• Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe.
• It is the 8th most abundant element on Earth.
• Earth has insufficient gravity to maintain free hydrogen.

• Combustion
• Electrolysis
• Steam Methane Reforming
• Hydrocracking (uses H2 to break carbon chains)
• Haber process (uses H2 to produce ammonia)

• Hydrogen can be burned just like natural gas
• Fuel cells
• Produce electricity at a 40-50% efficiency.
• Have a combined heat & power 70-95% efficiency.
• Protons are separated from electrons by a membrane which creates a potential.
• Use a 0.7 V/cell.
• Made of stacks of cells
• Catalysts

• Platinum-based is the traditional
• carbon- or nickel-based
• Hydrogen Stroage
• The good news: Hydorgen has more energy per gram capacity than traditional fuels
• The bad news: Its density is much less than traditional fuels, so it is less useful in that respect
• Current Technologies
• liquid hydrogen
• energy cost 30%
• expensive
• boil-off losses ~ 50% in 10 days
• compressed hydrogen
• energy cost 15-20%
• low energy density
• heavy
• potentially dangerous due to high pressures (~700bar)
• metal hydrides
• minimal energy cost, dense hydrogen packing
• very heavy
• expensive (because of the use of rare metals)
• useful for small scale, not large scale
• chemical conversion
• using water or ammonia
• When volume is not an issue, hydrogen storage is very useful
• however, we still need a breakthrough
• Prodction
• Steam methane reforming
• 95% of H2 supply
• efficiency ~70%
• releases CO2
• Electrolysis
• fuel cell rxn in reverse
• efficiency 60-8-%
• can pressurize within electrolyzer
• Anaerobic digestion (@ OSU)
• consumes organic waste
• Biomass gasification
• produces H2 and CO2
• Photobiological hydrogen (@ OSU)
• algae and cyanobacteria
• photosynthesis splits water
• light provides energy input
• hydrogenase catalyst
• Artificial Photolysis
• using light energy to split water
• Micro scale PV electrolysis
• Thermochemical Cycles (@ OSU with Dr. Yokochi)
• coupled rxn loop
• heat input from concentrated solar
• Safety with hydrogen
• Nearly invisible flame in daylight
• Hydrogen embrittlement of metals
• 5-75% flammable mixture in air
• Low activation energy
• Lighter than air, so dissipates rapidly in the atmosphere
• Overall, no more dangerous than gasoline or natural gas if handled properly.
• Hydrogen’s role in the Future
• Abundant Carbon-free Energy?
• Universal energy currency
• Fuel cell cars
• Hydrogen homes
• Drinkable exhaust
• Or Oil-company Conspiracy?
• Technology will never be ready
• Inferior to EV’s from green perspective
• Favored by policy
• Produced from fossil fuel
• Greatest demand right now is energy storage.
• Hydrogen, pumped hydroelectric, compressed air energy storage (CAES)
• Pumped hydro: best option but site-limited
• CAES has slightly higher round-trip efficiency
• Vestenskov, Denmark is the world’s first hydrogen-powered community
• surplus wind electricity is stored as hydrogen and distributed
• Energy density is currently the #1 challenge
• But the future is wide open
• It will be a race between electric and hydrogen vehicles
• The OSU Hydrogen Trailer
• This spring, they will acquire an electrolyzer
• Hydrogen Club meetings are Mondays 4-6, people are welcome!
• DOE project @ OSU
• Brian Paul MechE
• Goran Jovanic ChemE

Transportation, lunch and dinner, and admittance to the conference will be covered in the cost of attendance. We will be leaving from Gleeson Hall, but if you live on campus we can make arrangements to pick you up from your dorm. If you live off campus, you can park in the Gleeson lot for free on Saturday.

If you would like attend the trip, send us an email with the following information:

• Name
• Phone Number
• Any dietary restrictions or medical conditions that we should be aware of
• If you would like to be picked up on campus, and where
  

If you respond by this Wednesday, the fee is $10.
If you respond by this Friday, the fee is $15.
If you respond after this Friday there is no guarantee that we’ll have room for you, but if we can find room, the fee will be $25.

Also, if you have any friends that would like to come along, we’d be happy to have them.
Tell your friends!! 

• energizecorvallis.org/takecharge/campuses
• commit to reducing your energy usage

• We’re buying tubing this week, and installing it next week.
• Working on heating elements still, ordering it soon.

• Tuesday April 24 10am-3pm
• We’ll have the biodiesel cart & a booth w/ posters
• Volunteers?
• Chelsea (time?)
• Mike (12-3)
• Lane (11-3) but not 4 hours.. cleanup
• Brian (10-11)
• Justin (anytime)
• Look for a Doodle Poll

• Lane will count votes
• If you want to run for a position
• Monday week 6: send in a ppt slide w/ info
• Wed meeting week 6: present
• Positions are:
• President
• VP
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Webmaster
• Event Coordinator/Publicity (new position)

• Oregon Future Energy Conference
• Friday & Saturday
• PLUS a tour of SolarWorld OR Bonneville Damn
• One night in Portland
• $25-$50 per person
• OR just go up on Saturday morning to tour SolarWorld & go to the conference
• Pacific Biodiesel
• Week 6, probably Saturday afternoon
• In planning, look for an email.

