Clean Energy

Fuel Cells and Clean Energy for the Future are a better alternative source of energy for our world, and a cheaper and cleaner way to live compared to the alternative, fossil fuels! Humans have been using fossil fuels to power industries, electric plants, vehicles, and home heating, for over a hundred years and have polluted our world and have killed off species of animals and charged inflated prices to get rich, not counting all of the taxes (Natural Resources Committee, 2013).It's time for newer cleaner and cheaper practical ideas to produce energy. Some of the alternative energy source ideas in this paper have been around for a surprising amount of time but due to greed from people who have got rich off from all the sales of fossil fuels, none of the practical ideas were ever implemented because of ridiculous excuses such as there too expensive to put in place. Some of the ideas aren't taxable, which I'm assuming would be one of the biggest reasons alternative energy ideas are not used by many people.Fuel cells are a great alternative energy source; there are numerous ideas such as wind generation, solar power, HHO enerators, geothermal, solar-chemical systems and Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion. All of these alternative energy sources will be discussed in depth, and all the pros and cons of each of them. Alternative energy sources and fuel cells will eventually be used because fossil fuels will eventually run out. 1% of the earth's surface is covered in water and the sun shines every day, almost all of the alternative energy sources use nature's abundance of natural resources and potential energy to produce energy, and the waste products are not harmful to the environment. Some f the alternative energy or fuel cell ideas are challenging to build, but that's how the world has become what it is today, everythings a challenge which makes it exciting. Where will we be in twenty years, and how will we power our planet, run our cars or heat our homes or produce el ectricity?There are two known ways of using the sun's rays to capture and use it to make energy. Typically we think of solar right away, but solar-chemical systems are being experimented with to try and capture and store the sun's energy to be able to use it on demand via chemical storage and the use of a atalyst to use the energy (MIT, 2010). A molecule of fulvalene diruthenium, was experimented with at MIT, it is able to capture the sun's energy almost like a rechargeable battery, the chemical can store it for later use and when the stored energy is used the molecule snaps back to its original state ready to be used again.The energy can be used as heat to boil water to turn a turbine to produce energy or use the heat to directly heat a home. These heat storing chemicals can store the and possibilities of ideas are endless. Based on this molecule, MIT is in search of ther molecules with the same properties that are in abundance and a lot cheaper. Ultimately this can be used as a so lar-thermal fuel, when the reaction takes place to let out the suns heat it can reach temperatures of 200 degrees Celsius.This heat could be used in a number of ways to produce energy, for example Just using the heat released could easily heat a home. The chemical used isn't readily available but they are still experimenting with different chemicals to find one with the same properties as fulvalene diruthenium. Solar power is energy harnessed from the un's rays, and is a renewable energy source. Panels are made from silicon which is a semiconductor when the sun's rays (photons) hit the solar panels electrons in the panel absorb the energy which transforms the electrons into conduction electrons (Clean Energy, 2012).The electrons then carry an electric charge to a place that stores that energy like a battery bank. Solar panels are put up in series and work together to harness the sun's rays to produce energy required for whatever it is you're trying to power. It takes quite a few qua lity high watt panels to power a small cabin. Solar power is clean and sun rays are free but the system isn't and to power a home or cabin these systems can cost $20,000 and up. The price of the systems is the reason most people don't have them or use them.To set up a solar system, there are also a lot of components to hook up and a lot of wiring. With a lot of these different systems you would have to have a charge controller and a battery bank to store the energy produced by the solar panels. Which battery banks are also very expensive and need to properly be wired in series whether it is a 24 volt or 12 volt system. Solar power also doesn't produce electricity all the time, at night and on cloudy days solar panels don't put out the peak wattage they are capable of.Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion or (OTEC) has been around for a long time. An OTEC plant is built in the ocean on a hurricane proof platform so workers are safe from the elements. The oceans waters store 1000 times more heat than the atmosphere. More than 300 times the earth's needs are in the solar power contained in the tropical ocean. The heat is distributed by Thermo hailing circulation, which is a combination of wind, emperature and the earth's rotation; it acts like a conveyer belt. An ocean thermo energy conversion plant would be strategically placed in the ocean.At the equator the surface of the ocean is hot and some depths reach 3000 feet deep which is cold water. So this is an ideal place to place the plant since it works by the temperature differences in the water. An OTEC system uses the surface water to boil a gas such as propane, because propane has a low boiling point (Britannica, 2013). So it is used to power a turbine which produces electricity. The hot water on the top boils the gas nd creates steam out of the liquid propane which powers power's the turbine. The propane goes through a condenser and is cooled by the deep water temperature.So the propane is not burned at all it's J ust used to turn the turbine, to turn the electric generator, as steam, and then it goes through the cooling process to return to liquid form. Depending on the size of the plant, these OTEC plants can produce endless amounts of power and the process does not pollute the atmosphere. The plants cost a lot of money to build, but it would easily pay itself off in a few different ways. The technical definition of Bio diesel is a fuel comprised of mono alkyl esters of long has been around as long as diesel engines, but hasn't been in demand until recently.The way bio diesel is produced is through a process called transesterification, by altering the chemical properties of the oil with methanol. It is produced from renewable domestic resources which are not as harmful to the environment as petroleum fuels. It is also nontoxic and biodegradable. These kinds of fuels can be used in endless real world applications to produce energy. Commercial and esidential diesel generators can be ran with these fuels to produce energy without any modifications to the engine.Bio diesel also can be used with diesel vehicles that let off bad emission, and are worse for the ozone layer and affect global warming. Tractor trailers drive cross country daily to supply our nation with foods and products, by using bio diesel they could lower tail pipe emissions by 41%. These fuels can power diesel generators that could easily power a house or business. With some modifications to lower noise levels it could be a feasible and fairly cheap and clean ay to live and also get rid of a power bill. The only real problem with bio diesels is it could increase nitrogen oxide emissions.That problem can be overcome by a process called blending, which 20% bio diesel is blended with 5% diesel to get the best of both and get rid of the worst. Fuel cells of the near or distant future will be like batteries in a typical house hold item such as a flashlight. A fuel cell is something that uses a source of fuel li ke Hydrogen and an oxidant to electrochemically make electricity (National Geographic, 2013). Fuel cells could power our vehicles, houses, nd be portable so electricity can be brought where it would be required. Unlike batteries, fuel cells won't stop producing electricity as long as fuel is provided to it.Fuel cells are better for our atmosphere, they don't produce as many harmful green house gases and they don't produce any of the air pollutants that create health problems or smog. Once in production and fuel cells are able to compete with the fossil fuel industries, eventually they would be a lot cheaper than our typical sources of energy. Every fuel cell has two electrodes one negative and a positive one; they are called the anode and cathode. Electricity is produced at the electrodes. They also have an electrolyte which carries charged particles from one electrode to the other.There is also a catalyst that is introduced between the electrodes that speed up the reaction at the e lectrodes to produce more electricity at a faster rate. Another alternative energy source or fuel for everything we need fuel to power is water, the most abundant natural resource on the planet. Hydrogen fuel cells or hydrogen generators are being experimented with everyday. Water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen molecules, so to make it a combustible fuel, the hydrogen olecules need to be separated from the oxygen molecules. To accomplish this to produce hydrogen as a fuel is fairly easy.First a cell is made out of stainless steel with a positive and negative lead, separated by 1. 