as mobile utilities. Chapter six outlines environmental trends and concerns. This in- cludes, Kyoto and global warming, temperature cycles, deforestation and the greenhouse effect. Chapter seven is concerned with hydrogen production and storage choices. Biomass is considered as a source of hydrogen fuel. Alternative fuel programs is the theme of Chapter eight. Iceland’s hydrogen plans are reviewed. The chapter ends with a discussion of solar hydrogen. Hydrogen infrastructure is the leading issue at the beginning of Chapter nine. It concludes with a discussion of nuclear hydrogen. Chapter ten looks at recent trends in fuels and energy. Clean power is receiving more attention as well as nuclear power due to concerns about global warming. Plug-in hybrid vehicles could save fossil fuels while reducing peak power requirements. Many thanks to Dee who did much to organize the text and get this book in its final shape.
- 17. 1 CHAPTER 1 FUELS ANDTRENDS In Britain, a successful hydrogen experiment was financed in the town of Harnosand by the Swedish steel industry, SAAB and other firms. In a house designed and lived in by Olaf Tegstrom, electric power was provided by a small computer-controlled Danish windmill in the garden. The power was used to electrolyse filtered water into hydrogen and oxy- gen. The hydrogen gas was used for cooking and heating the house and as fuel for a SAAB car. The car is almost non-polluting since the exhaust consists mostly of water vapor which is safe to drink. The hydrogen gas is absorbed in a metal hydrid and released as required. In West Berlin, thanks to government subsidies for fuels that do not cause acid rain, Daimler Benz has built a filling station where converted vehicles can be filled with hydrogen, produced from town gas. If hydrogen could become the prime provider of energy, a techno- logical revolution could take place that would solve the problems of at- mospheric pollution and oil depletion. Hydrogen has an energy content three to four times higher than oil, and it can be produced from all known energy sources, besides being a by-product of many industrial processes. Hydrogen powered fuel cells could have wide applications, replac- ing batteries in many portable application, vehicle and using hydrogen for home electrical needs. THE FUTURE FOR ALTERNATE FUELS As oil prices increase, the interest in alternative fuels increases. This is evidenced by demonstration programs and commitments by states such as California. The concern of the air quality in many areas around the world makes finding solutions more urgent. As the price of oil rises, al- ternate fuels become more competitive. Major questions remain to be an- swered on which fuel or fuels will emerge and to what extent alternative sources will replace gasoline as the main product of crude oil.
- 18. 2 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen Although it may be difficult, more cooperation is required between vehicle manufacturers, fuel producers, and the government. The infra- structure for the production and delivery of the fuels can evolve as need- ed with free market forces providing most of the momentum. But, there will need to be a coordination of selections of fuels and the adjustments needed to run those fuels. A combination of available alternative fuels will evolve with the most likely choices affected by a number of technical, political and market factors. In order to allow a wider application of alternative fuels, a num- ber of obstacles have to be overcome. These include economic, techno- logical, and infrastructural issues. In the past, gasoline has been plentiful and has had a significant price advantage compared to other fuels. This could change quickly and alternative fuels would need to become more commonplace. One of the alternatives involves the more widespread use of biomass produced fuels. More efficient biomass conversion techniques would help make biofuels more cost-competitive. FUEL FROM BIOMASS Land availability and crop selection are major issues in biomass fuel usage. Biomass alternatives are expected to grow to a significantly larger scale for providing fuel. Land availability may not be a major problem, but land use issues need to be coordinated. Long-term production of biofuels in substantial quantities will require a number of changes. Present grain surpluses may not provide sufficient feedstocks for the fuel quantities needed. Producers may need to switch to short-rotation woody plants and herbacous grasses, feedstocks that can sustain biofuel production in long- term, substantial quantities. The increased use of municipal solid waste (MSW) as a feedstock for renewable fuels is likely to grow. In spite of significant problems, many are optimistic about the role of biomass for alternative fuels in the future. The U.S. Department of Energy believes that biofuels from nonfood crops and MSW could potentially cut U.S. oil imports by 15 to 20%. Ethanol industry members believe that the capacity for producing that fuel alone could be doubled in a few years and tripled in five years. Methanol Methanol, which is also known as wood alcohol, is a colorless and odorless liquid alcohol fuel that can be made from biomass, natural gas, or
- 19. Fuels and Trends3 coal. It is the simplest alcohol chemically and it may be used as an automo- bile fuel in its pure form (M100), as a gasoline blend typically 85% methane to 15% unleaded gasoline (M85) or as a feedstock for reformulated gasoline, or methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). M100 or pure methanol is used as a substitute for diesel. In M85, the gasoline is added to color the flame of burning fuel for safety reasons and to improve starting in cold weather. In order to achieve more methanol utilization, production needs to be- come more efficient and the infrastructure improved to make it more com- petitive. Amajor source of methane has been natural gas, since this has been the most economical source. Although the United States has vast quantities of both natural gas and coal, these are both nonrenewable resources. Biomass can be a renewable feedstock for methane. Biomass feed- stocks for methane production include crop residues, municipal solid waste (MSW), and wood resources. Biomass resources for the production of alcohol fuels are estimated at about 5 million dry tons per day which could provide 500 million gallons of methanol per day. By 1991 the U.S. methanol industry was producing almost 4 million gallons of methanol per day. About a third of this was used as fuel for transportation and much of this methanol was converted to MTBE. Meth- anol is also popular in high-performance racing because of its octane-en- hancing qualities. In California there were more than 1,000 methanol vehicles includ- ing cars, trucks, and buses on the road in a state program with auto manu- facturers and oil companies. In 1992, New York City also had a number of buses that ran on methanol. Arizona Checker Leasing purchased its first methanol vehicle in 1993 and now has 300 in its fleet of 450 M85 fuel flex- ible vehicles. Ethanol Ethanol, or grain alcohol is an alcohol fuel that has been more wide- ly used as automotive fuel. It can be made from a variety of feedstocks, mainly grains, forest resides, and solid waste. It can be used in its pure form, but is more widely used in a blended form. Gasoline blends using 90% gasoline and 10% ethanol have been widely used in many areas of the country. Ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) is a feedstock for reformulated gasoline based on ethanol. By the early 1990s, almost 8% of the gasoline sold in the United States was an ethanol mixture with 850 million gallons of ethanol produced each year. About 95% of this were from the fermentation of corn. Most of this
- 20. 4 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen was used as a gasoline additive to produce the 10% ethanol/90% gasoline mixture called gasohol. About 30% of the nation’s gasoline had some alco- hol in it. Most ethanol use in the United States was in the Midwest, where excess corn and grain crops were used as feedstocks. In 1979 only 20 million gallons of ethanol were being produced in the United States each year. By 1983, this had jumped to 375 million gallons an- nually and by 1988 to almost 840 million gallons annually. More than sixty ethanol production facilities were operating by 1993 in the United States in twenty-two states. Farm vehicles were converted to ethanol fuel and dem- onstration programs were underway for testing light-duty vehicles. The nation’s first E85 (85% ethanol) fueling station opened in La Habra, CA in 1990. The station was operated by the California Renewable Fuels Council. Although most ethanol is produced from corn, research has been done on producing this type of alcohol fuel from cellulosic biomass in- cluding energy crops, forest and agricultural residues, and MSW, which would be much cheaper feedstocks. The process of chemically converting these cellulosic biomass feedstocks is more difficult and until this process can be simplified the price of ethanol remains high. Ethanol in Brazil Brazil has been the major producer of ethanol in the world. The Brazilian program to make ethanol from sugarcane began in 1975 and by the 1990s, more than 4 million cars were running on ethanol. The ethanol widely used in Brazil is a mixture of 95% ethanol and 5% water. A small amount (up to 3%) of gasoline is also used. In Brazil almost 90% of the new cars run on this mixture while the rest operate on a 20% ethanol/80% gasoline mix. The country produces the ethanol on about 1% of its total farmable land. This is because sug- arcane can be grown almost year-round in Brazil. The program required government assistance and by 1988 government subsidies for the produc- tion of ethanol from sugarcane were almost $1.3 billion. Brazil’s program was not able to supply enough fuel even with more than 15 billion liters produced annually. In order to meet consumer de- mand, the Brazilian government was forced to import ethanol. Reformulated Gasoline Reformulated gasoline is viewed as an alternative fuel that does not require engine modification. Used mainly because its effectiveness in re-
- 21. Fuels and Trends5 ducing tailpipe emissions, reformulated gasoline was qualified under the Clean Air Act to compete with other alternatives as an option for meeting lower emission standards. Although the formula can vary by manufacturer, reformulated gaso- line usually has polluting components like butane, olefins, and aromatics removed and an octane-enhancer like methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) added. MTBE can reduce carbon monoxide by 9%, hydrocarbons by 4%, and nitrogen oxides by 5%, and improves combustion efficiency. It was widely used in California, Arizona, and Nevada, but is being phased out after it was found to contaminate water supplies. ARCO, for example, marketed a reformulated gasoline, EC-1 Regu- lar (Emission control-1), for older vehicles without catalytic converters, in southern California. These vehicles made up only a small portion of the car and truck population in the area but they contributed almost a third of the vehicular air pollution. ARCO also marketed a premium reformulated gasoline, EC-Premium. The EPA estimated that the ARCO reformulated gasolines reduced air pollution by about 150 tons each day in southern California. Natural Gas Natural gas is a fossil fuel that is found in underground reservoirs. It consists chiefly of methane, with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons such as ethane, propane, and butane along with inert gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and helium. The actual composition varies, depending on the region of the source. As an engine fuel, natural gas may be used either in a compressed form, compressed natural gas (CNG) or in a liquid form, liquefied natural gas (LNG). Although the United States is a major producer and user of natural gas, only a few percent of annual production is used for vehicles, construc- tion and other equipment including power generation. Compressed natu- ral gas is only used in about 30,000 vehicles in the United States, which in- cludes school buses, delivery trucks, and fleet vehicles. Worldwide, about a million vehicles in thirty-five countries operate on natural gas. Some of the countries where natural gas is widely used include New Zealand, Italy and countries of the former Soviet Union. There are more than 300 NG filling locations in the United States, most of these serve private fleets and about one-third are open to the public. This fuel is more appropriate for fleet vehicles that operate in limited geographi- cal regions and that return to a central location every night for refueling.
