MIT Chemist Announces Artificial Photosynthesis, Signs with Tata

Free Energy Times ^ | March 27, 2011

[PapaBear3625]

now they will have to design compact storage tanks for H2 or a way to compress the gas

For small-scale, rural third-world applications, the hydrogen and oxygen could be stored uncompressed in a pair of large Mylar balloons sitting in a little shed off to the side of the house.

[PapaBear3625]

I still disagree that a credit card sized solar cell will receive enough sunlight to do that conversion in a day unless a lot more light is focused on it.

I suspect some Clintonesque parsing on the good doctor's part.

He says "Placed in a single gallon of water in a bright sunlight, the device could produce enough electricity to supply a house in a developing country with electricity for a day". Parsed exactly, his claim is that his device will get enough energy from that gallon of water to power a house for a day.

He does NOT claim that his credit-card sized device will PRODUCE that energy IN a day's worth of sunlight. If his credit-card-size device takes a couple of months of sitting in sunlight to produce enough hydrogen from that gallon of water to power a house for a day, then his statement is still technically correct.

[unseen1]

try but i was think for an developed home like here in the USA

[FiscalSanity]

Maybe we could float a bunch of these in our swimming pools - build them right into the pool cover. We’d just reel our handy-dandy artificial leaves out of the way when the kids want to swim. There’d need be a collection/containment layer on top of the layer containing the “leaves,” of course. So we’d have puffy pool covers, like the bubble-wrap pool covers, but with extra big bubbles! Then, instead of a big metal propane tank in our yard we would need a big metal hydrogen tank. We could paint it green to let everyone know how environmentally conscious we are, while we crank the A/C and watch movies on our big screen TVs with all that free electricity!

(You know, this started as a joke post, but now it doesn’t sound so bad, especially if I could tell the electric company good bye.)

Of course, if the hydrogen and oxygen trapped in the cover ignited, you’d have a fireball on top of your pool. But that could be a real hoot at pool parties:

“Hey, y’all, watch this!” KA-BOOM!

[unseen1]

ever see a propane tank go up?

[FiscalSanity]

I guess we all need bigger yards so we can have our green hydrogen tanks farther from the house. (Yes, I am being silly.)

It’s still an interesting technology, and there was a follow-up article on the same site today in which the scientist claims this device could run on waste water and even human waste. If he’s not exaggerating, that has huge implications for its eventual use in third world countries, where clean water is simply not available to large numbers of people. Even for use in the developing and developed nations, this means a lot more flexibility in use. Another interesting thing is that the device is built with more commonly available materials than current photo-voltaic cells.

Still, I am not going to hold my breath waiting for any commercially-available applications that benefit average Americans. The lawyers and greenies will almost certainly find some way to kill the technology or make it prohibitively expensive if it has any real potential. (I sure hope I am proven wrong on this!)

[unseen1]

good points. The problem with many of these things is after we hear the great things about them we find out they cost more than the oil they replace or have some other issues that make it not cost effective. (storage, safety, etc)

I think that once someone discovers a process that competes with oil on a price point then we will all become greenies over night. Capitalism is the only answer. give me something that provides energy 24/7 is-as easy to use as flipping a switch or putting a nozzle in a tank and I'll buy it the next day. It really has nothing to do with “being green” or “saving the earth” it has everything to do with my wallet.