Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “H2 production”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2004

Quantitative Relationships between Photosynthetic, Nitrogen Fixing, and Fermentative H2 Metabolism in a Photosynthetic Microbial Mat

The ultimate potential of any microbial ecosystem to contribute chemically to its environment - and therefore, to impact planetary biogeochemistry or to generate recognizable biosignatures - depends not only on the individual metabolic capabilities of constituent organisms, but also on how those capabilities are expressed through interactions with neighboring organisms. This is particularly important for microbial mats, which compress an extremely broad range of metabolic potential into a small and dynamic system. H2 participates in many of these metabolic processes, including the major elemental cycling processes of photosynthesis, nitrogen fixation, sulfate reduction, and fermentation, and may therefore serve as a mediator of microbial interactions within the mat system. Collectively, the requirements of energy, electron transfer, and biomass element stoichiometry suggest quantitative relationships among the major element cycling processes, as regards H2 metabolism We determined experimentally the major contributions to 32 cycling in hypersaline microbial mats from Baja California, Mexico, and compared them to predicted relationships. Fermentation under dark, anoxic conditions is quantitatively the most important mechanism of H2 production, consistent with expectations for non-heterocystous mats such as those under study. Up to 16% of reducing equivalents fixed by photosynthesis during the day may be released by this mechanism. The direct contribution of nitrogen fixation to H2 production is small in comparison, but this process may indirectly stimulate substantial H2 generation, by requiring higher rates of fermentation. Sulfate reduction, aerobic consumption, diffusive and ebulitive loss, and possibly H2-based photoreduction of CO2 serve as the principal H2 sinks. Collectively, these processes interact to create an orders-of-magnitude daily variation in H2 concentrations and fluxes, and thereby in the oxidation-reduction potential that is imposed on microbial processes occuring within the mat matrix.

Hoehler, Tori M.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Characterization and optimization of hydrogen production by a salt water blue-green alga Oscillatoria sp. Miami BG 7. II - Use of immobilization for enhancement of hydrogen production

The technique of cellular immobilization was applied to the process of hydrogen photoproduction of nonheterocystous, filamentous marine blue-green alga, Oscillatoria sp. Miami BG 7. Immobilization with agar significantly improved the rate and longevity of hydrogen production, compared to free cell suspensions. Rates of H2 production in excess of 13 microliters H2 mg dry/wt h were observed and hydrogen production was sustained for three weeks. Immobilization also provided some stabilization to environmental variability and was adaptable to outdoor light conditions. In general, immobilization provides significant advantages for the production and maintenance of hydrogen photoproduction for this strain.

Phlips, E. J.↗
NASA NTRS1994

An examination of the total hydrogen budget of the lower stratosphere

We analyze the hydrogen budget of the lower stratosphere using simultaneous in situ measurements of northern hemispheric water vapor (H2O) and methane (CH4) obtained during the spring Stratospheric Photochemistry, Aerosols, and Dynamics Expedition (SPADE), as well as previously published in situ H2 data. Based on this data, we conclude that approximately two H2O molecules are produced for each CH4 molecule destroyed. This implies that H2 production from CH4 oxidation is balanced by H2 oxidation. The uncertainty in this analysis is greatly reduced by the use of multiple data sets. Additionally, we infer that, on an annual and global average, H2O enters the stratosphere with a mixing ratio of 4.2 +/- 0.5 ppmv, and that the quasi-conserved quantity 2 x CH4 + H2O has a value of 7.6 +/- 0.6 ppmv in these northern hemishere air parcels (where xi denotes the mixing ratio of the constituent xi).

Dessler, A. E.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Space water electrolysis: Space Station through advance missions

Static Feed Electrolyzer (SFE) technology can satisfy the need for oxygen (O2) and Hydrogen (H2) in the Space Station Freedom and future advanced missions. The efficiency with which the SFE technology can be used to generate O2 and H2 is one of its major advantages. In fact, the SFE is baselined for the Oxygen Generation Assembly within the Space Station Freedom's Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS). In the conventional SFE process an alkaline electrolyte is contained within the matrix and is sandwiched between two porous electrodes. The electrodes and matrix make up a unitized cell core. The electrolyte provides the necessary path for the transport of water and ions between the electrodes, and forms a barrier to the diffusion of O2 and H2. A hydrophobic, microporous membrane permits water vapor to diffuse from the feed water to the cell core. This membrane separates the liquid feed water from the product H2, and, therefore, avoids direct contact of the electrodes by the feed water. The feed water is also circulated through an external heat exchanger to control the temperature of the cell.