- 22. 6 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen In 1991 the California Air Resources Board certified a compressed nat- ural gas (CNG) powered engine as the first alternative fueled engine certi- fied for use in California. The board has also sponsored a test program to fuel school buses with CNG. While CNG has been used for fleet and deliv- ery vehicles, most tanks hold enough fuel for a little over 100 miles. Natural gas has several advantages over gasoline. It emits at least 40% less hydrocarbons and 30% less carbon dioxide per mile compared to gasoline. It is also less expensive than gasoline on a per gallon-equivalent. Maintenance costs can also be less than those for gasoline engines since natural gas causes less corrosion and engine wear. Although natural gas is a plentiful fossil fuel, it is nonrenewable. There is also a range limitation and natural gas vehicles can cost more due to the need to keep the fuel un- der pressure. The weight and size the pressure tank reduces storage space and affects fuel economy. Both methanol and ethanol are alcohol fuels that can be created from renewable sources. Alcohol fuels are converted from biomass or other feedstocks using one or more of the conversion technologies. Government and private research programs are finding more efficient, cost-effective methods of converting biomass to alcohol fuels. Although methanol was originally a by-product of charcoal produc- tion, today it is primarily produced from natural gas, but it can also be made from biomass and coal. When methanol is made from natural gas, the gas reacts with steam to produce synthesis gas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. This then reacts with a catalytic substance at high temperatures and pressures to produce methanol. The process is similar when methanol is produced by the gasification of biomass. Most of the ethanol in the United States is made from fermenting corn. Dry-milling or wet-milling can be used. In dry-milling, the grain is milled without any separation of its components. The grain is mashed and the starch in the mash is converted to sugar and then to alcohol with yeast. In wet-milling, the corn is first separated into its major components, the germ, oil, fiber, gluten and starch. The starch is then converted into ethanol. This process provides useful by-products such as corn gluten feed and meal. The only other country with a significant production of ethanol, Brazil, makes its fuel from sugar cane. One of the arguments regarding the adoption of methanol as a fuel is that it emits higher amounts of formaldehyde, a contributor to ozone for- mation and a suspected carcinogen, compared to gasoline. Proponents of methanol disagree, saying that only one-third of the formaldehyde from
- 23. Fuels and Trends7 vehicle emissions actually comes from the tailpipe, with the other two- thirds forming photochemically, once the emissions have escaped. They argue that pure methanol vehicles would only generate one tenth as much of the hydrocarbons that are photochemically converted to formaldehyde as do gasoline automobiles. Methane has a colorless flame and may be explosive in a closed space such as a fuel tank although it is less flammable than gasoline and results in less severe fires when ignited. Colorants can be added to help identify the flame and baffles or flame arresters at the opening of the tank can be used to inhibit the accidental ignition of methanol vapors. Producing methanol from biomass or coal costs about twice as much as producing it from natural gas. This encourages the use of nonrenewable petrochemical sources over biomass or coal. Considering the full produc- tion cycle, methanol from biomass emits less carbon dioxide than etha- nol from biomass. This is because short rotation forestry, the feedstocks of methanol, requires the use of less fertilizer and diesel tractor fuel than the agricultural starch and sugar crops which are the feedstocks of ethanol. More widespread use of ethanol could have some safety benefits. Ethanol is water soluble, biodegradable, and evaporates easily. Ethanol spills should be much less severe and easier to clean up than petroleum spills. Agricultural surplus is used for the production of ethanol in the Unit- ed States and provides economic benefits to farmers and to the farming economy. By 1990, almost 360 million bushels of surplus grain were being used to produce ethanol. It is estimated that, in that year, due to ethanol production, farm income increased by some $750 million, federal farm pro- gram costs dropped by $600 million and crude oil imports fell by over forty million barrels. One of ethanol’s major drawbacks in comparison to methanol is its price. It can cost almost twice as much as methanol. But, both methanol and ethanol, as liquids, can use established storage and distribution facilities. COSTS Cost differences between gasoline and most alternative fuels present an obstacle to more widespread use of these fuels. While conversion tech- nologies may become more efficient and more cost-competitive over time, as long as gasoline prices remain relatively low, many alternative fuels
- 24. 8 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen may not become cost-competitive without government help, in the form of subsidies or tax credits. The cost difference between untaxed renewable fuels and taxed gasoline can be rather small. By the early 1990s, methanol was about $0.75 per gallon without fed- eral or state tax credits. The cost of wood-derived ethanol dropped from $4.00 to about $1.10 before any tax credits. The federal government pro- vided a tax credit of $0.60 per gallon, which was further subsidized by some states with an additional $0.40 per gallon. These tax credits allowed ethanol to be competitive. Comparing the per gallon costs of methanol and ethanol with gaso- line requires multiplying the gallon cost by the number of gallons needed for the same distance as gasoline. Methanol’s energy density is about half that of gasoline, so it takes about two gallons of methanol to get the same amount of power as one gallon of gasoline. A gallon of ethanol contains about two-thirds the energy as a gallon of gasoline. THE GROWTH OF RENEWABLE FUELS During the 1920s the catalytic synthesis of methanol was commer- cialized in Germany. Even before that, methane was distilled from wood. This pyrolysis of wood is a relatively inefficient process. Ethanol saw sev- eral periods of popularity in the last century, especially during the world wars when petroleum became limited. In more recent decades, the use of alcohol fuels has seen rapid development. The worldwide use of MTBE occurred quickly. The first MTBE plant was built in Italy in 1973, and its use then spread through Europe. By 1980, the installed capacity in Europe was almost 90 million gallons per year, which grew to over 300 million gallons per year by the end of 1990. In the United States MTBE production began about 1980 and reached more than a billion gallons by 1987. Most of the initial interest in alternative fuels started after the oil cri- sis in the 1970s. It has been grown more recently by concerns about supply interruptions, high prices, air quality and greenhouse gases. LEGISLATION In the United States there has been some legislation on developing cleaner-burning gasoline substitutes, gasoline enhancers and more effi-
- 25. Fuels and Trends9 cient automobiles. The 1988 Alternative Motor Fuels Act (AMFA) and the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act (of 1970) were among this legisla- tion. The focus of the AMFA was on demonstration programs that could encourage the use of alternative fuels and alternative-fuel vehicles. The act also offered credits to automakers for producing alternative-fuel ve- hicles and incentives to encourage federal agencies to use these vehicles. The 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act covered a range of is- sues. New cars sold from 1994 on were to emit about 30% less hydro- carbons and 60% less nitrogen-oxide pollutants from the tailpipe than earlier cars. New cars were also to have diagnostic capabilities for alert- ing the driver to malfunctioning emission-control equipment. In October 1993 oil refiners were required to reduce the amount of sulfur in diesel fuel. Starting in the winter of 1992/1993, oxygen, to reduce carbon mon- oxide emissions, was added to all gasoline sold during winter months in any city with carbon monoxide problems. In 1996 auto companies were to sell 150,000 cars in California that had emission levels of one-half compared with the other new cars. This increased to 300,000 a year in 1999 and in 2001 the emission levels are re- duced by half again. Beginning in 1998 a percentage of new vehicles purchased in cen- trally fueled fleets in 22 polluted cities were to meet tailpipe standards that were about one-third of those for passenger cars. The 2005 Federal Highway and Energy Bill allows several tax ben- efits for natural gas vehicle (NGV) station and vehicle owners. It includes an income tax credit equal to 30% of the cost of any qualified alternative fuel vehicle refueling property placed in service after December 31, 2005. One provision in the Highway Bill also provides the seller with a $.50 per liter of natural gas (LNG) or gasoline gallon equivalent credit. There is also a tax credit for new dedicated alternative fuel vehicles. Ve- hicles placed in service after December 31, 2005 are eligible for tax credits of 50-80% of the incremental cost of the vehicle. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency required the use of ul- tralow sulfur diesel by 2006. It is now available almost anywhere that die- sel is sold. There is little price difference between the older diesel fuel and ultralow sulfur diesel or B20. TECHNOLOGY ISSUES If alternative fuels are to be more widely used, changes must take
- 26. 10 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen place both in fuel infrastructure, storage and engine technology. Infra- structural changes will improve the availability of alternative fuels. This can be done by modification of existing filling stations and by establish- ing a distribution system that is as efficient as the current gasoline sys- tem. Technological changes in the manufacture of power sources are re- quired if they are to run on alternative fuels. It is likely that more power sources will move away from single-fuels to several fuels which would compete. This is done in many power plants today. Dual-fuel or flexible- fuel are now used to some degree around the world. FLEXIBLE FUEL One of the problems with the development of alternative fuels is the demand question. Why should manufacturers make alternative fuel en- gines with uncertain fuel supplies? Why should the fuel industry manu- facture and distribute fuels without a clear market? Flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs), which are also called variable fuel vehicles, (VFVs) attempt to solve this problem. These vehicles are designed to use several fuels. Most of the major automobile manufacturers have developed FFV prototypes, many of these focus on methanol. These methanol powered vehicles can also use gasoline. There are about 15,000 M85 methanol vehicles in opera- tion. Methanol vehicles can provide greater power and acceleration but they suffer from cold starting difficulties. Both methanol and ethanol have a lower energy density than that of gasoline and thus more alcohol fuel is needed to provide the same energy. Cold starting problems can occur with these fuels in their pure form, but the addition of a small percentage of gasoline eliminates this problem. A dual-fuel boiler or engine might operate on natural gas, fuel oil, gasoline or an alternative fuel. Typically, boilers or engines will switch between a liquid or gaseous fuel. Cars, trucks, and buses that use both gasoline and compressed natural gas are being used in northern Italy. Flexible-fuel engines are able to use a variable mixture of two or more different fuels, as long as they are alike physically, in usually liquid form. Vehicles with flexible-fuel engines are not in widespread use. Dedicated-fuel vehicles operate on a single fuel which is typically cheaper and more efficient. Vehicles that operate on liquid natural gas are used in taxis in Japan, Korea, and the major difference between com-
- 27. Fuels and Trends11 pressed natural gas and more conventional fuels is its form. Natural gas is gaseous rather than liquid in its natural state. Most gasoline-powered engines can be converted to dual-fuel en- gines with natural gas. The conversion does not require the removal of any of the original equipment. A natural gas pressure tank is added along with a fuel line to the engine through special mixing equipment. A switch selects either gasoline or natural gas/propane operation. Diesel vehicles can also be converted to a dual-fuel configuration. Natural gas engines may use lean-burn or stoichiometric combus- tion. Lean-burn combustion is similar to that which occurs in diesel en- gines, while stoichiometric combustion is more similar to the operation of a gasoline engine. Compressed natural gas has a high octane rating of 120 and pro- duces 40 to 90% lower hydrocarbon emissions than gasoline. There are also 40 to 90% lower carbon monoxide emissions and 10% lower carbon dioxide emissions than gasoline. A larger, heavier fuel tank is needed and the driver must refill about every 100 miles. Refilling takes two to three times longer than refilling gasoline. Some slow fill stations take several hours and the limited availability of filling stations can be a problem. FUEL ALCOHOL AND CARBON DIOXIDE Fuel alcohol programs have been appearing in more and more coun- tries. Energy independence, low market prices for sugar and other food crops, and large agricultural surpluses are the primary reasons for these programs. Several countries with fuel alcohol programs are in Africa and Latin America, along with the United States and a few other countries. When fuels are derived from biomass, the net increase in carbon di- oxide emitted into the atmosphere is usually considered to be neutral or even negative because the plants used to produce the alcohol fuel have re- absorbed the same or more carbon than is emitted from burning the fuel. The net effect may not be as beneficial when the carbon dioxide emit- ted by equipment for the harvesting of the biomass feedstocks is consid- ered. This depends on the differences in equipment, farming techniques and other regional factors. When fuels are produced from biomass, there is job creation in ag- riculture and related industries. Expanded production can also increase exports of by-products such as corn gluten meal from ethanol.