Meeting Minutes 2/14/12
NuScale Power – Kent Welter

• Global Energy Challenge
• Nuclear is not the only solution, it’s part of the solution
• Two billion people world wide don’t have access to electricity.
• Issue #1, Aging infrastructure.
• Issue #2, Demand is increasing unsustainably
• Issue #3, Foreign dependence
• This has been a problem for a long time, yet we haven’t fixed it.
• Issue#4, Cost of Energy Production
• Gas and petroleum are not consistent, nuclear is.
• Issue#5, Finding a Sustainable Energy Mix
• Think about square milage required to make energy
• Nuclear
• One uranium pellet (size of a penny) is 1700 lbs coal
• A nuclear reaction produces steam to produce electricity
• Safety: procautions are taken, the reaction cycle is separated from the steam cycle
• 104 operating nuclear power reactors in the US (none completed on time, on budget)
• “Waste” is just used nuclear fuel, it CAN be recycled, contrary to popular belief

• creates uranium & plutonium
• France and Japan DO recycle nuclear fuel, so why don’t we?
• NuScale’s Approach
• NuScale’s reactors are “Inherently safe”
• The whole system is inside a vessel
• Less potential for leakage
• No pumps, all naturally circulating
• High strength stainless stell containment
• All stored submerged in water, underground
• About 65 ft tall, 15 ft wide, made to be shipped in a truck
• Simple, less parts with potential to fail
• Each produces 45 MWe
• A NuScale Plant
• All the reactors are submerged in water.
• Doesn’t depend on power, no pumps, “all passively safe”
• Refueling
• In most nuclear plants, the whole reactor must be taken off the grid to refuel, about every 18 months
• At a NuScale plant, only one reactor at a time needs to be taken out of commission to be refueled, the rest can keep producing power. Only 45 MWe needs to be taken off the grid when refueling. Called “online refueling”
• They have capacity for 30 years worth of spent fuel (“waste”)
• Safety plays a role in popular opinion, but the people who really oppose nuclear power are Wall Street.
• Solve the cost problem & stop the trend of not finishing plants on-time, on-budget. NuScale plants can be operating at half capacity before they are finished.
• NuScale plants aren’t as expensive to build.
• Fuel & the Environment
• These plants can fail in ways that we can never predict.
• Water is the ultimate heat sink AND a very good defense against radioactivity.
• Biological shield covers each reactor
• A Paradigm Shift
• “Economy of Scale”
• The old way was to build the BIGGEST
• the new way doesn’t need to be.
• “Economy of Small-Scale Mass Poduction”
• The new way, and the NuScale way
• Broad market
• Shorter construction times
• Lower capital costs
• Smaller, simpler plants
• There’s a 5-6 year review process through the government
• First plant might be up and running by 2021

Thanks for all those who attended the meeting, and I hope you enjoyed the presentation.

NuScale Safety Powerpoint Show

For this term, we’ve decided to have work meetings on even weeks and speaker presentations on odd weeks. We have tentatively decided to meet Tuesdays at 7pm in Gleeson 100 this term (starting Week 2). If that time doesn’t work for you but you’d like to attend meetings, please let me know asap, we are still trying to find the perfect meeting time when everyone can come. More information about the first meeting will be coming your way soon. 

IMPORTANT NOTE regarding meeting times: it has come to our attention that a lot of people can’t make Tuesdays at 7pm. We will send out a poll soon to find out when people can make it. Due to the very busy schedules of the club officers, and a lot of other clubs having meetings at times we usually do, it’s been tough to schedule. We promise to find the time when the most people can attend.

On Tuesday, Jan 17th (Week 2) we have the opportunity to tour the OSU Energy Center. If you are interested, please RSVP via our contact form. The tour will be about an hour long tour, and we’re panning to meet at the Energy Center around 4pm. The energy center is across the street from the radiation center, at 35th and Jefferson.

For those of you who had a winter break assignment from the last meeting, this is a reminder to please have something to present at the next meeting! Don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be formal or lengthy. Those people were:

• Nathan - Look into the feasibility and expense of adding a heat pump to the cart.
• Larkin - Research the feasibility of solar power on the cart.
• Alyson - Look for biodiesel-proof adhesives for labels and other materials.
• Nick - Look into the feasibility and expense of adding a heat lamp to the cart.
• Sarani - Look into adding insulation to the reactor, or the tubing, keeping in mind that people want to see what’s happening in the process.

