Sub Question #1 : What is Hydrogen?
Hydrogen is an element in the Periodic Table of Elements. It is represented by the symbol H. It has the atomic weight of 1.00794 – 1.0081. It is considered the first element for it is labeled “Hydrogen, H, 1”. It’s the most abundant element in the universe, taking up approximately 9/10 of it, the second most, Helium, being most of the remaining 10%. Hydrogen is normally a gas. Hydrogen has 3 forms. Its most common form is normally known as Hydrogen namesake to the element that it’s a form of. Protium is the scientific name for this form, and the other two are called by their “real” names that I’ll tell you about later. Protium is the only thing (element) that exists without a single neutron. It has one Proton and one Electron. Over 99% of Hydrogen found naturally is Protium. Most Protium is positively charged. Protium is a stable and non-radioactive atom. What can differ between different forms is the Neutron and sometimes Electron count. The thing that makes it Hydrogen and not another element is the Proton count. Deuterium is the next isotope, or another form. It is represented as H2, and the letter symbol is D. Deuterium, unlike protium, has one Neutron as well as the Electron and Proton. Deuterium, like Protium, is a stable atom. Deuterium makes up all the remaining natural Hydrogen. Before I go further, I have to explain what the three mentioned particles are. But don’t worry, I’ll get to the 3rd isotope shortly. All three (Electrons, Protons and Neutrons) are particles that make up atoms. Protons have a positive charge. Electrons have a negative charge. Electrons also reside in an outer “shell”. “And what about the Neutrons?? What charge could they have??” you might ask. Who said they had to have one? Actually, Neutrons have no charge. Some people claim that atoms are the smallest things in the universe. That is utterly wrong. Protons and Neutrons are made of Quarks, and Electrons are made of Leptons. No, not the tea company Lipton. These Quarks and Leptons are in fact the smallest known things in the universe. So now the third and final isotope, which is Tritium. Tritium has one more neutron than Deuterium, and isn’t stable but definitely radioactive unlike Protium and Deuterium because of this extra Neutron. Tritium is represented by H3 and its letter symbol is T. Tritium is a glow-in-the-dark substance when combined with other elements. It is not found anywhere in nature, and can only be made in a lab. The process is really expensive. In fact, it is so expensive to make that the U.S banned Tritium keychains claiming that the usage of such a rare material with nothing significant enough to be worth the expense. However, they did allow the production of Tritium for glow in the dark watches. Hydrogen in general in its pure form has no colour, taste, smell nor any hint of acidic chemicals. This makes it undetectable without the appropriate gear. It is non-metallic, and highly combustible.
In the periodic table, Hydrogen is located in group and period 1. It’s melting point is -259.16C, or -434.49F, and it’s boiling point is -252.879C or -423.182F.
A Protium atom A Deuterium atom A Tritium atom
Sub Question 2# : What are the different ways the universe naturally uses Hydrogen?
Hydrogen, as I mentioned, makes up 90% of the universe. 75% of normal matter (not including antimatter) is Hydrogen. This means the universe can naturally use it in many different ways. The most well known way it does, is by fusing it in the center of stars to keep them running. 6 million tons of Hydrogen is consumed by the sun every second, even at night because night is your part of the planet not facing the sun. It fills up the “empty” space that comes between objects. So once you’re out of the atmosphere, you’re in a load of Hydrogen. When Hydrogen interacts with solar winds, it often causes auroras and Birkeland currents (for explantation see link below). There is plenty of regions of ionized Hydrogen, like NGC 604 and the Eagle Nebula, which are extremely beautiful.
Ice, water and water vapour (basically all forms of water) contain Hydrogen. In water there is 2 Hydrogen atoms and 1 Oxygen atom, which is why it’s called H2O. The Oxygen atom is why fish can breath under water. H+3 (also known as 3 Hydrons in one or Protonated Molecular Hydrogen) is found in the Interstellar Medium and the upper atmosphere of Jupiter. It is found in rocks and minerals. One such crystal is scolecite. In the Earth’s crust, the estimate abundance is 1/1500, making it the 10th most abundant. It is scarcely found in the atmosphere, with 0.000055% of it being Hydrogen.
Now, after all this information, you might be wondering why all of this may be important. Well, you may be surprised to know that nearly ⅔ (62%) of the human body by atom count is Hydrogen. The second most, Oxygen, only accounts for 24%. A majority of the Oxygen and Hydrogen counts is found in the water in your body.
NGC 604 An aurora in Estonia Eagle Nebula
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOo3uWP0ems
Sub Question 3# : How was Hydrogen used in the past?
