Hydrogen Peroxide Safety Info

I am researching an automotive application for H2O2 as a fuel. This will involve the decomposition of high concentration H2O2 within an internal combustion engine. My background is Industrial Design & Technology - I'm not a chemist as you will no doubt realise very quickly!

I am looking for information regarding the safe handling, storage, use, transportation and pressurisation of H2O2 at high concentrations.

Is it true that Stainless Steel and Aluminium are SAFE materials for use with H2O2?

Which polymers would be best suited to the storage and piping of H2O2?

Stabilisers are usually added to H2O2 to prevent accidental decomposition with contaminants. Can these be removed easily in a process that could be incorporated into the fuel system of a vehicle? What environmental impact would that process have, if any?

Is there a process that could be used to increase the concentration of H2O2 within the fuel system of a vehicle?

Any info or useful web links would be appreciated.

Colin:

This is an excellent example of a hazardous compound that should be handled with respect and experience. l would hope any other readers of this thread who have had the experience of designing and handling systems for Hydrogen Peroxide will pitch in and contribute what they can.

1) Stainless steel (316 ELC) is what I consider the material of choice for this service. I strongly recommend that you make a thorough canvas of all your potential (or existing) Peroxide suppliers and obtain their firm and detailed instructions on how best to receive, unload, handle and store their product. They are the experts - and I am speaking about the manufacturers, not the sales distributors. All stainless steel should be passivated before use. The passivation step is considered essential and, again, experts should be consulted on this step being carried out correctly. There is a short but interesting article on this subject in the "Archives" of this ChEResources website. Be sure to read it and research it if you are not familiar with the passivation step. I would not use any piping less than schedule 40, butt-welded & radiographed, for mechanical integrity and reliability.

2) I personally would not trust a polymer as a material of construction for this service. However, once again, you should get this confirmed with your manufacturer expert.

3) I have not used any stabilizer with Hydrogen Peroxide and do not know of any. That doesn't mean there aren't any out there. Again, I wouldn't trust any compound to safely "stabilize" the decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide. We resort to using Hydrogen Peroxide because it is a powerful and potent oxidizer. We all know (or we should!) that it is notorious for its instability during storage and handling: it decomposes into Oxygen gas.

4) I don't understand what you mean by "increase the concentration of H2O2 within the fuel system of a vehicle". If you are feeding pure H2O2 into the engine, the concentration will be 100%; if you feed 50% H2O2, the concentration will be 50%; etc., etc.

I don't worry about you not being a Chemist; I would certainly worry (as would any Chemist) if you are not an engineer. Engineers make the science work. Chemist experiment with science. That's why engineers are experts in safety and its applications and it is they, not the scientists, who are called upon to make an industrial apparatus work safely. I would not attempt any application of H2O2 in an internal combustion engine unless the design and application was thoroughly reviewed and approved by a professional, registered engineer and a series of Hazops was done prior to any attempt to operate the engine. Unless you have had prior experience handling and working with H2O2, you can't imagine the seriousness of what I'm recommending.

For practical background information on the hazards of H2O2, I recommend you read the history and facts behind the August 2000 incident that caused the destruction of the Russian submarine “Kursk” and the death of all its crew. This tragedy was studied and investigated and found to be caused by the Peroxide oxidizer that was used in the Russian torpedoes as a fuel accelerator. This method was well known to USA and British submariners, but had been scrapped because of the risks involved in a Peroxide leak inside a sub. The British submarine, Sidon, sank in 1955 and 13 sailors were lost due to an incident with Peroxide-propelled torpedoes. It was this incident that provoked the Brits and the USA to abandon the use of Peroxide as a powerful booster for torpedoes. The Kursk incident proved the Americans and British to be correct in their risk analysis and pointed directly to the importance of knowing everything there is to know about Peroxide and its handling.

There are some harsh and costly tradeoffs involved in exploiting the oxidative power of H2O2 - once you become knowledgeable in it's history and the tradeoffs, you may not want to proceed with it. I personally feel I can handle H2O2 as a process raw material. However, the steps and methods that I use will be expensive and thoroughly studied, supervised and monitored. Handling H2O2 will, my opinion, be inherently expensive and risky. The risks can be reduced; but they will never be reduced 100%.

