Posted on 08/22/2014 10:51:36 AM PDT by Red Badger
In 2015, American consumers will finally be able to purchase fuel cell cars from Toyota and other manufacturers. Although touted as zero-emissions vehicles, most of the cars will run on hydrogen made from natural gas, a fossil fuel that contributes to global warming.
Now scientists at Stanford University have developed a low-cost, emissions-free device that uses an ordinary AAA battery to produce hydrogen by water electrolysis. The battery sends an electric current through two electrodes that split liquid water into hydrogen and oxygen gas. Unlike other water splitters that use precious-metal catalysts, the electrodes in the Stanford device are made of inexpensive and abundant nickel and iron.
"Using nickel and iron, which are cheap materials, we were able to make the electrocatalysts active enough to split water at room temperature with a single 1.5-volt battery," said Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford. "This is the first time anyone has used non-precious metal catalysts to split water at a voltage that low. It's quite remarkable, because normally you need expensive metals, like platinum or iridium, to achieve that voltage."
In addition to producing hydrogen, the novel water splitter could be used to make chlorine gas and sodium hydroxide, another important industrial chemical, according to Dai. He and his colleagues describe the new device in a study published in the Aug. 22 issue of the journal Nature Communications.
The promise of hydrogen
Automakers have long considered the hydrogen fuel cell a promising alternative to the gasoline engine. Fuel cell technology is essentially water splitting in reverse. A fuel cell combines stored hydrogen gas with oxygen from the air to produce electricity, which powers the car. The only byproduct is water – unlike gasoline combustion, which emits carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
Earlier this year, Hyundai began leasing fuel cell vehicles in Southern California. Toyota and Honda will begin selling fuel cell cars in 2015. Most of these vehicles will run on fuel manufactured at large industrial plants that produce hydrogen by combining very hot steam and natural gas, an energy-intensive process that releases carbon dioxide as a byproduct.
Splitting water to make hydrogen requires no fossil fuels and emits no greenhouse gases. But scientists have yet to develop an affordable, active water splitter with catalysts capable of working at industrial scales.
"It's been a constant pursuit for decades to make low-cost electrocatalysts with high activity and long durability," Dai said. "When we found out that a nickel-based catalyst is as effective as platinum, it came as a complete surprise."
Saving energy and money
The discovery was made by Stanford graduate student Ming Gong, co-lead author of the study. "Ming discovered a nickel-metal/nickel-oxide structure that turns out to be more active than pure nickel metal or pure nickel oxide alone," Dai said. "This novel structure favors hydrogen electrocatalysis, but we still don't fully understand the science behind it."
The nickel/nickel-oxide catalyst significantly lowers the voltage required to split water, which could eventually save hydrogen producers billions of dollars in electricity costs, according to Gong. His next goal is to improve the durability of the device.
"The electrodes are fairly stable, but they do slowly decay over time," he said. "The current device would probably run for days, but weeks or months would be preferable. That goal is achievable based on my most recent results."
The researchers also plan to develop a water splitter than runs on electricity produced by solar energy.
"Hydrogen is an ideal fuel for powering vehicles, buildings and storing renewable energy on the grid," said Dai. "We're very glad that we were able to make a catalyst that's very active and low cost. This shows that through nanoscale engineering of materials we can really make a difference in how we make fuels and consume energy."
People think that hydrogen is a potential new energy source. It's not. It's only a potential new way of storing and retrieving energy for use. And if it becomes an efficient method of storing energy, then it may become a good alternative for powering cars.
I can imagine, for example, if the technology were created to efficiently and continuously produce sufficient hydrogen in the home from the domestic water supply, gas stations might become obsolete. You could just store the hydrogen in tanks in your home, hook up your car to refuel, and go on your merry way.
If that technology existed, I would almost certainly get a fuel cell car.
It might also provide an economically effective way to get electricity to remote places, especially those that have abundant sunlight, which could be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Just remember that the second law of thermodynamics has not been repealed, although Obama may just try to do just that, too, without Congress.
Every human has a desire to be righteous, ie, right with God. It’s a desire He “wired” into us, “written on their hearts”.
Some strive for it through their works.
Sheeperals strive for it through their advocacy.
Christians know that the only way to achieve it is not through striving, but imputed through Christ.
It fully explains why, when you point out the failings of policies that liberals support, they act as if you’ve personally attacked them, because you’ve kicked the stool out from under their sense of righteousness.
So if I read your post correctly, this new tech may make hydrogen fuel cell vehicles comparable in lifecycle costs to gasoline powered ones?
Which means that the big benefit will be in promoting national energy independence. We can use internally available natural resources (coal, natural gas and oil from fracking) and/or nuclear power to produce the hydrogen for the fuel cells. And tell the Arabs, Venezuelans, etc that they can go drown in their oil.
They don’t teach the First Law of Thermodynamics at Stanford?
Obama repealed it with an Executive Order.....................
Solar cells to provide the DC voltage for producing the hydrogen (and oxygen as well, to be vented off) stored for night time use to light your garage while working on your Time Machine.....................
AND........That’s when you know this person is deriving their advocacy from their self-righteousness....................
That sounds great, until you realize that the efficiency number is just for generating the electricity.
You still have to drive a motor and a vehicle drive train with it to make the vehicle move, and there is a lot of efficiency loss there.
Folks This is a Joke.
Please its not April Fools
1. You can’t win. You can only break even.
2. You can only break even at absolute zero.
3. You can’t reach absolute zero.
I think IC engines are at present a good deal more efficient than 10%, at least some of them. Hard numbers are difficult to come by because of different ways of figuring efficiency.
I’ve just never understood the mania for hydrogen. If someone discovered a new law of nature whereby the molecular bonds of water could be broken using greatly reduced energy, then we’re in business. Possibly some type of catalytic reaction?
But it seems VERY likely this would run up against the laws of thermodynamics, which nobody has figured out how to break yet. Without such a legal breakthrough, it’s a dead end, and should obviously be such to anybody.
Just figured out what we need. AAA battery powering a catalytic converter using an unobtainium reaction to split the water molecule.
Fill up the tank with a garden hose!
Cui Bono as you noted, can benefit different groups and at different levels. Real levels and perceived levels, again as you noted.
Something I haven’t seen addressed here. For hydrogen to be a practical fuel, at least for transport purposes, it has to be highly compressed, or possibly liquefied. (I’m a little vague on the details.)
Unless I’m even more vague than I think, compressing gases this much requires a LOT of energy. Which might pretty dramatically impact the “efficiency” of the system as a whole.
In fact, I’ve seen plans for cars designed to simply run on the energy stored in highly compressed air.
Natural Gas Power Density> 0.044 - 0.0562 /b/ft3
Is this satire??? We did this stuff in middle school chemistry. I see they got in the obligatory “a fossil fuel that contributes to global warming.”
But we can’t burn hydrogen in our cars. It produces dangerous Dihydrogen Monoxide as an exhaust gas which is WAY worse for global warming than natural gas.
Actually, there is a real “flux capacitor”. And it looks nothing like that picture.
New hydrogen storage technologies that do not require compression of the gas are being developed. There are materials that ‘soak up’ hydrogen like a sponge does water and hold it inside a molecular matrix until it is released by heat or some other trigger mechanism.
Storing pure hydrogen, gas or liquid, presents problems in the storage and transportation arena. Metals exposed to pure hydrogen for prolonged periods develop ‘hydrogen embrittlement’ as the hydrogen atoms are small enough to migrate right through the solid metal and escape, like termites in a 2x4.....................
TANSTAAFL..................
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