Experimental Investigation of the Spread Behavior of Liquid Nitrogen on a Water Surface during Sudden and Continuous Release

[Automatically extracted and translated] The anthropogenic climate and environmental changes and the resulting consequences such as the "greenhouse effect", "ozone hole", pollution of soil, water, and air increasingly question the existential foundations of life for all living beings. On one hand, they are justified by the rapidly growing world population. Natural habitats are increasingly being irretrievably destroyed by uncontrolled deforestation of entire rainforest regions, reckless exploitation of mineral resources and energy resources. We are consuming resources that took millions of years to form. Thoughtless and sometimes wasteful handling has brought us to this precarious situation today, so that a way out only seems possible if a rethinking process takes place. We must learn to live more responsibly and consciously and to manage in material cycles. On the other hand, mere declarations of intent, as formulated in the global climate convention of Rio and Berlin, in which a reduction of CO2 emissions is sought, have not been implemented to this day. Energy-saving potentials in industrialized countries have either not been realized or have been compensated by increasing energy demand and consumption in emerging countries. In view of the dwindling, finite primary energies such as oil and coal, which are also significantly involved in the "greenhouse effect", an energy mix of nuclear energy, water, solar, and wind energy, the use of biomass and renewable raw materials, as well as a hydrogen energy economy, could offer a way out of the "dead end". Except for nuclear energy and energy from hydropower, the above-mentioned energy sources are currently hardly competitive due to the currently favorable oil price. Nevertheless, a hydrogen energy economy could gain importance in the future because the pressure to take new solutions to address the aforementioned problems is becoming increasingly urgent. The advantages of this can be seen in a circular energy economy, as shown in Figure 1.1. Only during the construction of plants (dams, solar plants, water turbines, etc.) for the production of hydrogen without the use of fossil fuels do CO2 emissions occur. However, once the infrastructure for the production and distribution of this secondary energy carrier is completed, emissions on site are almost zero. Hydrogen, which is mostly bound in chemical form (e.g., water) on Earth, could be obtained electrolytically from water with the help of solar or hydropower energy in projects such as "Hysolar" or the "Euro-Quebec Hydro-Hydrogen Pilot Project" (EQHHPP).