Art Montemayor
Spring, TX

Thanks, Art.

I am still at the research stage of an innovative idea and I do intend to fully exploit the expertise of others more qualified than myself. It was in fact the Thursk incident that first made me aware of the potential of hydrogen peroxide and gave me the intial idea for my research. I am also aware of the British research into its use in turbine technology and torpedos in WWII - one application that they researched was a 'diesel' type engine using Peroxide as a fuel, but this was abandoned in favour of turbines that produced much higher power for charging submarine batteries. This, as you rightly pointed out was dropped following a series of accidents and safety assessments. They were using HTP - 92%+ concentrations. The only current use of HTP is amateur rocketry, either as a mono-propellant or as an oxidant for a hydro-carbon fuel, and I note that this is advised against by most Peroxide suppliers.

From your response and other information I have gleaned around the web, using high concentrations of H2O2, particularly above 63-64% (when decomposition becomes self-sustaining) for an automotive application is unlikely to be considered safe despite all possible safety precautions and systems. However, I do not believe that if Ford, at al, can make hydrogen safe for automotive applications, then H2O2 could not also be used. I am working on a system that uses catalysed decomposition of lower concentrations - possibly up to 50%. In the UK, concentrations of up to 35% are available to domestic consumers for watering down into lower conc's for use in the home. It surely cannot be beyond reason to expect that suitable safety precautions can be engineered into an automotive application without excessive expense, even if 're-fuelling' became a specialist job rather than a consumer-operated forecourt system as with petroleum products. I hope to be able to produce such an efficient engine that this could be a possibilty - Peroxide has the potential energy to make this feasible in terms of pure potential energy.

It is the environmental implications of using H2O2 that interest me - steam and oxygen being the only exhaust products. The oxygen element is causing me some concern re. potential oxidation of the exhaust system and safety of a purely oxygen exhaust stream in the street! I am working on ways to reduce the temperature of the exhaust gases to reduce the risk of oxidising the exhaust system or even the combustion chambers (hot oxygen gas will eat stainless steel with ease)! By reducing the temperatures, the overall efficiency of the engine also increases - gaining as much kinetic energy from the potenital energy in the fuel as possible.

Alternatively, is there an "environmentally friendly" material that when oxidised remains or becomes a solid that can be filtered from the exhaust and that is either environmentally neutral or preferably a useful product in its own right? For example, I could place a sacrificial iron element in the system to remove the oxygen in the form of iron oxide - it's just that iron oxide is not particularly useful stuff and the used filters, or at least the FeO would probably end up in land-fill...

If, once I have exhausted all possible avenues, I come to the conclusion you suggest (that Peroxide is simply too hazardous for this task), the engine will still be capable of running on more traditional fuels, albeit with some adaptation, and far more efficiently than standard IC engines (I am aiming for around 80% energy conversion as opposed to the circa 25% of conventional reciprocating engines). However, the emissions will still include CO2 and other nasties, even if I can reduce NOx to a minimum.

With regard to your concerns re. my professional background - it is in Industrial Design and latterly Education, not chemical engineering - hence my question on this site. Once I have run a prototype engine 'dry' (first using an external drive and then compressed air) to prove and develop the mechanical and electronic integrity, I will be approaching various companies and professionals for further assistance and advice about using and handling H2O2 as a fuel. As an "amateur", I hope I have reassured you that I am treating the safe handling of this product very seriously and am aware of many (if not yet all?) of the potential dangers of its use and handling.

I have now answered my own question regarding processes for increasing concentrations - probably too inefficient or dangerous to utilise in this application.

One further question I do have is with regard to pressurising Peroxide for use in a fuel injection system. Assuming I am able to safely handle, store and transport the H2O2, are there any specific difficulties or concerns regarding the use of a re-circulating high pressure pump and fuel injectors (made of suitable materials and constructed in a suitable manner) similar to those currently used for petrol and diesel applications? Alternatively, I have read of Peroxide being pressurised with Nitrogen in suitable containers for use in rocketry. Any comments?

Any further comments, advice and suggestions would be gratefully received.

Cheers

Colin
Cheshire, UK

A good illustration of no relief between block valves can be seen at:

http://www.aiche.org.../beacon0303.pdf

Regards, Ben