In the past, Hydrogen was used in many interesting ways. One such was in lamps. Dobereiner lamps, to be exact (for how they work, see link below). While popular they were widespread, and lost popularity over 50 years after its invention to newer technologies. Hydrogen was also used in hot air balloons. For a short while, Hydrogen was a popular fuel source for transportation during the 1973 oil crisis. After the oil crisis ended, Hydrogen stopped being used as a fuel. Many of the past uses are still used today. However, I can tell you the first form of transportation that ran on Hydrogen was a tractor. At the very beginning, “flammable air” was used to help out in experiments with other substances. It was used for experiments on other elements, and still is but not as much. Fuel Cells was used on the Gemini mission and since then has been used for heating, electricity and water for the astronauts in Apollo spacecraft and all missions that came after.
Döbereiner’s lamp Hot air balloon
Sub Question #4 : How is Hydrogen used on earth today?
Hydrogen is used in many different ways in the modern world. Remember how I told you that Tritium is radioactive? Well that is a very important property. Our Earth is suffering because of Uranium drilling. Uranium was used for various uses including nuclear bombs. So some scientists around the world told their governments to use something else that won’t harm the environment, something that can be made in a lab. They suggested that they should use Tritium( a form of Hydrogen) because it can definitely be made in a lab and it’s radioactive. So now there is Tritium nuclear bombs. Not very good, is it? I didn’t think so either. Hydrogen is also used in the production of ammonia, which is most important use is the production of fertilizers. Ammonia is made when Hydrogen is combined with Nitrogen. Hydrogen is also used as a Reducer that reduces metal to their pure forms. It does this by taking the oxygen out from the metal. When Hydrogen combines with Carbon Monoxide (CO) it forms “Wood Alcohol”, a chemical you might know as Methanol. Hydrogen is used in Hydrogenation which is used to make margarine, cyclohexane (a component of nylon), oil and crude petroleum. This means Hydrogen plays a big part in modern society. I mean, who thought it would even help supply oil? Hydrogen is found in the chemical Hydrogen Peroxide, which combined with water (which also includes Hydrogen) makes an antiseptic, and Hydrogen Peroxide on it’s own can be used as a bleach. It is found in Ethyl Alcohol, which is used in many adult’s favourite, beer, another popular drink wine and many other alcoholic beverages. As I mentioned earlier, Tritium is also used in glow in the dark watches where the face is lit up when in the dark. Hydrogen is often used as a cooler in turbogenerators. It is found in Nickel-Hydrogen batteries, which power the Hubble Space Telescope. The batteries in the Hubble lasted around a decade more that they were designed to. In weather balloons, they are used as the lifter that lifts them into the upper atmosphere. Before, they were used for air balloons, but Helium took over around 80 years ago. Now, Hydrogen is only used for the lifting of non-manned balloons. It is starting to be used as fuel for cars and other forms of transportation but isn’t the main fuel quite yet. Finally, it’s very most important and famous use, rocket fuel. That’s right, rocket fuel. Rockets burn Hydrogen to make them go.
Tritium watch An explosion of a Tritium bomb
Sub Question 5# What Inventions and events affected Hydrogen usage?
For this question, I’m going to do the events in order by year. First and foremost, we have to start from the very beginning. Like you may have expected, the first thing on this list is it’s discovery. It was first classified in the mid-17th century (1671) by Robert Boyle. However, it was mistaken to be a form of air, called “flammable air” because it is flammable like you already knew. Nearly a century later, in 1766, it is rediscovered by Henry Cavendish and it’s classified as its own element. However, he cannot name it. Later in 1783, Antoine Lavoisier, a Frenchman, named it Hydro-gen, meaning water-former in Greek. This became Hydrogen when it was given its official name. Antoine Lavoisier beame to be known as the father of modern chemistry. In that same year, Jacque Charles and Nicolas Robert made a Hydrogen balloon that worked quite successfully. He named it “La Charlier”.
In 1800, two englishmen (William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle) discovered the process of electrolysis and how it worked. Edward Daniel Clark invents a Hydrogen blowpipe in 1819. This won’t be the last type of Hydrogen blowpipe though… Not long later, in 1823, 3 big things happened.
1, a Hydrogen and Oxygen blowpipe was invented. Told you!
2, the Dobereiner lamp was invented. It was used until the 1880s. It was invented by Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner. I have no idea why it was named “Dobereiner lamp”. How odd.
And number 3, limelight was invented by, like the 2nd blowpipe, Goldsworthy Gurney. For why this is related see the link below.