- 28. 12 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen HYDROGEN FUEL Hydrogen is abundant, being the most common element in the uni- verse. The sun consumes 600 million tons of it each second. But unlike oil, vast reservoirs of hydrogen are not to be found on earth. The hydrogen at- oms are bound together in molecules with other elements and it takes en- ergy to extract the hydrogen so it can be used for combustion or fuel cells. Hydrogen is not a primary energy source, but it can be viewed a means of exchange for getting energy to where it is needed, much like electricity. Hydrogen is a sustainable, non-polluting source of power that could be used in mobile and stationary applications. As an energy carrier, it could increase our energy diversity and security by reducing our depen- dence on hydrocarbon-based fuels. Although hydrogen is the simplest element and most plentiful gas in the universe, it never occurs by itself. It always combines with other ele- ments such as oxygen and carbon. Once it has been separated, hydrogen is an extremely clean-energy carrier. It is clean enough that the U.S. space shuttle program used hydrogen-powered fuel cells to operate the shuttle’s electrical systems while one of the by-products was used as drinking wa- ter for the crew. Hydrogen as an alternative to hydrocarbon fuels such as gasoline could have many more potential uses, but it must be relatively safe to manufacture and use. Hydrogen fuel cells can be used to power cars, trucks, electrical plants, and buildings but the absence of an infrastruc- ture for producing, transporting, and storing large quantities of hydrogen could inhibit its growth and practical uses. Hydrogen can be produced by splitting water (H2O) into its com- ponent parts of hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O). One method is the steam reforming of methane from natural gas. Steam reforming converts the methane and other hydrocarbons in natural gas into hydrogen and carbon monoxide using the reaction of steam over a nickel catalyst. Electrolysis uses an electrical current to split water into hydrogen at the cathode (+) and oxygen at the anode (–). Steam electrolysis uses heat, instead of elec- tricity, to provide some of the energy needed to split water and can make the process more energy efficient. If hydrogen is generated from renewable sources, its production and use can be part of a clean, natural cycle. Thermochemical water splitting uses chemicals and heat in several steps to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Photolysis is a photoelectrochemical process that uses sunlight
- 29. Fuels and Trends13 and catalysts to split water. Biological and photobiological water splitting use sunlight and biological organisms to split water. Thermal water split- ting uses a high temperature of 1000°C to split water. Biomass gasification uses microbes to break down different biomass feedstocks into hydrogen. Wide-scale Hydrogen Production Cost is a hurdle in using hydrogen widely as a fuel. Changes in the energy infrastructure are needed to use hydrogen. Electricity is required for many hydrogen production methods. The cost of this electricity tends to make hydrogen more expensive than the fuels it would replace. Another major concern is hydrogen’s flammability. It can ignite in low concentrations and can leak through seals. Leaks in transport and storage equipment could present public safety hazards. These are the practical considerations that need to be addressed before wide-scale use of hydrogen becomes a reality. Researchers are developing new technologies that can use hydro- gen that is stored or produced, as needed, onboard vehicles. These tech- nologies include hydrogen internal combustion engines, which convert hydrogen’s chemical energy to electricity using a hydrogen piston engine coupled to a generator in a hybrid electric vehicle. Onboard reforming for fuel cells, uses catalytic reactions to convert conventional hydrocarbon fuels, such as gasoline or methanol, into hydro- gen that fuel cells use to produce electricity to power vehicles. Hydrogen-based Energy Systems The announcement of the FreedomCAR Partnership to develop fuel- cell-powered vehicles committed the U.S. Department of Energy toward a hydrogen-based energy system by making fuel-cell-powered vehicles available in 2010. This was a needed push for the development of the tech- nologies needed to make hydrogen-powered transportation a reality. Fuel Cells When using hydrogen as fuel, the main emission from fuel cells is potable water. Even when using hydrocarbons as fuel, these systems offer substantial reductions in emissions. Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) systems can reach electrical efficiencies over 50% when using natural gas, diesel or biogas. When combined with gas turbines there can be electrical ef- ficiencies of 70%, for small installation as well as large. When using a fuel cell system, these efficiencies can be kept at partial loads as low as 50%,
- 30. 14 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen usually conventional technologies must run at nearly full load to be most efficient. NOx and SOx emissions from SOFC systems are negligible. They are typically 0.06 g/kWhe and 0.013 g/kWhe.* SOFCs also produce high- quality heat with their working temperature of 850°C. This makes com- bined heat and power production possible with SOFC systems. The total efficiency can then reach 85%. Advanced conventional cogeneration of heat and power can reach total efficiencies up to 94% with electrical effi- ciencies over 50%. This occurs only at full load. A high electrical efficiency is preferred over heat efficiency, since this results in a higher energy with the initial energy source better utilized, in terms of practical end-use. Fuel cell systems are modular like computers which makes it pos- sible to build up facilities as needed with parts in an idle mode when full capacity is not needed. The capacity is easily adjusted, as the need arise. Hydrocarbons such as natural gas or methane can be reformed in- ternally in the SOFC, which means that these fuels can be fed to the cells directly. Other types of fuel cells require external reforming. The reform- ing equipment is size-dependent which reduces the modularity. Hydrogen Fuel Cells and Global Warming Unlike internal combustion engines, hydrogen fuel cells do not emit carbon dioxide. But, extracting hydrogen from natural gas, gasoline or other products requires energy and involves other by-products. Obtaining hydrogen from water through electrolysis consumes large amounts of electrical power. If that power comes from plants burning fos- sil fuels, the end product can be clean hydrogen, but the process used to obtain it can be polluting. After the hydrogen is extracted, it must be compressed and transported, if the machinery and vehicles run on fossil fuels, they will produce CO2. Running an engine with hydrogen extracted from natural gas or water could produce a net increase of CO2 in the atmo- sphere. Fuel cell cars must be able to drive hundreds of miles on a single tank of hydrogen. A gallon of gasoline contains about 2,600 times the en- ergy of a gallon of hydrogen. If hydrogen cars are to travel 300 miles on a single tank, they will have to use compressed hydrogen gas at very high pressures, up to 10,000 pounds per square inch. Even at this pressure, cars *Kilo-watt hours electrical
- 31. Fuels and Trends15 would need large fuel tanks. Liquid hydrogen may be better. The GM liquid-fueled HydroGen3 goes 250 miles on a tank about twice of size of a typical gasoline tank. The car must be driven every day to keep the liquid hydrogen chilled to –253°C or it boils off. The future prospects for a hydrogen economy were explored in “The Hydro Economy: Opportunities, Costs, Barriers, and R&D Needs.” This government-sponsored study was published in 2004 by the National Re- search Council. ExxonMobile, Ford, DuPont, the Natural Resources De- fense Council and others contributed to the report. It urged more stringent tailpipe-emission standards and more R&D funding for renewable energy and alternative fuels. It also recommended that the Department of Energy balance a portfolio of R&D efforts and explore alternatives. The hydrogen economy could arrive by the end of the next decade or closer to mid-century. But, interim technologies will play a critical role in the transition. One of the most important of these technologies is the gas- electric hybrid vehicle, which uses both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor. Electronic power controls allow switching almost seamlessly between these two power sources to optimize gas mileage and engine efficiency. U.S. sales of hybrid cars has been growing steadily, and the 2005 models included the first hybrid SUVs, Ford Escape, Toyota Highlander and Lexus RX400h. Researchers sponsored by the FreedomCAR program are investi- gating ultralight materials, which include plastics, fiberglass, titanium, magnesium, carbon fiber and developing lighter engines made from alu- minum and ceramic materials. These new materials can reduce power re- quirements and allow other fuels and fuel cells to become popular more quickly. The additional costs to manufacture vehicles that run on alterna- tive fuels has been a subject of much debate. Many believe that when all changes have been taken into account, the costs for near alcohol automo- biles will be very close to the cost of a gasoline automobile. FFVs are ex- pected to cost slightly more. EPA estimates show that, with the necessary adjustments, the sav- ings and costs will balance out to zero. The increased costs necessary for fuel tank adjustments and to compensate for cold-start problems could be balanced out by smaller, lighter engines that use near fuel these cars can have because of their increased efficiency. The case is different with dual fuel engines that could use com-
- 32. 16 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen pressed natural gas and a liquid fuel. Engines can be converted to run on compressed natural gas at a cost of several thousand dollars. A portfolio of energy-efficient technologies can help to release us from fossil fuels. If consumers had a wider and more diverse set of energy sources, the economy could be more robust and the world more stable. Applications for Hydrogen Fuel Cells Cars and light trucks produce about 20% of the carbon dioxide emit- ted in the U.S., while power plants burning fossil fuels are responsible for more than 40% of CO2 emissions. Fuel cells can be used to generate elec- tricity for homes and businesses. Plug Power, UTC, FuelCell Energy and Ballard Power Systems already produce stationary fuel cell generators. Plug Power has hundreds of systems in the U.S. including the first fuel- cell-powered McDonald’s. The installed fuel cells have a peak generating capacity of less than 100 megawatts, which is 0.01% of the almost one mil- lion megawatts of U.S. generating capacity. Hydrogen R&D President George W. Bush pledged to spend $1.2 billion on hydro- gen yet the Department of Energy spends more on nuclear and fossil fuel research than on hydrogen. The government’s FreedomCAR program, funds hydrogen R&D in conjunction with American car manufacturers. The program requires that the companies demonstrate a hydrogen-pow- ered car by 2008. The Center for Energy, Environmental and Economic Systems Anal- ysis at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago estimates that building a hydrogen economy would take more than $500 billion. Oil companies are not willing to invest in production and distribu- tion facilities for hydrogen fueling until there are enough hydrogen cars on the road. Automakers will not produce large numbers of hydrogen cars until drivers have somewhere to fill them up. The Department of Energy’s hydrogen-production research groups reports that a fourth to a third of all filling stations in the U.S. would be needed to offer hydrogen before fuel cells become viable as vehicle power. California has its Hydrogen Highway Project with 150 to 200 stations at a cost of about $500,000 each. These would be situated along the state’s major highways by 2010. There are over 100,000 filling stations in the U.S. Retrofitting just 25% of those with hydrogen fueling systems could cost more than $12.5 billion.
- 33. Fuels and Trends17 Iceland and Hydrogen Iceland’s first hydrogen fueling station is operating near Reykjavik. The hydrogen powers a small fleet of fuel cell buses and is produced on- site from electrolyzed tap water. The Iceland New Energy consortium in- cludes automakers, Royal Dutch/Shell and the Icelandic power company Norak Hydro. It plans to convert the rest of the nation to hydrogen. Almost 75% of Iceland’s electricity comes from geothermal and hy- droelectric power. This available clean energy allows Iceland to electro- lyze water with electricity from the national power grid. In the U.S. only about 15% of grid electricity comes from geothermal and hydroelectric sources, while 71% is generated from fossil fuels. Only 16 hydrogen fueling stations are planned to allow Icelanders to refuel fuel cell cars around the country. At almost 90 times the size of Ice- land, the U.S. could start with about 1,500 fueling stations. This assumes that the stations are placed properly to cover the entire U.S. with no over- lap. The stations would cost about $7.5B. Hydrogen Cars Volume production of fuel cell cars should reduce costs, but one De- partment of Energy projection with a production of 500,000 vehicles a year still has the cost too high. However, efforts continue to improve fuel cell technology and utilization which should reduce costs. The General Mo- tors fuel cell program aims at having a commercial fuel cell vehicle by 2010. A California company called HaveBlue sells a power system for sail- ing yachts with solar panels, a wind generator and a fuel cell. The solar panels provide 400 watts of power for the cabin systems and electrolyzer for producing hydrogen from salt or fresh water. The hydrogen is stored in six tanks in the keel. Up to 17 kilograms of hydrogen is stored in solid matrix metal hydrid. The tanks replace 3,000 pounds of lead ballast. The wind generator has an output of 90 watts under peak winds and starts producing power at 5 knots of wind. The fuel cell produces 10 kilowatts of electricity along with steam which is used to raise the tem- perature of the hydrogen storage tanks. A reverse-osmosis water system desalinates water for cabin use and a deionizing filter makes pure water for fuel cell use. Apotential problem with the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, which is the type being developed for automobiles is life span. Inter- nal combustion engines have an average life span of 15 years, or about 170,000 miles. Membrane deterioration can cause PEM fuel cells to fail
