Electrochemistry for Ecologists

211 Pages·1974·4.604 MB·English

by  J. O’M. Bockris, Z. Nagy (auth.)

Electrochemistry
for Ecologists
Electrochemistry
for Ecologists
1. O'M. Bockris
School of Physical Sciences
The Flinders University of South Australia
Adelaide, Australia
and
z.
Nagy
Diamond Shamrock Corporation
Painesville, Ohio
U.S.A.
PLENUM PRESS • NEW YORK-LONDON
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Bockris, John O'M
Electrochemistry for ecologists.
Bibliography: p.
1. Electrochemistry, Industrial. 2. Environmental protection. I. Nagy, Zoltan,
1933- joint author. II. Title. [DNLM: 1. Air pollution. 2. Ecology. 3. Electro-
chemistry. 4. Environmental health. 5. Refuse disposal. WA750 B665e 1973]
TP255.B6 621.35 73-84003
ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-2060-9 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-2058-6
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4684-2058-6
© 1974 Plenum Press, New York
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1974
A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation
227 West 17th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011
United Kingdom edition published by Plenum Press, London
A Division of Plenum Publishing Company, Ltd.
Davis House (4th Floor), 8 Scrubs Lane, Hariesden, London NWI0 6SE, England
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without
written permission from the publisher
Preface
The present decade might be described as one in which man
in the affluent countries is finally realizing that there is a bill to pay
at the end of the feast-a feast at which he has eaten without
inhibition, without knowing there was any need for inhibition.
But now, with the situation fully clear, there is a strange non
plussedness about man's reactions. More oil wells are sought,
and clean-up packages are proposed for the same old cars.
There is no real awareness yet that this is the end of an era, that
quite new technologies have to be built up, and that the time
remaining for this is a shatteringly short 15-30 years.
However, there are sources of energy other than the fossil
fuels. Oil and natural gas will run out (i.e., become too expensive)
in any case during the next two or three decades. There seems
little point in waiting until fuel is actually rationed and cars
can only be used to move from home through smog to work
before we change to these new and clean sources. The time to
start the change is now, for there is much to be done.
But new power sources yielding abundant, cheap electricity
are no good unless we can use the energy cleanly and run an
affluent society which does not have a limited lifetime and does
not have to be restricted to one-third of the population. We have
to put foward proposals to make these things possible, but be-
v
vi Preface
fore we do so, the reality of the "spaceship Earth" concept
must sink in: there is just so much material here, and the only
way to go on and on using materials is complete recycling.
This then is the background of our attempt to present
electrochemical science to the ecologist. It is necessary to state
this background to explain the form of the book. We believe
we have a big message: that exciting new aspects of a quite old
science will be particularly relevant in the newly evolving world
we have to build. So, to whom should we address the book?
On the one hand, it is clear that the professional working full
time in a scientific field related to energy resources or pollution
control is the primary potential reader. On the other hand, the
issues are so big and of such general interest that there seems a
need to try to communicate to a much, much wider audience,
perhaps to the intelligent layman, the New York Times reader.
We contemplated producing a journalistic effort, but finally
we drew back. Perhaps we should have tried to convince the
largest possible number of people of our views, but it is not
our aim to produce emotional converts. Our case can be made
in terms of facts and ideas, and what we have to say about
energy, pollution, and resources is very clear. But understanding
it does require some science, some chemistry; we want our reader
to become convinced by understanding our reasoning, for the
penny to drop in his own mind. We want to write for the Scienti
fic American reader.
So, finally, we compromised and wrote a fairly chatty
main part of the book, which can be understood with high
school chemistry. Then we wrote three appendices which can
easily be understood by freshman chemists at universities-or
indeed by those who know or remember a modern high school
chemistry course.
This book is not intended to teach electrochemistry, but
to show what a normal spread of information and research in
electrochemistry could do to make a balanced world in the
future.
One of us (Z.N.) wants to express his appreciation to the
management of the Divisional Technical Center (Electro-
Preface vii
chemical Division) of Diamond Shamrock Chemical Company
for their encouragement and help during the writing of this book.
J. O'M. Bockris
School of Physical Sciences
The Flinders University of South Australia
Adelaide, Australia
Z. Nagy
Diamond Shamrock Corporation
Painesville, Ohio 44077
United States of America
Reading List
R.W. Murray and CN. Reilly, Electroanalytical Principles,
Wiley, New York, 1963.
B.E. Conway, Theory and Principles oj Electrode Processes,
Ronald Press, New York, 1965.
