Hydrogen for automotive applications ?

A brief historical reminder.

Tom Govers

SASP 2008

For more quantitative considerations,

please refer to the SASP 2008 abstracts

and to the "Hydrogen" page of

www.aecono.com

After the French Revolution, the new rulers

became interested in using balloons to

observe enemy manoeuvres.

They appointed scientist Charles Coutelle to

conduct studies using

” l'Entreprenant ”,

a hydrogen-filled balloon

and the world's first military reconnaissance

aircraft.

The balloon found its first use

in the 1794 Battle of Fleurus,

a small town near Charleroi,

in what is now (still ?) Belgium.

The area seems to have been one of Europe's

favourite battle grounds.

1431, Incendie de la ville, après passage à la souveraineté des Ducs de Bourgogne

1554 et 1556 Pillage de Fleurus par les troupes françaises d'Henri II

1622 : première bataille de Fleurus, gagnée par Don Gonzalès de Cordoue (Spain against the army hired by the protestant Netherlands)

1690 : deuxième bataille de Fleurus, remportée par l'armée de Louis XIV, dit le Roy Soleil (France against the Grand Alliance)

1701 à 1714, guerre de succession d'Espagne avec de nombreux passages de troupes

1794 : troisième bataille de Fleurus où l'armée révolutionnaire de Jourdan bat Cobourg (France against the Austrians)

1815 : bataille de Ligny - Fleurus qui vit la défaite de Napoléon à Waterloo (France against the rest of Europe)

Thus, citoyen scientist Coutelle became

captain in the French revolutionary army

and commander of

the world’s first air force squadron.

Citoyen scientist

Lavoisier,

who had demonstrated

that water is made up

of hydrogen and

oxygen,

was not so fortunate.

He was beheaded that same year of 1794.

When he asked for additional time

to complete his last experiment,

the " Court’s " chairman responded :

" La République n'a pas besoin de savants ni

de chimistes ; le cours de la justice ne peut

être suspendu."

In fact, Lavoisier's execution was urgent

because he was wealthy, and because the

"République" needed money to pay its

soldiers.

To fill the balloon, Coutelle used an on-site

hydrogen generator developed at

the Meudon research centre.

Sustainable energy was provided by copious

amounts of firewood.

It took between 36 and 40 hours to fill the

balloon, which carried two observers.

Purified water was thermally decomposed

in incandescent cast-iron tubes

filled with iron turnings that ensured

thermal contact and acted as an oxygen getter.

Coutelle’s balloon contributed significantly to the French victory

In 1789 Napoleon was elected member of the French Academy of Sciences

In 1799, he staged a coup d'état and became First Consul of the French Republic

In 1801 he was appointed President of the French Academy of Sciences

In 1803 he became Mediator of the Swiss Republic

In 1804 he crowned himself Emperor of the French

In 1805 he was crowned King of Italy

Napoleon knew how to recognise a brilliant

scientist when he met one.

In June of 1800,

First Consul Napoleon,

to whom Volta had first paid his respects in 1796,

granted the scientist from Como tenure

as Professor of Experimental Physics

at the University of Pavia.

In 1801 Volta went to Paris, accompanied by

Brugnatelli, to demonstrate the research work

that had led him to the invention of the battery.

In the presence of First Consul Napoleon,

he read his

"Memoria sull'identità del fluido elettrico

col fluido galvanico",

and received a gold medal in recognition of his

outstanding scientific contributions.

The first French Republic

was rather short-lived.

In 1805,

Emperor Napoleon awarded Count Volta of Como

the Légion d'Honneur,

and granted him a life-long pension of

4000 francs per year.

Keenly interested in the

practical implementations of science,

Volta's many achievements included the demonstration

that hydrogen can be produced by electrolysis,

and that an electric spark will provoke

an explosive reaction in a hydrogen oxygen mixture.

More than two hundred years ago it had thus

been demonstrated that

hydrogen can be extracted from water

by thermal decomposition or by electrolysis,

and that "on-site" production can be achieved

at or near the site of utilisation.

And on January 30, 1807, Isaac de Rivaz,

of the City of Sion, Republic of Valais,

filed a patent application for the

"invention of the principle, means and

procedures by which the deflagration of the

flammable gas is used to impart motion to

machines of different kinds".

The flammable gas was a mixture of air and

hydrogen, and it was ignited by an electric spark.

Excerpts from the application certificate

delivered by the French Minister of the Interior

and from de Rivaz' description of his invention

are reproduced below, courtesy of

the Archives de l'Etat du Valais in Sion,

where the originals are conserved.

Four months later, on May 31, 1807,

Emperor Napoleon confirmed the grant of a

15 year patent to Isaac de Rivaz,

of the Republic of Valais, for his discovery of

the hydrogen-fuelled Internal Combustion

engine. The decree was published in the

October 1807 issue of the "Bulletin des Lois de

l'Empire Français".

A numerical reproduction of the Bulletin des Lois can be found on Gallica, the site of the

Bibliothèque Nationale de France http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k445358t

The numerical copy of de Rivaz' handwritten description of his invention was kindly provided

by the Archives de l'Etat du Valais http://www.vs.ch/Navig/navig.asp?MenuID=1902

A miniature model of de Rivaz’

environmental-friendly hydrogen powered

automobile

is on exhibit in the museum in Martigny:

http://www.martigny.ch/pagetype.cfm?page=pages/

fr/culture_musees.cfm&sousmenuId

=28&section=1&langue=en

Two hundred years later,

BMW's misleading publicity campaign could at

best be viewed as a tribute

to Isaac de Rivaz' remarkable invention.

Thanks for your interest ! The ppt file is be available at www.aecono.com