Ronald J Davenport↗
NASA NTRS2007

Space and Terrestrial Power System Integration Optimization Code BRMAPS for Gas Turbine Space Power Plants With Nuclear Reactor Heat Sources

In view of the difficult times the US and global economies are experiencing today, funds for the development of advanced fission reactors nuclear power systems for space propulsion and planetary surface applications are currently not available. However, according to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 the U.S. needs to invest in developing fission reactor technology for ground based terrestrial power plants. Such plants would make a significant contribution toward drastic reduction of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions and associated global warming. To accomplish this goal the Next Generation Nuclear Plant Project (NGNP) has been established by DOE under the Generation IV Nuclear Systems Initiative. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) was designated as the lead in the development of VHTR (Very High Temperature Reactor) and HTGR (High Temperature Gas Reactor) technology to be integrated with MMW (multi-megawatt) helium gas turbine driven electric power AC generators. However, the advantages of transmitting power in high voltage DC form over large distances are also explored in the seminar lecture series. As an attractive alternate heat source the Liquid Fluoride Reactor (LFR), pioneered at ORNL (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) in the mid 1960's, would offer much higher energy yields than current nuclear plants by using an inherently safe energy conversion scheme based on the Thorium --> U233 fuel cycle and a fission process with a negative temperature coefficient of reactivity. The power plants are to be sized to meet electric power demand during peak periods and also for providing thermal energy for hydrogen (H2) production during "off peak" periods. This approach will both supply electric power by using environmentally clean nuclear heat which does not generate green house gases, and also provide a clean fuel H2 for the future, when, due to increased global demand and the decline in discovering new deposits, our supply of liquid fossil fuels will have been used up. This is expected within the next 30 to 50 years, as predicted by the Hubbert model and confirmed by other global energy consumption prognoses. Having invested national resources into the development of NGNP, the technology and experience accumulated during the project needs to be documented clearly and in sufficient detail for young engineers coming on-board at both DOE and NASA to acquire it. Hands on training on reactor operation, test rigs of turbomachinery, and heat exchanger components, as well as computational tools will be needed. Senior scientist/engineers involved with the development of NGNP should also be encouraged to participate as lecturers, instructors, or adjunct professors at local universities having engineering (mechanical, electrical, nuclear/chemical, and/or materials) as one of their fields of study.

Juhasz, Albert J.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Comparison of waste combustion and waste electrolysis - A systems analysis

A steady state model of a closed environmental system has been developed which includes higher plant growth for food production, and is designed to allow wastes to be combusted or electrolyzed. The stoichiometric equations have been developed to evaluate various trash compositions, food items (both stored and produced), metabolic rates, and crew sizes. The advantages of waste electrolysis versus combustion are: (1) oxygen is not required (which reduces the load on the oxygen producing system); (2) the CO2 and H2 products are produced in pure form (reducing the load on the separators); and (3) nitrogen is converted to nitrate (which is directly usable by plants). Weight tradeoff studies performed using this model have shown that waste electrolysis reduces the life support weight of a 4-person crew by 1000 to 2000 kg.

Holtzapple, Mark T.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Light-dependent hydrogen production by C. reinhardi

The activity of hydrogenase in nonsynchronous, photoheterotrophically grown cells of C. reinhardi is a function of culture age. Rapidly growing cultures (exponential phase) exhibit lower hydrogenase activity than early stationary phase cultures. During prolonged dark anaerobic incubation the hydrogenase activity attains a maximal value in two to five hours. The activity declines rapidly after three to four hours of anaerobic incubation unless the pH of the suspending medium is maintained above 6.0. In C. reinhardi the source of electrons for hydrogen photoproduction appears to be derived mainly from water oxidation. However, when the water-splitting complex of photosystem II is impaired by a mutational block, the organism can utilize intracellular organic reductants as substrate for H2 production in a light-dependent reaction involving both PSII and PSI. When photosynthetic electron transport is uncoupled from phosphorylation, a rate of 174 micromoles of hydrogen evolved per mg cells per hour is observed. This rate of hydrogen photoproduction corresponds to 76% of the reductant generating capacity of PSII under steady-state photosynthesis.