- 34. 18 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen after 2,000 hours or less than 100,000 miles. Ballard’s original PEM design has been the prototype for most auto- mobile development. This has been the basic design that is used to dem- onstrate fuel cell power in automobiles. But, it may not be the best archi- tecture and geometry for commercial automobiles. The present geometry may be keeping the price up. Commercial applications require a design that will allow economies of scale to push the price down. Hydrogen Production Nuclear power can produce hydrogen without emitting carbon di- oxide into the atmosphere. Electricity from a nuclear plant would electro- lyze water splitting H2O into hydrogen and oxygen. However that nuclear power can create long-term waste problems and has not been economi- cal. One study done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, concluded that hydrogen produced by electrolysis of water will depend on low cost nuclear power. Performing electrolysis with renewable energy, such as solar or wind power eliminates the pollution problems of fossil fuels and nuclear power. However, current renewable sources only provide a small fraction of the energy that is needed for a hydrogen fuel supply. From 1998 to 2003, the generating capacity of wind power increased 28% in the U.S. to about 6,500 megawatts, enough for less than 2 million homes. Wind is expected to provide about 6% of the nation’s power by 2020. The University of Warwick in England estimated that converting ev- ery vehicle in the U.S. to hydrogen power would require the electricity output of a million wind turbines enough to cover half of California. Solar panels would also require huge areas of land. Water may be another factor for hydrogen production, especially in the sunny regions most suitable for solar power. A study by the World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C. estimates that obtaining enough hydrogen with electrolysis would require over 4 trillion gallons of water yearly. This is about the flow over Niagara Falls every 90 days. Water con- sumption in the U.S. could increase by about 10%. Hydrogen Leakage Hydrogen gas is odorless and colorless, and it burns almost invis- ibly. A fire may not be detected until it is too late. It does not take much to set off compressed hydrogen gas. A cell phone may provide enough of a
- 35. Fuels and Trends19 static discharge to ignite hydrogen. An accident may not cause an explosion, since carbon fiber reinforced hydrogen tanks are almost indestructible. But, there is always the danger of leaks in fuel cells, refineries, pipelines and fueling stations. Hydrogen is a gas, while most of our other fuels are liquids. A high-pressure gas or cryogenic liquid hydrogen fuel distribution would be much different. Hydrogen is such a small molecule that it tends to leak through the finest of openings. A leaky infrastructure could affect the atmosphere. Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, compared statistics for accidental industrial hydrogen and natural gas leakage. These were estimated at 10 to 20% of total volume. Extending these estimates to an economy that runs on hydrogen could result in four to eight times as much hydrogen in the atmosphere. The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renew- able Energy thinks these estimates are much too high, but whatever the volume, more hydrogen in the atmosphere will then combine with oxy- gen to form water vapor, creating more clouds. The increased cloud cover could affect the weather and global warming. Giant molecular cloud formations, consisting almost entirely of hy- drogen, are the most massive objects within galaxies. Gravity eventually causes the hydrogen to compress until it fuses into heavier elements. Without the energy emitted by the sun, life as we know it could not exist. We know that the primary fuel for the sun and other stars is hydro- gen. Although the force that causes the sun and other stars to burn is grav- ity, the fuel is hydrogen. Our sun consumes about 600 million tons of hydrogen every second. As this hydrogen is fused into helium, photons of electromagnetic energy are released and eventually find there way through the earth’s atmosphere as solar energy. This solar energy is the aftermath of nuclear fusion, while nuclear fission occurs in commercial nuclear reactors. Without this energy there would be no life, there would be no fossil fuels or wind or elements like uranium. If there is a need to make a transition from nonrenewable fossil fuel, then we should consider the development of technologies that can use the available energy of the sun. It is rational to suppose that solar energy will eventually serve as a primary energy source. Protons and electrons are the basic components of the hydrogen atom and these atoms are the basic building blocks of the other 91 elements that
- 36. 20 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen occur naturally. The atomic number of an atom equals the number of pro- tons, hydrogen nuclei, or electrons of the element. Since hydrogen has one proton and one electron, it has an atomic number of 1. Carbon has six protons and six electrons and an atomic num- ber of 6. The proton’s positive electrical charge and the electron’s negative charge have a natural attraction for each other. The elements were probably formed during the first few seconds of the origin of the universe following the big bang theory which took place some 15 billion years ago. Gravity is the basic universal force that causes every particle of matter to be attracted to every other particle. Hydrogen atoms and other subatomic particles would have continued to expand away from each other from the force of the big bang, but gravity caused these particles to cluster in large masses. As the mass increased, the force of gravity increased. Eventually, the force and pressure became great enough for the in- terstellar clouds of hydrogen to collapse causing the hydrogen and other particles to collide. The collisions result in high enough temperatures of 45 million degrees Fahrenheit and pressures to fuse the hydrogen into he- lium which is the birth of a star. As a star feeds on this supply of hydrogen, four hydrogen nuclei are fused into one heavier helium nucleus. The heavier helium atoms form a dense, hot core. When the star has consumed most of its hydrogen, it begins to burn or fuse the helium, con- verting it to carbon and then to oxygen. The more massive a star is, the higher the central temperatures and pressures are in the later stages. When the helium is consumed, the star fuses the carbon and oxygen into heavier atoms of neon, magnesium, sili- con and even silver and gold. In this way, all the elements of the earth except hydrogen and some helium were formed billions of years ago in stars. As we attempt to use solar energy to replace the use of fossil and nu- clear fuels, this relationship between solar energy and hydrogen returns and one may not effectively work without the other. Hydrogen utilization requires some type of a primary energy input to separate it from the other atoms of oxygen or carbon. Solar energy will not be able to replace fossil or nuclear-fueled energy systems unless it can be efficiently stored, trans- ported and used as a combustion fuel in vehicles and power plants. Water Former Hydrogen was discovered in 1766 when the English chemist Henry Cavendish observed what he called an inflammable air rising from a zinc-
- 37. Fuels and Trends21 sulfuric acid mixture. It was identified and named in the 18th century by Antoine Lavoisier, who demonstrated that this inflammable air would burn in air to form water. He identified it as a true element, and called it hydrogen, which is Greek for water former. Hydrogen is the simplest, lightest and most abundant of the 92 ele- ments in the universe. Making up over 90% of the universe and 60% of the human body. As the most basic element, it can never be exhausted since it recycles in a relatively short time. If hydrogen was made readily available for electric power generation instead of fossil fuels, electricity costs could be reduced. Hydrogen can be burned in a combustion chamber instead of a con- ventional boiler, so high-pressure superheated steam can be generated and fed directly into a turbine. This could cut the capital cost of a power plant by one half. When hydrogen is burned, essentially no pollution is generated. Ex- pensive pollution control systems, which can be almost one third of the capital costs of conventional fossil fuel power plants are not required. This should also allow plants to be located closer to residential and commercial loads, reducing power transmission costs and line losses. Since hydrogen burns cleanly and reacts completely with oxygen to produce water vapor, this makes a more desirable fuel than fossil fuels for essentially all industrial processes. For example, the direct reduction of iron or copper ores could be done with hydrogen rather than smelting by coal or oil in a blast furnace. Hydrogen can be used with conventional vented burners as well as unvented burners. This would allow utilization of almost all of the 30 to 40% of the combustion energy of conventional burners that is lost as vented heat and combustion by-products. Universal Fuel Hydrogen is different than other energy options like oil, coal, nuclear or solar. Solar technology is renewable, modular and generally pollution free, but it has some disadvantages, such as not always being available at the right time. Hydrogen is a primary chemical feedstock in the production of fuels including gasoline, lubricants, fertilizers, plastics, paints, detergents, elec- tronics and pharmaceutical products. It is also an excellent metallurgical refining agent and an important food preservative. Hydrogen can be extracted from a range of sources since it is in al- most everything, from biological tissue and DNA, to petroleum, gasoline,
- 38. 22 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen paper, human waste and water. It can be generated from nuclear plants, solar plants, wind plants, ocean thermal power plants or green plants. Hydrogen and electricity are complementary and one can be con- verted into the other. Hydrogen can be viewed as a type of energy cur- rency that does not vary in quality depending on origin or location. A molecule of hydrogen made by the electrolysis of water is the same as hydrogen manufactured from green plant biomass, paper, coal gasifica- tion or natural gas. Primary and Secondary Energy Sources Hydrogen is often called a secondary energy carrier, instead of a pri- mary energy source. This is because energy must be used to extract the hydrogen from water, natural gas, or other compound that contains the hydrogen. This classification is not exact since it assumes solar, coal, oil or nuclear are primary energy sources, meaning that energy is not needed to obtain them. However, finding, extracting and delivering these so-called primary energy sources requires energy and major investments before they can be utilized. Coal and natural gas come closer to true primary energy sources since they can be burned directly with little or no refining, but energy is still needed to extract these resources and deliver them where the energy is needed. Even when extensive drilling for oil is not required from shal- low wells or pools, energy must still be used for pumping and refining. Many environmental problems can result from finding, transport- ing and burning fossil fuels. But, when hydrogen is used as a fuel, its by- product is essentially water vapor. When hydrogen is burned in air, which contains nitrogen, nitrogen oxides can be formed as they are in gasoline engines. These oxides can almost be eliminated in hydrogen engines by lowering the combustion temperature of the engine. Some tests have shown that the air coming out of a hydrogen fueled engine is cleaner than the air entering the engine. Acid rain, ozone deple- tion and carbon dioxide accumulations could be greatly reduced by the use of hydrogen. Hydrogen Storage Hydrogen can be stored as a gas, liquid, or as a part of a solid metal, polymer or liquid hydrid. Studies have indicated that large-scale storage could take place with gaseous hydrogen underground in aquifers, deplet- ed petroleum or natural gas reservoirs or man made caverns from mining
- 39. Fuels and Trends23 operations. One of the obstacles in using hydrogen as an automotive fuel is stor- ing it safely and efficiently on board vehicles. Although it is possible to store hydrogen as a high pressure gas in steel containers, disadvantages exist because of the weight of the storage containers and the safety hazard in the event of an accident. Other methods of storage for hydrogen include solid or liquid hydrids, low temperature cryogenic liquids, or a combina- tion of the two. Hydrogen Hydrids Hydrid materials will absorb hydrogen like a sponge, and then release it when heated. There are hundreds of hydrid materials. The first hydrid systems used in automotive vehicles consisted of metal particles of iron and titanium that were developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory. These were tested by Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart, Germany. These early hydrid sys- tems were shown to be safe for storing hydrogen in automobiles, but they are almost 5 times heavier than liquid hydrogen storage systems. Other hydrid systems do not have such weight penalties and include magnesium nickel alloys, non-metallic polymers, or liquid hydrid systems that use engine heat to disassociate fuels like methanol into a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. In an iron titanium hydrid system, for a range of 300 miles (480 ki- lometers), the tank could weigh about 5,600 pounds (2,520 kilograms). A liquid hydrogen tank for this range would weigh about 300 pounds (136 kilograms), a comparable gasoline tank would weigh about 140 pounds (63 kilograms). An electric vehicle with a similar range and lead acid batteries would have a battery weight of about 6,500 pounds (2,925 kilograms). More effi- cient battery systems are becoming available but the most efficient electric vehicles of the future may be energized by fuel cell systems that convert hydrogen and oxygen directly into electricity. These systems would de- pend on having hydrogen fuel more readily available. Liquid Hydrogen When hydrogen gas is liquefied, it needs to be cooled to –421.6° Fahrenheit, making liquid hydrogen a cryogenic fuel. Cryogenics is the study of low temperature physics. A beaker of liquid hydrogen at room temperature will boil as if it was on a hot stove. If the beaker of liquid hydrogen is spilled on the floor, it is vaporized and dissipates in a few
- 40. 24 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen seconds. If liquid hydrogen is poured on the hand, it would feel cool to the touch as it slides through the fingers. This is due to the thermal barrier that is provided by the skin. But, place a finger in a vessel containing liquid hydrogen and severe injury will occur in seconds because of the extremely cold temperature. This hydrogen fuel on board a vehicle would allow the use of a small, efficient fuel cell Stirling engine cryocooler system to pro- vide air conditioning. In most accidents, the most serious concern would be a fuel fed fire or explosion. In this case, liquid hydrogen is generally considered to be a preferred fuel. Liquid hydrogen is a fuel option that could be utilized on a large scale since it most resembles gasoline in terms of space and weight. Al- though a liquid hydrogen storage tank for a vehicle could weigh about five times heavier in dry weight than a 30-pound gasoline tank, in vehicles that carry greater volumes of fuel, such as trucks or trains or aircraft, the difference in tank weight could be more than offset by the difference in fuel weight. Studies by Lockheed Aircraft have shown that a large com- mercial aircraft could have its overall takeoff weight reduced by as much as 40% if liquid hydrogen were used instead of aviation fuel. Liquid hy- drogen has the lowest weight per unit of energy, with relatively simple supply logistics with normal refuel times and is generally safer than gaso- line in accidents. Cryogenic fuels like liquid hydrogen are more difficult to handle and substantially more difficult to store compared to hydrocarbon fuels like gasoline or aviation kerosene. Even with highly-insulated double-walled, vacuum-jacketed storage tanks liquid hydrogen can evaporate at a rate of almost 9% per day. This evaporation increases the pressure on the tank wall and the gas- eous hydrogen must be vented to the atmosphere to keep the tank from rupturing. During tests at the Los Alamos National Laboratory a liquid hydrogen fueled vehicle tank of liquid hydrogen evaporated away in about 10 days. This venting of the fuel must be done to keep a fuel tank full when refueling. In an enclosed space, the vented hydrogen also presents a risk because of hydrogen’s wide flammability limits. Hydrogen explosions are rare, but any combustible gas in an enclosed space can be a safety prob- lem. One solution is to burn off the escaping hydrogen and use this energy for heating or cooling. It can also be used to power a fuel cell. Stationary liquid hydrogen storage tanks that are used in laborato-