Thanks to everyone who is helping with the biodiesel cart. It’s a huge help and a great way to be involved. If you aren’t on that list but would like to get involved, come to the meeting on Tuesday and let us know.

We’d also like to remind everyone about the Bradbury presentation. If you don’t already know, Bill Bradbury, former Oregon Secretary of State, is coming to OSU on the Friday the 27th of January to give a talk about policy’s role in climate change. Please spread the word! The best way to get people interested is word of mouth, and we’d love your help. You’ll see posters up around campus and Corvallis soon. For more details, check the webpage for the event. Again, that’s the 27th of January, doors open at 7:00pm, the presentation starts at 7:30 at the LaSells Stewart Center.

• Need people to run tables, act as ushers, etc.
• Jan 27th, Friday

• Plumbing fixes
• Improving the efficiency of the reaction (control heat & humidity)
• preheating reactants
• heated water bath for the reactor and/or tubes
• heat blanket/coil around the rctr
• heat lamp – Nick
• heat pump – Nathan
• add insulation to rctr/tubing – Sarani
• reactor vessels with heat coils built in (specially made rctr… $$$)
• Power to the cart
• partner w/ solar trailer or hydrogen club
• biodiesel generator
• new more efficient pump
• solar power on the cart (ECE majors!!) – Larkin
• little solar power for little things or
• only to power
• one solar panel to charge the battery
• bulky – indoors, then what?
• produce more power
• how to mount them to the cart
• BIG Question’s
• Can solar panels meet our power needs??
• Effectiveness in different situations
• inside
• outside, weather dependent
• Fixed or modular
• Improving the display
• New, possibly lighted display
• Info on the cart: Carbon footprint of biofuels v fossil fuels
• Layout of the pumps/labels for the user
• Find a biodiesel-proof adhesive for labels/ other materials (gaskets, tubing, etc) (silicon? ) – Alyson

• Work meeting on even weeks
• Speakers generally on odd weeks, but whenever they can be scheduled

• (1) Nuclear – New Scale Technologies !!
• (2) Solar
• (3) Trillium Biofuels – cellulosic biofuels
• (3) Hydrogen Club come present – Nick’s on it
• (4) Pacific Biodiesel in Salem – the bigger picture
• (4) Coal/ Natural gas, recent changes to the coal industry/ technologies (efficiency & cleanliness)
• (5) Bonneville Power Association

Since we had so many people, we split into two groups, and while one group was learning to use the cart the other group discussed plans for upgrading the biodiesel cart. Some of the ideas we had for improving the cart:

• Alternative catalysts which speed up the reaction (determined to likely be too expensive)
• Heat up reactor to increase efficiency and speed of the reaction. Various heating ideas were thought up:
• Pre-heating reactants
• Water bath around reactor (or hot water in tubes around reactor)
• Heat blanket or heat coil
• Insulation around pipes and reactor chamber to retain heat
• Heat lamp above reactor
• New energy sources for powering the pumps and mixers:
• Partnering with the OSU solar trailer or hydrogen club for external power
• Solar thermal to heat reactor
• Use some of the biodiesel produced to run a generator
• Stationary bicycle hooked up to a generator
• Photovoltaic cell (most likely)

On Tuesday night, meet in Gleeson 100 at 5pm. We’ll have food for you to eat while we deliver a quick presentation about how the biodiesel cart works, then we’ll don our safety glasses and head downstairs to the lab. If you own safety goggles (like the ones you use for chemistry labs), please bring them! We’re required to wear eye protection in the lab, and will have a limited supply of safety glasses.

If you have any questions or time conflicts, please let us know. We look forward to seeing you there on Tuesday!

The OSU Biodiesel Demonstration Cart at the summer Da Vinci Days festival

• Week 4 Thursday at 6pm – HM3 Energy
• Week 6 Tuesday at 5pm – Hatfield researcher, ecological impacts of ocean energy
• Week 8 Tuesday at 5pm – to be decided
• Week 10 Tuesday at 5pm – party, chat, be merry…and plan for next term!

• Davinci days
• Made and presented posters

• OMSI cart – now known as the interactive multimedia display of science (IMDS)
• Where does our funding come from?

• Hands on experience → with the biodiesel cart.
• Teach the community how to make biodiesel. Hands on for the public.
• Collaborate with some other group that we can actually demonstrate biodiesel in use…
• Wind power → see some wind turbines. Make a wind turbine!! A little one… pinwheel with a lightbulb!!!!
• Learn about wave energy → field trip to Hatfield and/or wave research lab here.
• IMDS
• How are solar panels made? → field trip
• Sustainability conference in Seattle in Spring
• Geothermal → OIT to view their geothermal heating system or have a speaker come talk to us
• Bonneville Dam or a closer dam (Detroit Dam)
• Biodiesel plant in Albany