Nuclear Production of Hydrogen, Fourth Information Exchange ...

CHANGING THE WORLD WITH HYDROGEN AND NUCLEAR: FROM PAST SUCCESSES TO SHAPING THE FUTURE
dinosaurs were by far dominant and mammals, whose descendents we are, were a tiny minority.
Conditions created by the fall of the meteorite 65 million years ago caused the disappearance of
dinosaurs and survival of small mammals that were the odd part of the Earth population at that time.
This means that we need a fraction of odd members in a society to make it robust.
I hope we have a sufficient share of odd participants here!
Coming back to the advent of man, our ancestors could enjoy life on Earth at least 2 million years
before understanding how hydrogen and nuclear had been instrumental in supporting the
development of life, the advent of humans and their well-being.
Understanding and first uses of hydrogen
The discovery of hydrogen
Hydrogen was first identified as a distinct element in 1766 by the British scientist Henry Cavendish
after he evolved hydrogen gas by reacting zinc metal with hydrochloric acid. In a demonstration to
the Royal Society of London, Cavendish applied a spark to hydrogen gas yielding water. This discovery
led to his later finding that water (H 2 O) is made of hydrogen and oxygen.
Since then, hydrogen’s unique physical and chemical properties were at the origin of many
innovations that changed the world.
Hydrogen balloons
The first property of hydrogen that led to change the world in 1783 is its extremely light weight, when
Jacques Alexander Cesar Charles, a French physicist, launched the first hydrogen balloon flight. The
unmanned balloon flew to an altitude of three kilometres. Only three months later, Charles himself
flew in his first manned hydrogen balloon.
Airships or dirigibles
Airships or dirigibles were the first aircrafts to make controlled, powered flight, such that they
revolutionised the transport of heavy loads and passengers, including transatlantic flights. They were
extensively used during both world wars, but their use decreased over time as their capabilities were
surpassed by those of airplanes. Aggravating circumstances were a series of high-profile accidents
that included the 1937 burning of the Hindenburg near Lakewood, New Jersey, after ten successful
trans-Atlantic flights. This accident caused the end of the commercial operation of airships. They are
still used today in certain niche applications such as tourism, heavy lifting, aerial observation
platforms, where the ability to hover in one place for an extended period outweighs the need for
speed and manoeuvrability.
The discovery of the electrolysis and the fuel cell
Building on the discoveries of Cavendish, the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier in 1788 gave hydrogen
its name, which was derived from the Greek words “hydro” and “genes”, meaning “water” and “born of”.
By the way, “born of water” is also the name we might all bear as the origin of life on Earth took
place in the oceans…
In 1800 English scientists William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle discovered “electrolysis” in
finding out that applying electric current to water produced hydrogen and oxygen gases. The “fuel cell
effect”, combining hydrogen and oxygen gases to produce water and an electric current, was
discovered in 1838 by Swiss chemist Christian Friedrich Schoenbein. In 1845 Sir William Grove, an
English scientist and judge demonstrated Schoenbein’s discovery on a practical scale by creating a
“gas battery”. He earned the title “Father of the fuel cell” for his achievement. The name “fuel cell”
was finally given in 1889 by Ludwig Mond and Charles Langer to the device that they had attempted
to build and that was using air and industrial coal gas. As early as the 1920s the German engineer
Rudolf Erren converted the internal combustion engines of trucks, buses and submarines to use
hydrogen or hydrogen mixtures.
NUCLEAR PRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN – © OECD/NEA 2010 23