- 41. Fuels and Trends25 ries are able to keep the hydrogen in a liquid state for several months. It should be possible to build vehicular storage tanks that would maintain hydrogen in a liquid state for several weeks. The small quantity of hy- drogen evaporating from such tanks could also be sent to a fuel cell that would use the hydrogen to generate electricity. It is also possible to vent the vaporized hydrogen gas to an auxiliary hydrid system for storage. The double walled vacuum jacketed storage tanks and piping that are required for liquid hydrogen are expensive compared to conventional fuel storage tanks. A gasoline tank might cost about $150, while a liquid hydrogen storage tank could cost a few thousand dollars. Because of the energy density of liquid hydrogen, it requires a fuel tank that is three to four times as large in volume as required for gasoline or aviation fuel. Liquid hydrogen fuel systems would require changes in the energy infrastructure and end use systems, such as stoves, engines and fueling systems. While disadvantages of liquid hydrogen are substantial, they can be minimized. A few thousand dollars for a liquid hydrogen storage tank seems high, but consider that the emissions control equipment required on gasoline fueled engines adds much to the cost of current vehicles. As production volumes of cryogenic storage tanks increase, the cost of cryo- genic tanks are expected to drop below $1,000. Although cryogenic fuels are difficult to handle, a self-service liquid hydrogen pumping station was built decades ago at Los Alamos National Laboratory. It was shown to be feasible for refueling vehicles over an ex- tended period of time without any major difficulties. While the increased costs associated with making a changeover to hydrogen energy systems seem high, remember that the environmental costs of finding, transporting and burning fossil fuels are not calculated in the current energy pricing structure. The costs of atmospheric pollu- tion are billions of dollars in additional health care costs, forests and crop losses and the corrosion of buildings and other structures. Hydrogen Engines Many engineering groups in the U.S., Germany, Japan, France and other countries are involved in hydrogen research and development. Hy- drogen fueled engines tend to be more energy efficient because of their complete combustion. Gasoline and diesel engines form carbon deposits and acids that erode the interior surfaces of the engine and contaminate the engine oil. This increases wear and corrosion of the bearing surfaces. Since hydrogen engines produce no carbon deposits or acids, they should
- 42. 26 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen require far less maintenance. Hydrogen can also be used in more efficient Stirling cycle engines. In the 1920s, a German engineer, Rudolf Erren, began optimizing in- ternal combustion engines to use hydrogen. Erren modified many trucks and buses. Acaptured German submarine in World War II had a hydrogen engine and hydrogen powered torpedoes that were designed and patent- ed by Erren. The first hydrogen automobile in the U.S. was a Model A Ford truck, modified in 1966 by Roger Billings while he was a student in high school. A few years later as a student at Brigham Young University, he won a 1972 Urban Vehicle Design Contest with a hydrogen Volkswagen. Billings established Billings Energy Corporation in Provo, Utah and went on to modify a wide range of vehicles, including a Winnebago motor home that had the engine fueled by hydrogen as well as the generator and appli- ances. Billings has also constructed a hydrogen home which had the ap- pliances modified to operate on hydrogen. Most of these vehicles are dual fueled and run on hydrogen or gaso- line. The driver is able to change from hydrogen to gasoline while driving with a switch from the vehicle. Special burner heads have been used by the Tappan Company for hydrogen combustion in stoves. Since hydrogen burns with an invisible flame, Tappan used a steel wool catalyst that rests on the burner head. The stainless steel mesh glows when heated and resembles an electric range surface when the burner is on. Billings also adapted a Coleman Stove for hydrogen. A small hydrogen storage tank with iron-titanium metal hy- drids was used. Hydrogen research programs were also initiated in the U.S.Air Force, Navy and the Army in the 1940s when fuel supplies were a concern. After World War II and prior to the Arab oil embargo in 1973, oil was selling for less than $3 per barrel. The fuel supply problem was not a concern. Dur- ing the Arab oil embargo of 1973, there were long gas lines in the U.S. and the price of oil quadrupled. This started renewed research into alternative energy supplies including solar power. Hydrogen Safety Many believe that hydrogen is particularly dangerous. There are some that think hydrogen energy is related to the hydrogen bomb. But, hydrogen used as a fuel involves a simple chemical reaction involving the transfer of electrons to produce an electric current while a hydrogen bomb
- 43. Fuels and Trends27 requires a high temperature nuclear fusion reaction similar to that which occurs in our sun and other stars. Others recall that the German airship the Hindenburg used hydrogen when it burst into fire in 1937. While 35 people lost their lives another 62 others survived. Before its crash in 1937, the Hindenburg had successfully completed 10 round trips between the U.S. and Europe. Its sister ship, the Graf Zeppelin, made regular scheduled transatlantic crossings from 1928 to 1939 with no accidents. There were 161 rigid airships that flew between 1897 and 1940, almost all of these used hydrogen. Only 20 were destroyed by fires. Of these 20, seventeen were lost in military action that in many cases the fires resulted from enemy fire during World War I. Hydrogen has a wider range of flammability when compared to gasoline. A mixture as low as 4% hydrogen in air, or as high as 74% will burn, while the fuel to air ratios for gasoline only range from 1 to 7.6%. It also takes very little energy to ignite a hydrogen flame, about 20 micro- joules, compared to gasoline which requires 240 micro-joules. However, these hazardous characteristics are reduced by the fact that as the lightest of all elements, hydrogen has a very small specific gravity. Diffusion Rate Since the diffusion rate of a gas is inversely proportional to the square root of its specific gravity, the period of time in which hydrogen and oxy- gen are in a combustible mixture is much shorter than other hydrocarbon fuels. The lighter the element is, the more rapidly it disperses when it is released in the atmosphere. In a crash or accident where hydrogen is released, it rapidly dispers- es up and away from the ground and any combustible material within the area. Gasoline and other hydrocarbon fuels are heavier since the hydrogen is bonded to carbon which is a much heavier element. When hydrocarbon fuels vaporize, their gases tend to sink rather than rise into the atmosphere. This allows burning gasoline to cover ob- jects and burn them. In most accidents, hydrogen would be a more desir- able fuel. On March 27, 1977, two fully-loaded Boeing 747 commercial aircraft crashed into each other on a foggy runway in the Canary Islands. This disaster was then the worst in aviation history and took 583 lives. An in- vestigation concluded most of the deaths in the Canary Islands accident resulted from the aviation fuel fire that lasted for more than 10 hours. G. Daniel Brewer, who was the hydrogen program manager for Lockheed,
- 44. 28 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen stated that if both aircraft had been using liquid hydrogen fuel instead of kerosene, hundreds of lives would have been saved. He listed a number of reasons. The liquid hydrogen would not react with oxygen and burn until it first vaporized into a gas. As it evaporated, it would have dissipated rap- idly as it was released in the open air. This means that the fuel fed portion of the fire would have only lasted for several minutes instead of hours. The hydrogen fire would have been confined to a relatively small area because the liquid hydrogen would rapidly vaporize and disperse into the air, burning upward, instead of spreading like aviation fuel. The heat radiated from the hydrogen fire would be considerably less than that generated by a hydrocarbon fire and only objects immediately adjacent to the flames would be affected. A hydrogen fire produces no smoke or toxic fumes, which in many cases is the cause of death in fires. In liquid hydrogen fuel storage tanks, the gaseous hydrogen that va- porizes fills the empty volume inside the tanks. This hydrogen is not com- bustible since no oxygen is present. In gasoline or other hydrocarbon fuel tanks, air fills the empty volume of the tanks and combines with vapors from the fuel to create a combustible mixture. On September 11, 2001, two fully-loaded Boeing 747 commercial air- craft were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center. Over 3,000 were killed as the fires inside the twin towers caused the building to col- lapse. If hydrogen was used as the fuel the damage would have been con- fined to the immediate crash sites, the buildings would probably be still standing and many lives would have been spared. A hydrogen fueled vehicle could be fueled by vacuum jacketed liq- uid hydrogen storage tanks. Vacuum jacketed cryogenic fuel lines carry the liquid hydrogen from the storage tanks. One of the two lines, taps off the gaseous hydrogen displaced from the fuel tank by the incoming liquid hydrogen for returning to the liquefaction plant. The studies by Lockheed found that along with hydrogen’s safety characteristics, liquid hydrogen fueled aircraft would be lighter, quieter, with smaller wing areas and could use shorter runways. Pollution would be much less and the range of an aircraft could be almost doubled, even though the takeoff weight remain about the same. Hydrogen Explosions The Hindenburg did not explode, it caught fire. The flames spread rapidly and the airship sank to the ground. The fire was started when the
- 45. Fuels and Trends29 airship was venting some of its hydrogen, to get closer to the ground, dur- ing an electrical thunderstorm. The airship was also moored to the ground by a steel cable, which acts as an antenna for electrical discharges. Hydrogen explosions can be powerful when they occur, but they are rare. Hydrogen must be in a confined space for an explosion to occur. In the open it is difficult to cause a hydrogen explosion without using heavy blasting caps. In 1974, NASA examined 96 accidents or incidents involving hydro- gen. At this time, NASA tanker trailers had moved more than 16 million gallons of liquid hydrogen for the Apollo-Saturn program. There were five highway accidents that involved extensive damage to the liquid hydrogen transport vehicles. If gasoline or aviation fuel had been used, a spectacular fire would have resulted, but none of these accidents caused a hydrogen explosion or fire. At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, armor-piercing incendiary and fragment simulator bullets were fired into aluminum storage tanks con- taining both kerosene and liquid hydrogen. The test results indicated that the liquid hydrogen was safer than conventional aviation kerosene. Other tests have involved simulated lightning strikes, with a 6-mil- lion volt generator that fired electrical arcs into the liquid hydrogen con- tainers. None of these tests caused the liquid hydrogen to explode. Fires did occur from the simulated lightning strikes, but the fires were less se- vere even though the total heat content of the hydrogen was twice that of kerosene. These tests indicated that liquid hydrogen would be safer than fossil fuels in combat where a fuel tank could be penetrated. A well publicized event where explosive mixtures of hydrogen and oxygen were present in a confined space occurred during the events in 1979 at the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear facility in Pennsylvania. Nu- clear reactors operate at very high temperatures. To prevent their six to eight inch thick steel reactor vessels from melting, large amounts of cool- ing water are continuously circulated in and around the reactor vessel. An average commercial-sized reactor requires about 350,000 gallons of water per minute. During the process of nuclear fission, the center of the uranium fuel pellets in the fuel rods can reach 5,000°F. The cooling water keeps the surface temperature of the pellets down to about 600°. If the cir- culating water is not present, in 30 seconds the temperatures in the reactor vessel can be over 5,000°. This temperature is high enough to melt steel and thermochemically split any water present into an explosive mixture of hydrogen and oxygen. This is what happened at TMI. If a spark had ignited
- 46. 30 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen the hydrogen gas bubble that drifted to the top of the containment building, the resulting explosion could have fractured the walls. This would have resulted in the release of large amounts of radiation at ground level. The hydrogen gas bubble was vented, since as long as it remained in the confined space of the containment building, the potential for detona- tion existed. A hydrogen gas bubble developing from a nuclear reactor accident is a highly unusual event and is an example of the particular environment that is required for hydrogen to explode. NASA and Hydrogen Dr. Warner Von Braun was a German rocket engineer who helped to develop the V-2 rockets in World War II. He was involved in the first ef- forts to use liquid hydrogen as a rocket fuel. After the war, Von Braun had a major part in the U.S. space program, which evolved into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Since liquid hydrogen has the greatest energy content per unit weight of any fuel, NASA en- gineers used liquid hydrogen as the primary fuel for the Saturn 5 moon rockets and the Space Shuttle. NASA also funded research by several aerospace firms, including Lockheed and Boeing, to determine if liquid hydrogen could be practical for commercial aircraft and what modifications would be needed for air- ports and fueling systems. The Space Shuttle’s main liquid hydrogen-oxygen tank is the largest of the three external tanks. The two smaller boosters use a solid aluminum based fuel. NASA has been using large quantities of gaseous and liquid hydro- gen for many years, which required developing the necessary pipelines, storage tanks, barges and transport vehicles. As a result of this experience, NASA has concluded that hydrogen can be as safe or in some ways safer, than gasoline or conventional aviation fuels. NASA engineers originally wanted to develop a reusable manned liquid hydrogen-fueled launch vehicle for the space shuttle program, but Congress would not vote for the additional funds that would be needed. Less expensive solid rocket boosters were used, which turned into a trag- edy when one of the seals of the solid rocket boosters failed during a cold weather launch. This caused the explosion of the Challenger shuttle in 1986 and the loss of its entire crew, including the first teacher on a space- flight.