5mm for optimum hydrogen production. A common cell is 7 stainless plates which two of the plates on the outside are positive and negative and the rest of the sandwiched plates are neutral plates which help keep the cell run at cooler temperatures. The cell is then put into a housing unit with distilled water and an electrolyte; with a 12 volt source hooked up o the positive lead and a ground hooked up to the negative lead. Bubbles will start to form, which are hydrogen molecules breaking free from the oxygen molecules. ousing of the generator and into a bubbler to make sure the hydrogen is clean. From the bubbler the hydrogen can be pumped into a tank and then into an engine or directly into an engine. The waste ends up producing water, which isn't good for regular metal exhausts and will rust them out, but a stainless exhaust can replace it with no further worries. Catalytic converters on cars today turn some of the missions into water and eventually rust exhausts anyway. Some vehicles need more fuel than others, such as a tractor trailer VS a Prius (USA Today 2013).A hydrogen generator would have to be made specifically for the engine it's going to run. Alternative energy such as wind, solar, and geothermal energy sources will be a more efficient way of sustaining energy needed by humans. A wind turbine creates energy by the wind, which is potential energy sitting there where eve r located, Just waiting for a gust of wind to produce energy. Solar energy is readily available to us all but is ery expensive to set up. Geothermal energy is also readily available to us and is a clean source of energy but is also a very expensive set up. In the future prices will come down.So the companies making products for solar energy and geothermal energy can better compete on the energy market. By using alternative energy sources and fuel cells our planet could be a cleaner more efficient planet (Clean Energy, 2012). Fuel cells and alternative energy sources are a lot more efficient than the use of fossil fuels. There are a variety of different fuel cells and alternative energy ources in production right know, experimenting with different fuels and energy sources could potentially make more of a variety of efficient fuels and alternative energy combinations. Conclusion alternative, fossil fuels!There are numerous possibilities of alternative energy source ideas to power the world. The previous paragraphs talked about seven different alternative energy sources that could work to power our planet, without pollution and environmental wastes. These alternative energy sources use natural resources to produce energy, which seems to be the most responsible way to power our world. MIT's experiments with the molecule fulvalene diruthenium, is an exceptional idea. To be able to have the power of the suns energy stored in a molecule, and to be able to use it on demand is an amazing feat.Solar power is another alternative energy source that harnesses the suns power to create energy, which also doesn't pollute our world, and is a renewable energy source. Both solar and chemical solar systems use sunlight to produce energy which is in abundance and don't produce waste products. The use of water to produce power is another alternative energy source or fuel that uses nature's natural resources. Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion technology is not new. In 1881, Jacques Ar sene d'Arsonval, a French physicist, proposed tapping the thermal energy of the ocean.But it was d'Arsonval's student, Georges Claude, who in 1930 built the first OTEC plant in Cuba (U. S. Department of Energy (2013). OTEC can be used today to supply the world with energy with no pollution or waste, the first plant built produced 22 Kilowatts, which is enough to power a house or two but not enough to power a country. If the plants were made bigger with new technology and a fleet of these plants were built, ells and HHO generators are another alternative energy source that uses nature's natural resources.HHO generators use's water to produce energy or fuel, water covers 71% of the earth's surface so why not experiment with it as a fuel or energy source? The water used in some of the systems can be recycled so there is no waste or pollution. Fuel cells use hydrogen and an oxidant to produce electricity. HHO generators produce hydrogen as a fuel, which in combination could produce powe r as a fuel and electricity. These two alternative energy sources could be used on all ehicles in the country and cut out emissions as a whole.This would dramatically help our environment in a short period of time, probably enough to offset Chinas pollution and waste it produces. These alternative energy sources are Just a few of hundreds of ideas, new and old that are realistic energy sources to power our country or planet. It would take years to implement some of the ideas but some could be produced and ready to use immediately. I have personally made wind turbines and I am currently building an HHO generator and I'm also building a self-running generator that runs on nothing but the energy it produces.IVe experimented with all of these on a small scale and they worked great. So If you would like to make a difference and help clean up our planet and stop polluting and save a few dollars, start inventing or look at the history of alternative energy sources and build off someone els e's ideas. If you're not into building things yourself, do some research on the alternative energy source of your choice and buy it. There are a lot of websites that sell wind turbines, solar panels, HHO generators and boosters, some systems are a lot of money but most are obtainable by the average American.