Hydrolysis using solar-electric would provide renewable energy year-round for Canada's Arctic communities

Date:   2/5/2009 9:46:19 PM ( 15 y ago)

Renewable energy year-round for Canada's Arctic communities

Renewable energy for the far north might be a great idea. Not only are these northern Canadian communities in an area that uses a lot of domestic energy, due to the extreme cold and long dark hours of winter there, but also the fact that they generate most of their electricity with diesel powered generators which are much expensive than the norm for us in the south. Diesel-powered generators also produce significant emissions that are a local pollution concern as well as being a contributor to global warming emissions, albiet minor in the whole scheme of things. Both of these are good enough reasons to pursue innovative approaches to producing electricity and heat.

The best idea for producing electricity in those communities might be solar electric, but with a twist: "Solar-voltaic powered Hydrolysis". The problem with solar-power in the far north is that the sun mostly shines in the summer but not in the winter when the temperatures are the coldest, darkness is 24hrs., and energy demands are at the highest.

My suggestion to overcome this problem is to use the long summer sunshine hours to produce excess energy that can be stored for use in the winter. This could be done by having solar-powered electricity that is used to produce hydrogen, in a process called electrolysis. From Wiki: "Electrolysis of water is the decomposition of water (H2O) into oxygen (O2) and hydrogen gas (H2) due to an electric current being passed through the water." The nearby ocean water could be used to procur the salt that aids in the hydrolysis process - it is a good fit all around!!

The hydrogen could be stored until it is needed in the winter months, when it can either be burned directly for it's heat value, or used in a process that will convert it [back] to electricity such as steam powered electricity generators. The same diesel powered generators in use now can likely burn hydrogen with very little refurbishing.

I suspect there would also be uses for the pure oxygen that will be produced, perhaps as medical gas that could become an export product for the region, or it could be used to produce Hydrogen Peroxide, one of my favorite liquids for it's practicality in health applications, and as a cleaner [especially where it relaces the toxic bleach that is still in use by some people]. But I digress...

Solar energy to electric, electric to hydrogen, hydrogen back to electric energy, a beautifull, pollution-free cycle. It can actually be a fairly efficient system, although some losses will be expected. In the long run there will be substantial economic advantages to this system as compared to using diesel to power electric generators. The emissions reductions will be substantial also, for the area at least. Globally, it won't make a dent in emissions totals, but if this process is pioneered in Canada's Arctic, it might be exported to other remote areas in the extreme northern latiitudes.

The fact that this area of the globe is seeing the most dramatic climate change effects, with melting ice and earlier spring breakups, plus the threat that poses for the Polar bears and other wildlife there, brings an extra incentive to start the ball rolling with renewable energy. It is no small irony that so much natural gas and crude oil is produced in those regions that are being harmed by global warming the most, and earliest - if only that was the case for the political and financial centres of the world, much more might get done in a hurry to reduce emissions.

The northern communities have the incentive to learn and apply new techniques for renewable energy. That incentive comes not only in the poor economics of diesel-powered electric generators [that diesel is trucked into those remote areas at a huge cost], but in reducing emissions where the negative effects of those emissions are being felt the most.




 

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