- 47. Fuels and Trends31 Today’s Hydrogen Most of the hydrogen that is manufactured for industry is made by reacting natural gas with high temperature steam, to separate the hydro- gen from the carbon. But, manufacturing hydrogen from fossil fuel re- sources does not solve the fossil fuel depletion problem. Making hydrogen from water through electrolysis was initially pro- moted by nuclear engineers who thought that nuclear generated power would be inexpensive enough to make hydrogen. References Behar, Michael, “Warning: the Hydrogen Economy May Be More Distant Than It Appears,” Popular Science, Volume 266 Number 1, January 2005, pp. 65-68. Braun, Harry, The Phoenix Project: An Energy Transition to Renewable Re- sources, Research Analysts: Phoenix, AZ, 1990. Carless, Jennifer, Renewable Energy, Walker and Company: New York, 1993. Cothran, Helen, Book Editor, Global Resources: Opposing Viewpoints, Green- haven Press,: San Diego, CA, 2003. Romm, Joseph J., The Hype About Hydrogen, Island Press: Washington, Covelo, London, 2004.
- 49. 33 CHAPTER 2 THE EVOLUTIONOF OIL In 1808 a scientific expedition from the Imperial Academy of Scienc- es of St. Petersburg declared that petroleum is a mineral of no usefulness. Today, about 20 billion barrels are utilized annually for a number of pur- poses. Petroleum and its derivatives have been put to various uses for a long time. The soil of the Middle East has always been known to be im- pregnated with oil, and in Chaldea, Egypt and China the distillation of pe- troleum was familiar several thousands of years ago. It was used in light- ing, in the treatment of many ailments, and for purposes of war. Marco Polo writes of petroleum in his voyage across Asia. The word petroleum did not exist until the Renaissance. Rock-oil, mineral oil, or naphtha, were the names given to the mineral before that time. Petroleum appears in a sixteenth, century book, as an oil which oozes out of rocks on the estate of the Duke of Ferrara, near Modena. An engrav- ing with the text shows a gushing spring and people filling vessels from it. This book also explains some of the uses of petroleum. The oil was used to cleanse an ulceration and heal old wounds. It was also used as balm for burns and bruises. The shell of a filbert or hazelnut was filled with a little petroleum and downed with a goblet of warm beer for colds or internal problems. Dog bites and stings by a poisonous animal were treated by rubbing the wound or bite with petroleum. Petroleum was used for many ills including coughs, bronchitis, pul- monary congestion, cramp, gout, rheumatism and eye strain. Modena petroleum was sold as far away as France, where it competed with local oils. Rock oil, mineral oil, or the liquid ore as it was called, had a well-es- tablished reputation, as a therapeutic product in the Middle Ages and in the succeeding centuries. Only recently did it come to be utilized as a motor fuel. After its origin in early European and Asian annals it became an essen- tially American product before assuming its current world importance.
- 50. 34 Alternative Fuels—TheFuture of Hydrogen In the 18th century, the story of American petroleum begins with the first contacts between settlers and Indians. Black oil collected from the surface of the marshes was traded for glass beads and alcohol. Colonists used the petroleum to grease the axles of wagons, heal the wounds of horses, and to treat rheumatism and injuries. About 1800 drysalters began selling the elixir of life. Most shallow wells in Pennsylvania would fill with salt water covered with an oily film. A salt merchant from Pittsburgh decided to make a business of selling this as an elixir water in its natural state, undiluted, in bottles with labels that praised its potential virtues. In 1840 a chemist from Yale University distilled the contents of a bottle. The extract was found to be light and inflammable, shedding a bril- liant light. He had rediscovered the lamp oil that had been used by the peoples of antiquity. The discovery came at a critical time. The whale oil which was used for lighting was becoming scarce. Oil sources for lamps were developed from this well water, but by 1859 existing sources were no longer sufficient to meet the increasing demand. At this time a New York lawyer, George H. Bissell, decided to exploit this mineral source. Along with James M. Townsend, a banker from New Haven, and Benjamin Silliman, a chemistry and geology professor at Yale University, he started the Pennsylvania Oil Company. In Titusville, Pennsylvania, the group rented 125 acres of ground and one of the shareholders of the Company, Edwin L. Drake, sank the first well. Drake was an ex-railroad conductor who just happened to select the right spot to drill. At a depth of 69-1/2 feet he struck a large pool. On the advice of an old well-digger he sank an iron pipe into the ground. A small steam-engine was moved in and a wooden scaffolding installed with a chain and vertical ram. Drilling started in June 1859 and by the 27th of August oil appeared. During the next week, it flowed out at the rate of ten barrels a day. This started a stampede and thousands of wells were drilled in Penn- sylvania in the next few months. The region was quickly parceled out into many plots. The speculators dug at random. Distillers set themselves up alongside the wells and distilled the crude oil in primitive stills for the valuable lamp oil. Gas and gasoline were treated as useless. Production rose quickly. In the State of Pennsylvania it jumped from 2,000 barrels in 1860 to 3 million in 1862. The search soon extended into neighboring states. By the end of the century oil was being produced in Ohio, West Virginia, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, Cali-
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- 52. fear of havinginfected himself, that he lost both appetite and sleep, felt a horror of all liquids and a choking sensation in the throat when he forced himself to drink. For three days he wandered through the streets like one desperate. His colleagues and friends, believing it to be the effect of imagination, made every effort to convince him of the fact, and by keeping him with them, they succeeded in ridding him of the ill-omened thought, and he recovered. It is an incomprehensible phenomenon, but yet admitted by all medical writers, that fear may of itself give rise to phenomena exactly resembling those of hydrophobic infection. A celebrated physician, Bosquillon, believed that fear alone was the cause of hydrophobia and not the bite or the saliva of the dog. Dubois tells of two brothers who were bitten by a mad dog. One had to leave at once for America, and thought no more about it. When he returned twenty years afterwards, he heard through some thoughtless person that his brother had died of hydrophobia, and was so agitated by the news that he fell ill and died, showing all the symptoms of rabies. Medical works are full of instances of persons bitten by dogs, who only developed hydrophobic symptoms after being incautiously told that the dog was mad. It is often impossible even for the physician to distinguish hypochondriac hydrophobia from true rabies; even the manner of death is no guide, for tetanic contractions of the respiratory organs appear also in hypochondriac hydrophobia. The physician can often save these patients, if he knows how to exert authority and to make use of means to convince the sufferer that he has nothing to fear. The story is told of a physician who was called to a female patient infected with actual rabies, after his colleagues had declared that she was incurable. He examined her attentively, then kissed her on the mouth to prove to her that she was not hydrophobic. The patient recovered.
- 53. More especially duringepidemics does fear play havoc. From the most remote antiquity physicians have observed that the timid die more easily. Giorgio Baglivi, in his celebrated book 'Praxis Medica,’[34] describing the effects of an earthquake which took place in Rome in 1703, says that although not a single person was killed, several died of fever through fear, many women miscarried, and all bedridden invalids grew worse. Larrey had already noticed that on the fields of battle and in the lazarets soldiers belonging to the conquered army succumbed more easily to their wounds, while the victors more speedily recovered. This was confirmed in the war of 1870. Fear alone may develop all the symptoms of a pestilential malady, even when the epidemic causes are totally wanting. Just recently, in one of his works on hysteria and hypochondria, Jolly relates the case of a patient of his, a lady in Strasburg, who received the news of the death of a relative from cholera in a distant country. She was very much frightened, and imagined that she herself was attacked by it. She lost her appetite and suffered for eight days from violent attacks of diarrhœa, and only after convincing her that there was not a single case of cholera in Strasburg, and that she was a prey to her own imagination, was it possible to allay the serious intestinal disturbances produced by fear. As soon as a report of cholera spreads through a town, all hypochondriacs feel worse. Physicians who have described the dreadful spectacle of the lazarets during epidemics, mention the great number who die victims to fear, in many of whom the symptoms of the plague had not even appeared. Some have died suddenly from the fear of being taken to the lazaret, others have committed suicide, as we are told the cowardly have been seen to do in battle, who, terrified at the sight of death, or weary of suffering, have placed their chin on the muzzle of their gun and blown out their brains. What horror we should feel could we read year by year the story of those who have succumbed to nostalgia, grief, humiliation; in misery, winter-cold, or want of food! Of men who have died hopelessly in
- 54. the snow orlost in the sands of the desert, of others who have been shipwrecked and thrown upon the rocks, and whom a little courage might have saved; of men who have languished in gloomy prisons, in lonely monasteries or in exile, and who have died rather of mental than of bodily suffering. III Maladies which have their origin in fear must be distinguished from those morbid conditions which are suddenly aggravated by the effect of a strong emotion. There are many who, when they receive a fright, become for the first time aware of some infirmity, which then increases so rapidly as to endanger their life. Lamarre tells the following fact.[35] A lady, seventy-five years of age, had suffered for about ten years from defective action of the valves of the heart without this disease having hindered her housewifely activity. Dr. Lamarre, who was her physician from 1865 to 1870, was called a few times to her. The hypertrophy of the heart sufficiently counterbalanced the defect of the valves, and the pulse was regular. When the Franco-Prussian war broke out in 1870, her sons agreed to keep her in ignorance of it, lest she should be afraid, she having already witnessed the plundering of her father’s house by the Prussians in 1815. They succeeded easily in keeping all news of national disasters from her, for they lived isolated in the country, and their mother read no newspapers. On September 4, 1870, she suddenly heard of the defeats of the French, and of the march of the German army upon Paris. It was such a terrible shock to her that her face became livid, and she scarcely had the strength to cry, as she pressed her hand to her heart, 'I am suffocating—I am suffocating!’ Three-quarters of an hour later she died in her sons’ arms.
- 55. The movements whichshe made with hands and face till the last moment, and the great irregularity of the pulse, caused Dr. Lamarre to abandon the idea of apoplexy, and accept as the cause of decease a nervous perturbation of the heart brought on by violent mental agitation. Pinel, one of the greatest celebrities in the domain of mental diseases, always began the examination of a patient by asking him whether he had not had some fright or some great vexation. In the study of every nervous malady great importance must always be attributed to the investigation of the moral causes. The vivid impression of a strong emotion may produce the same effects as a blow on the head or some physical shock. There are men who, through fear, have lost consciousness, sight, or speech; others, still more sensitive, have remained for a long time paralytic, unable to move legs or arms, and have lost all sensibility. Some remain for a long time sleepless, others fall into a sort of exaltation resembling the outbreak of mental disease, many lose their appetite, or are afflicted with articular diseases, and in some the nervous system suffers such a shock as to cause violent fever. Dr. Kohts, in his account of the maladies caused by fright during the siege of Strasburg in 1870, gives a minute description of the cases of paralysis agitans and of convulsions which he observed. The tremor and singing in the ears arose suddenly, often lasting for months, and even for life in very nervous persons, as is also the case in catalepsy, paralysis, and aphasy. Leyden considers fright as one cause of myelitis. Likewise, in sclerosis of the arteries, cardiac hypertrophy, fright may produce hemiplegy. Berger instances two cases of perfectly healthy persons who, immediately after a fright, were attacked by paraplegy, with accompanying insensibility, without any serious anatomical injury, for the phenomena rapidly disappeared. It is often said, and with good reason, that children should not be allowed to witness an epileptic fit, for the fright and emotion which they suffer may prove dangerous, causing later a similar attack in
- 56. themselves. However difficultit may be to comprehend such a thing, it is yet admitted by all. Quite recently Eulenburg and Berger saw two old men, the one seventy, the other sixty-five years of age, who had an epileptic fit immediately after such a fright, although they had never had one before, nor were they predisposed to it. Romberg gives an instance of a boy, ten years old, who was frightened in the morning by a dog, and in the evening had an attack of St. Vitus’s dance. One of the most moving instances I have read about the influence of fear on the organism is in the description of the voyage of a sailing ship, so storm-tossed that one wonders how it could withstand the hurricanes which burst upon it. When scurvy broke out on board, the doctor noticed that the disease increased whenever the fear gained ground that land might still be far off. In every fresh tempest several died, and others were seized with the malady; and when at length the captain died, in whom all had great faith, the number of patients became five times greater. IV The passions have been divided by physicians into the exciting and the depressing. This distinction cannot, I think, be maintained at the present day, for we need only think of the effects we see produced by fear to be convinced that this emotion, which may at first appear exciting, becomes instead depressing in its paroxysms. The same may be said of narcotics and depressive remedies, which, in small doses, excite, but in larger doses depress. Some phenomena, such as the growing grey of the hair, the immediate transmission of a nervous malady from the mother to the fœtus under the influence of fright, the possible death of sucklings a few hours after the mother has suffered great fear, although the infant was not present—all these are incomprehensible phenomena which we only admit because trustworthy observers and physicians affirm that they have witnessed them.