Lien, S.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Synthesis of H2 in dirty ice mantles by fast ion energy loss: New experimental results increase the relevance of this mechanism

Recent experimental results support the importance of H2 production in molecular clouds by cosmic ray bombardment of the mantles of grains. The formation of molecules different from those originally present in the irradiated layer can be explained by the production of molecular fragments induced by the release of energy if the impinging fast particle. One way of considering the process is in terms of a transiently hot cylinder, initially about 50 A in diameter, that exists around the track of an individual fast ion. Since ice has a relatively low thermal conductivity, energy lost by the ion in the ice layers remains confined around the track for time long enough to be thermalized. The hot cylinder increases in diameter and decreases in temperature on a time scale of 10(exp -11) to 10(exp -10) sec. Molecular fragments that are formed in this high temperature region acquire enough mobility to recombine with different partners, forming new molecules. A Monte Carlo simulation of the interaction between cosmic rays and grain mantles, at various depths in the core of a spherical molecular cloud, was performed. The simulation was continued until 40,000 ions had hit each grain of the type and size chosen. During the performed experiments thin icy films made of H2O and CD4 mixed in the gas phase and deposited on a cold finger at 9 K were irradiated with 1.5 MeV helium beams. Among synthesized molecules were found H2, HD, and D2.

Pirranello, Valero↗
NASA NTRS1989

The 2.4 micron spectrum of Comet Halley - A search for H2 emission

A 2.4-micron spectrum of Comet Halley was obtained on April 1, 1986 with the UKIRT scanning Fabry-Perot-CVF equipped with an InSb detector. From the ratio of the measured flux from comet Halley to Zeta Her in the 8.8 x 10 to the -4th micron bandwidth, Comet Halley produced a detected flux of about 1.3 x 10 to the 5th photons/sec with a 1-sigma variance of 385 photons. The flux detected in the same spectral region by Maillard et al. (1986) agrees with the measurements reported here to within a factor of two. The data obtained are examined from the standpoint of the possible mechanisms of H2 production.

Smith, W. Hayden↗
NASA NTRS1993

Theoretical characterization of the reaction CH3 +OH yields CH3OH yeilds products: The (1)CH2 + H2O, H2 + HCOH, and H2 + H2CO channels

The potential energy surface (PES) for the CH3OH system has been characterized for the (1)CH2 + H2O, H2 + HCOH, and H2 + H2CO product channels using complete-active-space self-consistent-field (CASSCF) gradient calculations to determine the stationary point geometries and frequencies followed by CASSCF/internally contracted configuration-interaction (CCI) calculations to refine the energetics. The (1)CH2 + H2O channel is found to have no barrier. The long range interaction is dominated by the dipole-dipole term, which orients the respective dipole moments parallel to each other but pointing in opposite directions. At shorter separations there is a dative bond structure in which a water lone pair donates into the empty a" orbital of CH2. Subsequent insertion of CH2 into an OH bond of water have barriers located at -5.2 kcal/mol and 1.7 kcal/mol, respectively, with respect to CH3 + OH. From comparison of the computed energetics of the reactants and products to known thermochemical data it is estimated that the computed PES is accurate to plus or minus 2 kcal/mol.