3 years later(1826), Thomas Drummond built the modern form of limelight, called Drummond light, with the functions that the diagram below shows. 10 years later, on the year celebrating the 70th birthday of Hydrogen, a “primary cell” is invented by John Frederic Daniell. It eliminates Hydrogen in the generation of the energy it creates.
In 1838, Christian Friedrich Schonbein discoveres the “fuel cell effect”. This discovery will go on to be very, very important. The following year, (100 years prior to WWII) he had his ideas published in a newspaper. Clearly this newspaper article made waves, because in the same year Sir William Robert Grove made a form of fuel cell with similar principles that he named “The Grove Cell”. He also made a “gas voltaic battery” which was a proper fuel cell in 1842. Not much happened in the next 3 years or so. But 3 years later, Sir William Grove (again) made a fuel cell that could be used on a practical scale. This was the achievement that gave him the title “Father of the Fuel Cell”, but his previous achievements can’t be ignored.
In 1863, the Hippomobile, an internal combustion engine Hydrogen powered car, is invented by Etienne Lenoir and driven from Paris to Joinville-le-Pont. In Hydrogen’s 100th birthday, 1866, August Wilhelm von Hofmann invented a tube that helped with electrolysis called the Hofmann voltameter. In 1874, Jules Verne introduces the idea that Hydrogen could be a possible fuel source in his fiction book, Mystery Island. “Water will one day be employed as fuel, and the Hydrogen and Oxygen of which it is constituted will be used.” Those are his exact words. A decade later, in 1884, Arthur Constantin Krebs and Charles Renard launched an airship, the La France. Airships will become a huge part of Hydrogen history, Gigantic. Humongous! Ludwig Mond and Carl Langer tried to make a fuel cell with air and coal in 1889. They gave the fuel cell its name. They gave it a sweeeeet name though. In 1895 Hydrogen Hydrolysis is discovered. However, I don’t know who discovered it. In 1896, Jackson D.D and Ellms J.W discovered Hydrogen production from microalgae, microscopic algae( a type of plant). In 1897, Paul Sabatier made hydrogenation much easier with his discovery of the Sabatier reaction, which is named after him (which was revealed to the public in 1910 and he received the Nobel Prize for it in 1912).
One year later (1898), James Dewar liquified Hydrogen. If you want to know what it is used for, check the second link below.
In the dawn of a new century, 1900, Count Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin made the first Hydrogen filled airship, LZ1. In other words, he made a truly successful airship that ran on Hydrogen. However, I don’t know why he did it at dawn, when it is nearly dark. Oh wait, it was dawn of century, not day. The next day, wait no, year, a German scientist discovered the Hydrogenation of fats. Oh and I nearly forgot, the scientist’s name was Wilhelm Normann.
In 1907, a Lane Hydrogen Producer is created. It was based off of principles laid out by Englishman Howard Lane in 1903.
In 1909, Count Zeppelin made his first long distance flight with his zeppelins. This time, he called it LZ5. LaZy 5.
In 1910, 2 things happen. Let’s go!! First, Zeppelin made the first passenger flight with the zeppelin LZ7. Second, Fritz Haber patented the “Haber process”, which will help create ammonia.
In 1912, the first scheduled international flight happened with the LZ13.
In 1919, for Zeppelin’s disappointment, William Beardmore made the first Hydrogen airship to complete an Atlantic flight. The airship was named the “Beamore HMA R34”.