- 57. Michea, a celebratedphysician, one of the most profound in knowledge of mental diseases, used to write insulting anonymous letters to some of his patients in order to cure them, and, he assures, with good result in some hypochondriacal cases. The mind may be drawn off from a fixed idea by preoccupying it with some danger. Physicians have sometimes had recourse in hysterical cases to threats or a sudden fright to check dangerous symptoms when all other remedies have proved useless. Amann tells of an hysterical patient who suffered from tetanic convulsions and trances, and whose father treated her with blows and cured her. It is a well-known fact that fear sobers the drunken and cures slight nervous affections, but nothing can encourage the physician to raise fear to the rank of a curative method, as it may be expected that in the greater number of cases nervous diseases would be aggravated by such treatment. Less questionable is, perhaps, the efficacy of fear in subduing nervous maladies acquired by simple imitation; in this case it is probable that the greater ill, as the saying is, drives out the lesser. In old books of medicine stories are found of psychic maladies which, under the name of St. Vitus’s dance, or tarantism, affected entire provinces with a morbid excitement. The first symptoms of this malady appeared in Aix-la-Chapelle, then it broke out in Cologne, afterwards in Metz, whence it spread along the Rhine. Artisans, peasants, rich and poor, in hundreds left their families, dominated by an irresistible desire to dance. Intoxicated with excitement, they performed frenzied contortions as though possessed, until at last they sank exhausted to the ground or became incurably insane. In suchlike cases Boerhave had recourse without hesitation to fright and violent emotion to prevent the patients giving way to their inclination. The story is told that while he was physician of the orphan asylum in Haarlem, he suppressed an epileptic epidemic by means of fright. Seeing that epileptic fits were daily increasing among his patients, he ordered a large brasier full of coals to be lighted in the room, heated a number of pincers and tweezers red-
- 58. hot, and thentold his little patients he had given orders that all those who had fits should be burnt. This inhuman method gave rise to repulsive applications in the treatment of epilepsy, but cases of cure resulting are so exceptional that they certainly do not counterbalance the aggravated sufferings of those uselessly subjected to a cruel emotion. This notion, that maladies produced by strong emotions may be cured by others equally strong, is found in the oldest books on medicine. Pliny relates that the blood of the gladiators used to be drunk as a cure for the falling-sickness.[36] We read miraculous stories of persons who suddenly became dumb, and of others who have regained their speech; and, indeed, such occurrences take place still, although they lose the dignity of the miraculous as soon as they are studied in the infirmaries. The following is a case recently described by Dr. Werner.[37] A girl, thirteen years old, suffered a great fright by falling under a carriage. She escaped with a slight scratch, but suddenly lost her speech. Dr. Werner tried to cure her by various methods during thirteen months, without any result. At last he had prescribed bromide of potassium, when one day the girl threw herself into her mother’s arms and said, in a laboured voice, 'Mamma, I shall speak again.’ After one week she spoke as before. Wiedemeister tells a story of a bride who, as she was taking leave after the wedding breakfast, suddenly lost her speech and remained dumb for several years, until, overcome with fear at the sight of a fire, she cried out 'Fire! Fire!’ and from that time continued to speak. Pausanias, too, relates that a youth recovered his speech in the fright caused by the sight of a lion, and Herodotus, in his history, narrates that the son of Crœsus was dumb, and that, at the taking of Sardes, seeing a Persian with drawn sword about to kill his father, he cried out, overcome with fright, 'Kill not Crœsus!’ and from that moment he was able to speak.
- 60. CHAPTER XVI HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION.EDUCATION I The most difficult thing in the study of man is to surprise him on the threshold of life, to meet him as he detaches himself from the tissues of the mother, in the guise of a cell seeking the mysterious contact of the fertilising element; to seize the moment in which that wondrous force containing potentially the whole story of an existence penetrates the chemical elements of the germ; to learn how, in the protoplasm of the first imperceptible nucleus, that marvellous activity awakes which only death will end. There is a comparatively long period at the very beginning of our existence in which the nature and differential properties of the tissues lie, so to speak, dormant in a crumb of protoplasm. Microscopists discover no difference between the cells of that primary tissue. The turbidness appearing on the whitish leaflet of the germ seems regulated from the beginning of the division of labour; at a few points the materials accumulate which are requisite for the transformation of the cells, as though these last, too much occupied in their prodigious activity of separating and multiplying, must find close at hand the materials which they need to make a man, without the delay of elaborating and preparing them before they introduce them into their body. Thus it has been found, that from the beginning sugar or glycogen, one of the most important substances in the composition of the muscles, is present in abundance. But up to this point, and even for many days afterwards, there is no indication, no possible recognition, even of a rough outline of a human form. And yet in this confusion of atoms we exist. Here our
- 61. passions lie sleeping;on this whitish leaflet are written in undecipherable characters those links of heredity which connect us with our family and with past generations. As from the scarcely visible germ in the heart of the acorn the majestic oak will spring to reign over the forest, so from this indistinct cellular mass a being will be formed to represent in his microcosm the whole history of the human race, with its fears, diseases, instincts, passions, its hate, vileness, and grandeur. The terrible legend of curses blasting the innocence of unborn babes, the blessings cast forth into the future for the enjoyment of generations yet to come, are not wholly a foolish fable. Destiny loads each one of us with a fatal inheritance. Though we were abandoned in the forest, imprisoned in the dungeon of a tower, without a guide, without example, without light, there yet would awake in us, like a mysterious dream, the experience of our parents and our earliest ancestors. What we call instinct is the voice of past generations reverberating like a distant echo in the cells of the nervous system. We feel the breath, the advice, the experience of all men, from those who lived on acorns and struggled with the wild beasts, dying naked in the forests, down to the virtue and toil of our father, to the fear and love of our mother. II Methods of education are essentially two in number, severity and indulgence. Which is better? It is impossible to give a categorical answer, for we are not concerned with the education of a brain or a man in general, but of the brain and man of a special case. Some say that until the child has become a rational being it must be considered and treated as a little animal, because it has no sense of shame, nor of the rights of property, nor of social duty; that the didactic methods which it most fears must be adopted, that is to say,
- 62. those only whichserve to tame and domesticate animals— punishments, the whip, blows. Happily, in the midst of the animal instincts a light is soon diffused in the child’s brain which will place him above all the animals of the earth, and none can say with certainty when these first flashes of reason appear. The pain of a blow must always appear to him so out of proportion to all his instinctive, involuntary movements, that instead of softening him it will rouse profound resentment in him, and impress him with the distressing idea of permanently threatening dangers and of the strangeness of his surroundings, in which, without any plausible reason, caresses alternate with blows. The same methods should be followed in education as in the teaching of science, which are those giving to man the firmest and most lasting convictions. Whatever may be the force of authority, it can never be compared in efficacy to that of conviction; we should never issue any command without showing the reasons why it should be done in this way rather than in another. Children should be brought up as though they were rational, because the animal in them disappears, the man remains. Recourse should be had to the most intelligible and convincing means; if it is seen that they have acquired bad habits, the opportunities for ill- doing should be removed and the effort made, by offering them other attractions, to preserve them from the temptation of those acts or those things which they are to avoid. One may be more indulgent with good, docile children. Those who cry easily, who blush and scream, give less trouble than those who grow pale and tremble, who do not manifest their resentment by an immediate outburst, as though they were brooding hatred in a corner of their hearts. A peasant-woman, in speaking of someone, once said to me: 'I have seen him gnash his teeth when a boy for a mere nothing, and so I would not marry him, and I was quite right.’ In mental sufferings,
- 63. when the tensionof the nervous system cannot find a vent in immediate emotion, it accumulates and becomes more incontrollable in long-suppressed outbursts; the rage which we thought subdued continues to torture us and gnaw our vitals. Indulgence should be shown to nervous children who suffer from convulsions, or are predisposed to such. One must be kind to them and not oppose their caprices with too much severity, unless they are actually insensate. Even loving punishment provokes an explosion of grief and nervous agitation in these unhappy children; every violent emotion leaves an imperceptible, morbid, accumulative tendency behind. In opposing them one falls 'out of the frying-pan into the fire.’ It is better to preserve their lives and postpone stricter education till they become less sensitive; in the meantime they must not be fatigued with study, but strengthened like a plant which one places in the sun and open air, and from which one prunes the injurious shoots at a later time. This is often successful, and then they may be ranked again with healthy children. Even for the latter, premature education is a very grievous error. Parents who make their children learn too many things, sacrifice their future to gratify their own ambition. Nature must not be forced, nor the activity of the nervous system exhausted before the body has grown strong. Parents who have already some weak spot—a little fault in the character, a slight blemish in the organism—should redouble their care in order to cure their children from their own defects. Just as a scirrhus, cancer, consumption, neurosis, are transmitted from one generation to another, just as the large mouth, the long nose, the eyes and hair of this or that colour, are inherited, so vices, virtues, and moral dispositions are handed down from family to family. In little villages especially, in which one may best trace the customs of an ancestor in the whole of his descendants, one often hears such sayings as 'His father was just the same; his grandfather was a great good-for-nothing, too.’ 'Generosity is hereditary in that house.’ Thus
- 64. were cynicism andcruelty transmitted from one to another in the family of the Claudii. The root of a family tree may be compared to one of those Chinese boxes full of other boxes gradually decreasing in size, the unending succession of which strikes us with wonder. Marriage and intermarriage with other families mix and mingle these boxes in such a way that an inextricable confusion arises; but if from some height we could watch the long line of generations, we should see that they continue slowly to disclose themselves. Some children resemble the grandfather, the great-grandfather, or the great-great-grandfather, as though a seed had passed through several generations without unclosing, and then had suddenly sprung into life with such resemblance in features, manners, voice, eyes, character, that the old people recognise it and say, 'He is the very image of his grandfather.’ Thus the forefathers are born and live again in future generations. III What a wonderful phenomenon is this power in man to reappear in future generations by means of heredity, to transmit his own nature to his descendants by transfusing it—working it into their organism! And no less wonderful is it to see how not only instincts but organs gradually disappear in the course of generations when they are not put into action. In insects, crustaceans, fish, amphibians which have migrated to caverns and have lived for many generations in the dark, the eyes are almost imperceptible, and this is certainly not the result of natural selection, for eyes are not injurious even to beings living in the dark, but solely because, with the cessation of the activity of an organ, it must of necessity retrograde. Three or four generations are necessary before horses completely lose their wild instincts, so that some horse-breeders only choose those that have been already trained in the circus.
