Purpose:

The purpose a fuel cell is to generate electricity without creating high amounts of pollution. The byproduct of a fuel cell is primarily water and hydrogen gas. This fuel cell acts like a rechargeable battery.

 

Theory:

When connected to a power source, a chemical reaction occurs in the water solution. The electrons from the lead connected to the positive side of the power source, detach themselves and combine with water molecules (H2O) to create Hydrogen ions. The ions, positively charge are attracted to the negatively charged lead. The Oxygen molecules are attracted to the positively charged lead.

When the leads are disconnected form the power source and connected to a power consuming electrical device such as an LED, the electrons in the solution flows form the negatives side, throw the LED to the positive side where they create another chemical reaction with the hydrogen and oxygen of the solution to give water. Thus the solution acts like a rechargeable battery. Some of the hydrogen is lost during the experiment because it evaporates.

A homemade hydrogen fuel cell generates a small amount of voltage. To produce more voltage, we need better materials and bigger containers. We could also connect the fuel cells in series thus creating a network.

 

 

 

Apparatus:

• Water container
• Iron leads (platinum leads for maximum and better experiment)
• Voltmeter
• Power source (Battery, circuit board)
• Water

Procedure

We used the elements listed in the apparatus to produce a homemade hydrogen cell.

We first put each end of the leads in the water and connected the other to the voltmeter. We measured the value to confirm that the solution does not have any voltage potential. The value recorded was 0 Volts.

Next, we disconnected the leads from the voltmeter and connected them to the power source for a certain amount of time.

We then, disconnected the power source and reconnected the voltmeter to observe the new voltage potential of the solution.

 

 

Analysis and conclusion:

After connecting the lead to a power source of 9V for 1,3 and 6 minutes, we measured the voltage potential of the solution each time. We repeated the experiment with power sources of 10 and 15 Volts. We got:

Voltage in Volts	Time in Minutes	Voltage produce in Volts	Slope
9	1	0.406	0.0608
	3	0.693
	6	0.71
10	1	0.451	0.0602
	3	0.74
	6	0.752
15	1	0.645	0.027
	3	0.7
	6	0.78

 

We were able to graph the result of each voltage and found that the less the voltage the better the slope.

The graphs can be access via this link:      https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2J1rZ3a4a9yV1l3QWxNcmowbzg/view?usp=sharing

We also noticed that when the solution is connected to the power source for 30 minutes, the leads start to erode and is no longer suitable for a good experiment. The higher the voltage is and the longer the time is spent charging, the solution will have produced greater amounts of electricity.

 

 

The Keystone pipeline is a project of a Canadian company that consist of creating an oil pipeline of 2,000 miles from Alberta, Canada to Gulf Coast of Texas, United States in January 2014. Another leg of pipeline have been installed already from Cushing,Oklahoma to Texas (1,700 miles).

The purpose of these pipelines is to carry unrefined oil to the refinery industries.The production is expected to be 700,000 to 830,000 barrels of oil a day from the Canadian soil.

According to TransCanada (The company in charge of the pipelines) the pipeline is to create approximately 500,000 jobs from the Canadian and American side. This number is for some, unrealistic. From the American side, the expected number is 20,000 jobs.

In March 2013, however, the State Department report stated that, the pipeline would create up to 42,000 jobs, including 3,900 construction jobs. Later on in July 2013, this report was refuted by President Obama who claimed that the actual number of jobs would only be around 50 to 100.

One concern of the environmentalists is the use of tar sands, which is a mixture of clay, sand, water and oil. Tar sands is said to be more corrosive than conventional oil prompting them to say that there is a high risk of pipelines leaks. However, all the incidents observed at the pipelines where not from leaks but valves and pump station, nevertheless we cannot ignore that these pipelines had contaminated the environment with oil.

In March 2013, in Mayflower, Arkansas, there was a tar-sands spill caused by a pipeline that burst. The consequence was more than 12,000 barrels of oil down residential streets and nature.

The Pipelines might be a be a good way to transport oil and create jobs but the environmental consequences and risks are bigger than what we would gain from them. I  do not support the installation and use of these pipelines. If a more secure and respect of the code is followed, we might find better ways to transport the tar-sands.

 

 

 

 

http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/keystone-xl-pipeline/

http://www.procon.org/headline.php?headlineID=005248

http://keystone-xl.com/

The Museum of Science in Boston in one of the best place learn various things about about history, the way some discoveries were made, application of physics and learn how scientists think.

Four out tour, we had the pleasure to see some exhibits:

Investigate:

This exhibit was about learning how scientists think and what they do. We learn that scientist are curious and in every aspect of their lives the think the same way, always trying to achieve their goal and going the extra mile for what the believe in.

They always want to learn why things happen the way they do. We got to see why when draining water it flow the way it does. It is because of the rotation of the water if the water is not moving before you drain it it will just get drain but if the water is moving in a specific direction, it will drain in that direction.

 

 

Conserve At Home:

We also learn that recycling garbage means we have waste less space.

 

Catching the Wind :

 

We learn how much power can be provided using wind and the different type of wind turbine exists, there limitation and efficiency.

We learn that wind is created from the difference in temperature of air molecules that had been heated by the sum, hot air moves upward and cool air takes it place creating wind.

The different type of turbines we saw were:

The best turbine for me is the AVX1000, even though individual turbine do not produce a lot of electricity, the group of them at a certain location can provide steady electricity.

 

Energized:

We got to learn that to be able to satisfy our need of energy we must explore all methods available to us, meaning renewable ( wind, solar, geothermal) and non-renewable source of energy (fossil fuel).