R. Jasinski, High-Energy Batteries, Plenum Press, New York,
1967.
J .O'M. Bockris and S. Srinivasan, Fuel Cells: Their Electro
chemistry, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1969.
J.O'M Bockris and A.K.N. Reddy, Modern Electrochemistry,
Plenum Press, New York, 1970.
A.T. Kuhn (editor), Industrial Electrochemical Processes, El
sevier, New York, 1971.
J.O'M. Bockris and D. Drazic, Electrochemical Science, Taylor
and Francis, London, 1972.
J.O'M. Bockris (editor), Electrochemistry oj Cleaner Environ
ments, Plenum Press, 1972.
L. Antropov, Theoretical Electrochemistry, Mir Publishers,
Moscow, 1972.
J.O'M. Bockris and R. Fredlein, Workbook oJElectrochemistry,
Plenum Press, 1973.
J.O'M. Bockris, N. Bonciocat, and F. Gutmann, A Primer
in Electrochemistry, Wykeham Press, London, 1973.
ix
Contents
Chapter 1
Ecology and Electrochemistry
1.1. The Rapid Development of Fears about
Pollution ............................ .
1.2. The Most Pressing Ecological Danger:
Damage to the Atmosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3. The Necessity to Stop the Burning of Fossil
Fuels as the Source of Energy at the
Earliest Moment ....................... 5
1.4. Replacement of Fossil Fuels ................ 5
1.5. Electricity and Hydrogen: The Only
Media of Energy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.6. Implications for Electrochemical Science . . . . . . . 7
1.7. What Is Electrochemical Science? .. . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.8. The Coming Change to Electricity and Hydrogen
as the Media of Energy Implies an Extensive
Electrochemical Technology .............. 10
1.9. Purposes and Limitations of This Book ....... 10
1.10. Research and Development in
Electrochemistry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
xi
xii Contents
Chapter 2
Some Consequences of the Present Energy Policy
2.1. The Short-Range Effect of Burning Fossil Fuels 15
2.2. An Effect of Burning Fossil Fuels to Their End 16
2.3. A Little-Known Effect of Fossil Fuel Burning. . . 16
2.4. The Temperature of the Atmosphere Depends
on the Carbon Dioxide Content . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.5. The Carbon Dioxide Balance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.6. The Effect of the Sea on the Carbon Dioxide
Equilibrium .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.7. Effect of Removal of Photosynthesizers . . . . . . . . 20
2.8. Predicted Increase of Carbon Dioxide. . . . . . . . . 21
2.9. Results of the Increase of Temperature of the
Atmosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.10. Possible Delaying Tactics to the Effect of
Atmospheric Pollutants ................. 22
2.11. What Is the Present Energy Policy in the
U.S.A.? .............................. 24
2.12. Internal Political Aspects of the Relation of
Pollution to an Energy Policy ............. 24
2.13. External Political Consequences of the Present
Energy Policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.14. Conclusions............................. 27
Chapter 3
Future Energy Sources
3.1. Some Promising Sources of the Future ........ 29
3.2. Atomic Fission, the First Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.3. Breeder Reactors, an Interim Solution? . . . . . . . . 31
3.4. Fusion, the Energy Source of the Stars ........ 33
3.5. Direct Capture of the Sun's Radiated Energy ... 36
3.6. Some Comparisons and Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . 39
3.7. Can We Use Unlimited Amounts of Energy?
The Heat Pollution Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.8. Some Common Characteristics of the Future
Energy Sources and Their Consequences . . . . . . . 45
Contents xiii
Chapter 4
Electrochemical Sources of Power: Batteries
4.1. The Need for Electrochemical Power Sources 47
4.2. There Are Two Types of Electrochemical
Power Sources ......................... 48
4.3. The Principles of Batteries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.4. Requirements for Electric Transportation . . . . . . 53
4.5. Characteristics of Present Batteries ........... 55
4.6. Some Promising Batteries Presently in
Development ....................... . . . 57
4.7. Some Obstacles to Be Overcome in Developing the
Needed Battery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.8. Nonrechargeable Batteries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.9. Electricity Storage with Fuel Cells. . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Chapter 5
Electrochemical Sources of Power: Fuel Cells
5.1. The Principle of Fuel Cells. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
S.2. Some Fuel Cell Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.3. Overall Characteristics of Fuel Cells, Examined
with the Electric Car in Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.4. Further Uses of Fuel Cells. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.5. The"Most Developed Fuel Cell System ........ 72
5.6. Objective Factors Which Affect the Progress of
Fuel Cells. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.7. What Electrochemical Power Sources Will Run
Cars in the Near Future? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.8. Illusions with Respect to the Electric
Automobile ........................... 80
5.9. Summary of the Situation with Regard to
Electrochemical Power Sources ............ 82
Chapter 6
The Hydrogen Economy
6.1. The Inevitability of an All-Electric Economy. . . . 85