In 1920, a Hydrogenation of brown coal plant is commissioned in Leuna, Germany. 3 years later, the first synthetic methanol is produced in the same town, Leuna. Somewhere in the 1920s, Rudolf Erren changed some engines to make it so they could run on Hydrogen. These engines were of many different vehicles like trucks and car, but they weren’t used. Finally, a normal name for something. In the year of 1926, Italian Umberto Nobile flies over the North Pole with a Hydrogen airship, the Norge. He is the first to do so. In 1930, Rudolf (the rednosed reindeer) Erren made improvements to the Hydrogen engine with a engine name I’m not going to list it’s so long. In 1937, the Hindenburg disaster occured. This ended travel by Hydrogen zeppelin, but it may not have been the Hydrogen that made it go down. It is theorised to have been a spark of electricity igniting the skin. The same year, the first use of Hydrogen as a cooler in a turbogenerator in Ohio. In 1939, the year WWII, Rudolf Erren made improvements to his precious engine for the second and last time. In 1943, liquid Hydrogen is tested as rocket fuel in Ohio University. Much later, in 1952, Ivy Mike was tested. You may not have heard of Ivy Mike. Ivy Mike was the first successful bomb based on Hydrogen (Deuterium) fusion. This was a biiig moment. In 1957, Pratt & Whitney tested a liquid hydrogen jet, model 304, as part of the Lockheed CL-400 Suntan project. Now Hydrogen poses as a possible jet fuel. In 1958 NASA formed and it took of. Haha! But nowadays NASA uses more liquid Hydrogen than anyone else in the whole entire planet. As well as that, Allis and Chalmers became the first to make a 15Kw tractor, the D12. In 1959, Francis Tea And Bacon made the first useful fuel cell, the Bacon cell. What’s that? It’s Francis T. Bacon? Oh. Anyways, his fuel cell got NASA interested in his fuel cells. In 1960, Allis and Chalmers made the first Hydrogen fuel cell forklift. The following year, the RL-10 became the first rocket engine to take flight. In 1964, Allis and Chalmers made a 750w fuel cell to power a one man fuel cell undersea exploration. In the wonderful year of 1965, the first commercial use of a fuel cell in Project Gemini happened. And, because it was so fabulous, Allis & Chalmers made the first fuel cell golf cart. In Hydrogen 200th Bday year, General Motors introduced Electrovan to the world. Electrovan was the world’s first Hydrogen powered auto. J-2 rocket engine that runs on liquid Hydrogen flies. In 1970, the nickel Hydrogen battery is invented. The inventor I do not know, unfortunately. In 1973, an oil crisis occured for a while that made Hydrogen really popular for a while. It became to be known as the 1973 Oil crisis. In 1974, the IAHE (International Association for Hydrogen Energy) founded after THEME, a Hydrogen energy conference in Miami. That same year, the IEA founded. This was the International Energy Association. It ran Hydrogen energy research programs. In 1979, the HM7B rocket engine is used in a lot of Europe, and it runs on Hydrogen. The Space Shuttle Main Engine first flies in 1981. As you can tell, it runs on Hydrogen. In 1988, The Soviet Union Tupolev Design Bureau converted a TU-154 passenger get capable of holding 164 passengers to run one of the 3 engines on Hydrogen. The first flight it had lasted a whole 21 minutes. The following year, 1989, the National Hydrogen Association formed. This meant now there was a lot of attention on the matter of it powering your christmas tree decorations. In the start of a new decade, 1990, the world’s first sun powered Hydrogen production plant opened at Solar-Wasserstoff-Bayern. That same year, the Hydrogen Technical Advisory Panel was founded in the U.S. They immediately started work on a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell in partnership with Ballard power systems, GM and a handful of others. In 1994 (a year before the mass wave of Cuban immigration), Daimler Benz introduced NECAR (New Energy CAR) which was a car that ran on fuel cells. It was introduced in a press conference in Ulm, Germany. In 1997, Daimler Benz and Ballard agreed to dish out $300 million to conduct Hydrogen power research. In the following year, Iceland promised to have a Hydrogen economy by the year 2030. At some point, they changed the goal to 2050. Also in the year of 1998, the Germans ordered 4 of the submarine Type 212, which ran on PEM fuel cells. In 1999, Shell (a english fueling company) made a Hydrogen division, with the first Hydrogen fuel stations in all of Europe opening in Hamburg and Munich. To make it two straight years of pair moments, the same year New Business Venture Fund paired with Shell, DaimlerChrysler(a combo of Daimler Benz and Chrysler) and Norsk Hydro to form Icelandic Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Company to further the Hydrogen economy in Iceland. In 2000, the start of yet another century, Ballard presented the first production ready PEM fuel cell for automobile applications. In 2002, the type 214 submarine was invented. It has a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM), and is used by the Turkish, Portuguese, South Korean and the Hellenic (Greek) navyes, with the Pakistan navy being interested. In that same year, the first Hydrail became operational in Quebec. A Hydrail is a Hydrogen train. In 2003, George W. Bush announced a $1.2 billion dollar initiative for Hydrogen inquiry. In 2004, the U.S’s energy secretary devoted $350M of the alloted money for Hydrogen vehicle demonstrations. In 2004, the first Hydrogen submarine went through testing. By 2005, 23 U.S states have Hydrogen facilIties. By 2010, every highway in California had a Hydrogen refueling station In 2016, Toyota launched its first fuel cell car, the Mirai. And finally, in 2017, the Hydrogen Council founded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limelight#/media/File:Limelight_diagram.svg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_hydrogen
As a conclusion, Hydrogen is a gas with different forms. Each form has different properties. Hydrogen is found in most places in the universe, including you. It was used in many of the same ways as today, with some exceptions. Hydrogen has many uses in the modern world including ones you may not expect. Hydrogen has a rich history, with sudden outbursts of activity going on, especially in the mid-late 20th century. That’s all, and I hope you enjoyed my blog post.