- 65. If one takestwo hounds exactly alike (of the same mother and the same litter) and accustoms the one to the chase, the other to watch the house; if one then allows them to breed separately, so as to form two distinct families, one to start the game for man when hunting, the other to guard his house against strangers, we may be certain that after four or five generations their instincts will be profoundly modified. If after ten years one takes a litter from each of these families descended from a common ancestor, and rears them in the same room under the same conditions, far from every noise, and brings them when they are grown into a meadow, it will be seen that, at the report of a gun, the offspring of the dogs trained for the chase will look around as though trying to espy a bird, while the others run off terrified. On the shores of certain almost desert islands birds are found which, like the Phalaropus of Iceland,[38] are very much afraid of man, while those living in the interior of the island are not at all timorous. If one reads Brehm’s 'Animal Life,’ one finds similar instances of fear transmitted from generation to generation, with marked differences in the same species according to the relations which the animals have with man. Although monkeys in general are very timid, and always flee at the sight of man, the Semnopithecus entellus, which the Indians worship and honour as a divinity, has become so bold that it enters the gardens, steals everything, plunders the houses, rummages in the trunks and cupboards of the Europeans, and snatches food from off the table or out of their hands. A missionary relates that he was once in a disagreeable predicament, because he had nothing to offer to these impudent monkeys, and that, if he had not defended himself in time with a stick, the animals would have whipped him.[39] The mechanism by which these far-reaching changes in the instincts of animals are accomplished and transmitted by means of heredity to successive generations is one of the most obscure facts in medicine. The drunkard begets children predisposed to madness, just as the syphilitic transmit their curse to the innocent victims to whom they give life, but we know nothing of the manner of
- 66. transmission; heredity ofinstinct remains inscrutable; the physiologist cannot yet confront such problems, so that he becomes a simple chronicler of the facts of which he does not know the laws, nor the intricate connecting threads. Brown-Séquard tried to subject this problem to experimental study, and obtained results which surprised all physiologists. He observed that guinea-pigs in which he had severed the sciatic nerve produced epileptic offspring, and that the destruction in male or female of certain parts of the nerve-centres caused marked malformation in the ears and eyes of the progeny. Pasteur found that the lambs of ewes that had been protected from a contagious malady called anthrax by inoculation with a diluted virus, were not attacked by this disease, and that even when inoculated with the active virus which would cause the death of other animals, they resisted it and did not succumb. This fact was confirmed by Toussaint and others. There were, indeed, many indications in science which led to the idea of protecting from diseases by means of heredity. If small-pox does not rage as formerly, if the victims are no longer so numerous, and if even the unvaccinated recover more easily, it is because a modification of our organism has been brought about through heredity and inoculation. Whenever this disease appears in a district which was never before infected, it rages as violently as formerly. The same thing takes place when the inhabitants of a country where this disease is unknown come to a town in the air of which the germs are present in abundance. The eight Eskimos who were brought a short time ago to the Jardin d’Acclimatation in Paris all died of the small-pox. It is a well-known fact that children of the same stock do not all resemble each other like stereotyped editions. Very often brothers and sisters, although they may have a striking physical resemblance to each other, show great difference of character; and what is of more importance to our study, these variations occur even though all the members of a family have been brought up in the same way.
- 67. It is withheredity as with certain chemical combinations arranged in kindred categories because of similarity of structure and composition, although one is noxious, the other beneficial, one poisonous, the other neutral. Even in twins joined together—there are several cases in the annals of medicine—in those also which I studied together with Professor Fubini, who are connected at the lower part of the trunk and have only two legs together, and who must certainly have always lived under the same conditions, there are yet profound differences of character. We must therefore distinguish between the hereditary and the personal character, the characteristics of the family and those of the individual. IV The greater the advance of science, the greater should be the authority of the physician in education. All pedagogic systems deviating from natural means lead us into error and into morbid conditions of mind and body. Education should be conducted according to the laws of life, the needs of the organism, and the material interests of society. The study of all that relates to the development of the intellectual faculties, the cure of aberrations of instinct and moral defects caused by the turbulence of the passions are problems so closely connected with phenomena of the physical order, that the physiologist and the physician should devote their attention to them as to a biological fact, as to the cure of a disease. Unhappily, even considered from this point, the problem of education presents most serious difficulties. Some passions are incurable; others the body cannot resist, but wastes rapidly away under them, as under the fatal sway of a galloping consumption. The will does not suffice, for itself is only the result of the vitality of the organism, and of the greater or lesser resistance of which the nervous system feels itself capable.
- 68. The succession ofcauses and effects often forms an indissoluble circle which man cannot break with the simple force of his will. Weakness produces fear, and fear produces weakness. Here is a fatal revolution in the functions of the organism. Of what use are the arbitrary and imaginary distinctions philosophers have made in the functions of the mind, when they cannot be separated from those of the body? There are in life fatal cliffs, currents which we cannot stem, and which carry us to inevitable destruction. Weakness increases excitability, excitability foments lasciviousness, and lasciviousness in its turn begets weakness. Here the functions of the organism are like a gaping whirlpool, like an avalanche moving onwards and dragging us to the fatal precipice, does a foot but slip on the path of life. We now see that in our body some mechanism is lacking which would act as a curb to save us when we fall. It is one of the greatest imperfections of our nature that at every false step we may be thrown down and crushed, as though in the wheels of a machine. We may compare ourselves to those poor wretches who intoxicate themselves with opium or alcohol, and who, at last, cannot stop themselves on their downward path of intemperance, because if they cease drinking, opium-smoking, or opium-eating, there is an immediate aggravation of the morbid phenomena and tremor with which they are afflicted. The primary cause of their disease now assuages the disease itself; it is a remedy which soothes them and slowly kills them. Physiology is still too imperfect to make intelligible to us the intricate network of causes which impel man to act in one way rather than in another. Our eye cannot discern many important factors in human actions which, perhaps, will become evident to future generations. Chronicles, annals, biographies offer insufficient data and details too imperfectly known. I do not know when it will be possible to others to penetrate, as Taine did, far into the history of nations, to discover the biological laws governing the rise and fall of the greatness of a people. I only know that I am saddened and perplexed at the
- 69. unhappy thought that,as the brain of the human race grows more perfect, the more sensitive and excitable will it become, the more will emotional desires wax within it. V Courage springs from three sources: nature, education, and conviction. Each of these may so preponderate as to compensate for the deficiency of the others. It is useless to say to a man, 'You must be courageous,’ in order to make him so. Every day we see that the example of parents, education, admonitions, do not suffice to implant virtue in the children. There is a vital element in education which must be prepared long before, like the soil and the seed before the harvest; parents must bequeath to their children the inheritance of a constitution, robust and full of courage. Fear attacks and nullifies every effort of the will in such a manner that it has always been esteemed a deed of heroism to combat and subdue it utterly. Alexander of Macedonia offered up sacrifices to Fear before he went to battle, and Tullus Hostilius erected temples and consecrated priests to it. In the museum of Turin there are two Roman medals, one of which bears the impression of a terrified woman, the other the head of a man with hair on end and frightened, staring eyes. They were struck by the consuls of the family of the Hostilii in remembrance of the vows made to propitiate Fear, which threatened to invade the ranks of the soldiers, who thereupon were led to victory. The consciousness of strength makes us stronger. The history of medicine is full of the marvellous effects of confidence. If we were to cite all the examples of hysterical women, nervous, melancholy, paralytic men who, on the simple word of a physician, through faith in the efficacy of some remedy, have taken courage and recovered, we should see that every day wonders and miracles worthy of the saints are performed.
- 70. Neither may wesay that it is all the effect of imagination, of fancy, because the modification of the circulation in the brain of one who resolutely determines to overcome a difficulty produces such an increase of energy in the nerve-centres and in the tension of the muscles that we sometimes see deeds performed by the pusillanimous such as were never expected of them, however strong and robust they may be physically. We have seen that of itself the brain can originate nothing; at the most it seems to us free to choose amongst the various things presented to it. But, however heavily liberty may be fettered, it is yet beyond doubt that we may give a certain direction to our mind, and the aim of education must be to keep the attention continually fixed on those things which can strengthen the character. In his celebrated book on the 'Passions of the Soul,’ Descartes says, [40] 'Pour exerciter en soi la hardiesse, et ôter la peur, il ne suffit pas d’en avoir la volonté, mais il faut s’appliquer à considérer les raisons, les objets ou les exemples qui persuadent que le péril n’est pas grand; qu’il y a toujours plus de sûreté en la défense qu’en la fuite; qu’on aura de la gloire et de la joie d’avoir vaincu, au lieu qu’on ne peut attendre que du regret et de la honte d’avoir fui, et choses semblables.' VI. What is most difficult in education is persistence; what is most efficacious is example. Severity is useless, perseverance it is which wins the day; there is nothing more harmful and fatal than inconstancy of purpose. The paramount object of education should be to increase the strength of man, and to foster in him everything which conduces to life. Children whom parents teach to attribute too much importance to every little pain are thus predisposed to hypochondria. Sadness is
- 71. a languor ofthe body, and we know by long experience that the melancholy and the timid oppose less resistance to diseases than others.[41] In women one minute of intense fear produces far more frightful effects, and inflicts far more serious injuries, than in men, but the fault is ours, who have always considered the weakness of women a charm and an attraction; it is the fault of our erroneous system of education, which only seeks to develop the affections of the woman, neglecting what would be more efficacious—the creation of a strong character. We sometimes imagine that the most important branch of culture is that which we attain through education and study, that the progress of humanity is wholly represented by science, literature, works of art which are handed down from one generation to another; but in ourselves, our blood, there is a no less important factor. Civilisation has remoulded our nerve-centres; there is a culture which heredity transmits to the brain of our children; the supremacy of present generations depends upon the greater power in thinking, the greater skill in acting. The future and the power of a nation do not lie solely in its commerce, its science, or its army, but in the hearts of its citizens, the wombs of its mothers, the courage or cowardice of its sons. Let us remember that fear is a disease to be cured; the brave man may fail sometimes, but the coward fails always. PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON FOOTNOTES: [1] Œuvres de Descartes, Les passions de l’âme, xxxvi. [2] Charles Darwin: The Expression of the Emotions, pp. 345 and 364. London, 1872.
- 72. [3] Maudsley: ThePhysiology of Mind, p. 305. London, 1876. [4] Ch. Bell: Anatomy and Physiology of the Human Body, v. ii., p. 394. London, 1826. [5] 'Les Ptomaïnes.’ Archives italiennes de Biologie, ii. p. 367; iii. p. 241. [6] Fontana: Veleno della Vipera, i. p. 317. [7] L. Rolando, Saggio sopra la vera struttura del cervello e sopra le funzioni del sistema nervoso, Sec. III. p. 140. Turin, 1828. [8] Plinius: Historia naturalis, lib. xi., p. 480. [9] F. Goltz: Ueber die Verrichtungen des Grosshirns, p. 61, and following. Bonn, 1881. [10] Th. Ribot: Les Maladies de la Mémoire, p. 9. Paris, 1881. [11] Brehm: Thierleben, p. 49. Leipzig, 1883. [12] Brehm: Thierleben, p. 106. Leipzig, 1883. [13] R. Accademia dei Lincei, vol. v. series 3a; Nuova Antologia, March 1881. [14] Foà e M. Schiff. La pupilla come estesiometro. In the Imparziale, 1874, p. 617. [15] Haller: Elementa physiologiæ corporis humani, tom. v., lib. xvii. § vii. [16] Darwin, chap. iii., p. 67. [17] Mantegazza, chap. vii., p. 119. [18] Darwin believed that animals show their teeth in order to let their weapons be seen, and in this way to be more feared. This explanation does not seem to me quite exact, as animals are obliged to raise the lips when they bite, so that the soft parts of the mouth covering the jaws may not be injured. It suffices to watch a dog in order to convince oneself that the showing of the teeth must be an act preparatory to that of biting. [19] Principles of Psychology, vol. ii., pp. 542-43. [20] J. Müller: Handbuch der Physiologie des Menschen, 1840, ii. 92.
- 73. [21] Ch. Darwin:The Expression of the Emotions. London, 1872, p. 10. [22] A. Mosso: Sui movimenti idraulici dell’ iride. R. Accademia di Torino, 1875. [23] Ch. Darwin: The Expression of the Emotions, p. 225. [24] G. B. Duchenne de Boulogne: Mécanisme de la Physionomie Humaine (Paris, 1862), p. 32. [25] Edward C. Spitzka: Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1879, s. 69. [26] Mosso e Pellicani: Sulle funzioni della vescica. R. Accademia dei Lincei, vol. xii. 1881. [27] Darwin gives another explanation of this phenomenon which seems to me less probable. He states that animals erect their dermal appendages that they may appear larger and more terrible to their enemies. But how can it be explained that these smooth muscles should be originally dependent on the will? In order to avoid the doubly improbable supposition that these muscles should have become smooth and involuntary, although preserving the same functions, Darwin has recourse to another explanation. 'We may admit,’ he says, 'that originally the arrectores pili were slightly acted on in a direct manner, under the influence of rage and terror, by the disturbance of the nervous system.’ 'Animals have been repeatedly excited by rage and terror through many generations; and consequently the direct effects of the disturbed nervous system on the dermal appendages will almost certainly have been increased through habit and through the tendency of nerve-force to pass readily along accustomed channels.’ 'As soon as with animals the power of erection has thus been strengthened or increased, they must often have seen the hairs or feathers erected in rival and enraged males, and the bulk of their bodies thus increased. In this case it appears possible that they might have wished to make themselves appear larger and more terrible to their enemies ... such attitudes and utterances after a time becoming through habit instinctive.’ 'It is even possible ... that the will is able to influence in an obscure manner the action of some unstriped or involuntary
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