Walch, Stephen P.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Theoretical characterization of the reaction CH3 + OH yields CH3OH yields products - The (1)CH2 + H2O, H2 + HCOH, and H2 + H2CO channels

The potential energy surface (PES) for the CH3OH system has been characterized for the (1)CH2 + H2O, H2 + HCOH, and H2 + H2CO product channels using complete-active-space self-consistent-field (CASSCF) gradient calculations to determine the stationary point geometries and frequencies followed by CASSCF/internally contracted configuration-interaction (CCI) calculations to refine the energetics. The (1)CH2 + H2O channel is found to have no barrier. The long range interaction is dominated by the dipole-dipole term, which orients the respective dipole moments parallel to each other but pointing in opposite directions. At shorter separations there is a dative bond structure in which a water lone pair donates into the empty 'a' orbital of CH2. Subsequent insertion of CH2 into an OH bond of water have barriers located at -5.2 kcal/mol and 1.7 kcal/mol, respectively, with respect to CH3 + OH. From comparison of the computed energetics of the reactants and products to known thermochemical data it is estimated that the computed PES is accurate to plus or minus 2 kcal/mol.

Walch, Stephen P.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Energy distribution among reaction products. VI - F + H2, D2.

Study of the F + H2 reaction, which is of special theoretical interest since it is one of the simplest examples of an exothermic chemical reaction. The FH2 system involves only 11 electrons, and the computation of a potential-energy hypersurface to chemical accuracy may now be within the reach of ab initio calculations. The 'arrested relaxation' variant of the infrared chemiluminescence method is used to obtain the initial vibrational, rotational and translational energy distributions in the products of exothermic reactions.

Polanyi, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1993

H2 in interstellar and extragalactic ices - Infrared characteristics, ultraviolet production, and implications

H2 is the most abundant molecule in the universe. We demonstrate that this molecule may be an important component of interstellar and possibly intergalactic ices, both because it can be formed in situ, within the ices, and because gas-phase H2 can freeze out onto dust grains in some astrophysical environments. The condensation-sublimation and infrared spectral properties of ices containing H2 are presented. We show that solid H2 in H2O-rich ices can be detected by an infrared absorption band at 4137/cm (2.417 microns). The surface binding energy of H2 to H2O ice was measured to be Delta-H(s)/k = 555 +/- 35 K. Surface binding energies can be used to calculate the residence times of H2 on grain surfaces as a function of temperature. Some of the implications of these results are considered.

Sandford, Scott A.↗
NASA NTRS1994

H2-rich interstellar grain mantles: An equilibrium description

Experiments simulating the codeposition of molecular hydrogen and water ice on interstellar grains demonstrate that amorphous water ice at 12 K can incorporate a substantial amount of H2, up to a mole ratio of H2/H2O = 0.53. We find that the physical behavior of approximately 80% of the hydrogen can be explained satisfactorily in terms of an equilibrium population, thermodynamically governed by a wide distribution of binding site energies. Such a description predicts that gas phase accretion could lead to mole fractions of H2 in interstellar grain mantles of nearly 0.3; for the probable conditions of WL5 in the rho Ophiuchi cloud, an H2 mole fraction of between 0.05 and 0.3 is predicted, in possible agreement with the observed abundance reported by Sandford, Allamandola, & Geballe. Accretion of gas phase H2 onto grain mantles, rather than photochemical production of H2 within the ice, could be a general explanation for frozen H2 in interstellar ices. We speculate on the implications of such a composition for grain mantle chemistry and physics.

Dissly, Richard W.↗
NASA NTRS2021

Plasma Assisted Trash Conversion with CO2 Carrier Gas

A sub-atmospheric plasma solid-to-gas conversion system operating under 500 W was tested to be viable for waste conversion to a gaseous state without the use of a feedstock gas as shown in previous plasma torch works. This manuscript lays the groundwork into the feasibility of low-pressure solid-to-gas conversion, reaction chemistry of the by-product gases, and power consumption. The results have shown the possibility of gasification at reduced pressures without the consumable use of a feedstock carrier gas in previous studies. Thus far, the percent gasification averaged around 36% in pre-pellet trials, with the system being far from optimized. The products include H2, CO2, CO, C2H4, and C2H6. Hydrogen production was higher as expected in a CO2-like environment once the gasification process begins. The energy required to generate the plasma was on the order of that previously reported at atmospheric pressures. The ability to eliminate the need for any consumables that were required in previous iterations greatly improves the cost and operational logistics of plasma gasification equipment. Although further development of the system is needed for increased gasification percentages, elimination of useable commodities greatly favors such a system for trash management beyond low Earth orbit.

Malay Shah↗