Posted on 11/20/2017 11:04:13 AM PST by Signalman
UCLA researchers have designed a device that can use solar energy to inexpensively and efficiently create and store energy, which could be used to power electronic devices, and to create hydrogen fuel for eco-friendly cars.
The device could make hydrogen cars affordable for many more consumers because it produces hydrogen using nickel, iron and cobalt — elements that are much more abundant and less expensive than the platinum and other precious metals that are currently used to produce hydrogen fuel.
“Hydrogen is a great fuel for vehicles: It is the cleanest fuel known, it’s cheap and it puts no pollutants into the air — just water,” said Richard Kaner, the study’s senior author and a UCLA distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and of materials science and engineering. “And this could dramatically lower the cost of hydrogen cars.”
The technology, described in a paper in the journal Energy Storage Materials, could be especially useful in rural areas, or to military units serving in remote locations.
“People need fuel to run their vehicles and electricity to run their devices,” Kaner said. “Now you can make both electricity and fuel with a single device.”
It could also be part of a solution for large cities that need ways to store surplus electricity from their electrical grids.
“If you could convert electricity to hydrogen, you could store it indefinitely,” said Kaner, who also is a member of UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute.
Traditional hydrogen fuel cells and supercapacitors have two electrodes: one positive and one negative. The device developed at UCLA has a third electrode that acts as both a supercapacitor, which stores energy, and as a device for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, a process called water electrolysis. All three electrodes connect to a single solar cell that serves as the device’s power source, and the electrical energy harvested by the solar cell can be stored in one of two ways: electrochemically in the supercapacitor or chemically as hydrogen.
The device also is a step forward because it produces hydrogen fuel in an environmentally friendly way. Currently, about 95 percent of hydrogen production worldwide comes from converting fossil fuels such as natural gas into hydrogen — a process that releases large quantities of carbon dioxide into the air, said Maher El-Kady, a UCLA postdoctoral researcher and a co-author of the research.
“Hydrogen energy is not ‘green’ unless it is produced from renewable sources,” El-Kady said. He added that using solar cells and abundantly available elements to split water into hydrogen and oxygen has enormous potential for reducing the cost of hydrogen production and that the approach could eventually replace the current method, which relies on fossil fuels.
Combining a supercapacitor and the water-splitting technology into a single unit, Kaner said, is an advance similar to the first time a phone, web browser and camera were combined on a smartphone. The new technology may eventually lead to new applications that even the researchers haven’t considered yet, Kaner said.
The researchers designed the electrodes at the nanoscale — thousands of times thinner than the thickness of a human hair — to ensure the greatest surface area would be exposed to water, which increases the amount of hydrogen the device can produce and also stores more charge in the supercapacitor. Although the device the researchers made would fit in the palm of your hand, Kaner said it would be possible to make larger versions because the components are inexpensive.
“For hydrogen cars to be widely used, there remains a need for a technology that safely stores large quantities of hydrogen at normal pressure and temperature, instead of the pressurized cylinders that are currently in use,” said Mir Mousavi, a co-author of the paper and a professor of chemistry at Iran’s Tarbiat Modares University.
it will have hundreds of miniature windmills Scotch-taped to the roof.
.
Excellent idea. Will you call it a Tesla?
I’ll buy it, sight unseen. Will you also produce an 18-wheeler? Put me in for your sports car.
My brother did that......................once....................
>>Combine Hydrogen with carbon<<
.
In its simplest form it is called LNG and we in the USA have tons and tons of it.
Some day in the future the world will be begging us for it.
[[Scotch-taped to the roof.]]
Egads man- gorrila tape is much better
H2 is never stored outside unless “outside is about minus 260 degrees F.
“So does gasoline..................”
Only gasoline vapor. We use it as a liquid.
Hydrogen is a gas at any human temp and can nearly instantly mix with oxygen.
But true, gasoline vapors can make an even bigger bang.
Hey, “researchers”! Water vapor is the BIGGEST greenhouse gas. You will be putting tons of it into the air.
PS. Hydrogen is a gas. Also, the lightest element. You have to compress it into a tank that will fit into a car. The atoms are very small. The little suckers can escape through very little holes. Good luck with that. When you have 500 million cars with hydrogen tanks under pressure, some will be leaking. If it leaks into an enclosed space, such as a closed garage, the potential for some fireworks is high. A spark. A cigarette.
I know, gasoline is extremely volatile and also explosive, in the same situation, but it is not under pressure in the tank, and its atoms are pretty big. Oh, you thought you could liquefy your hydrogen! Yes, and when your cooler fails, and the hydrogen warms up, and increases its pressure, ...
My brother found out the hard way....................
Blew up his garage?
I have long believed hydrogen cars were much more feasible than electric. Looks like they have finally figured out how to make the hydrogen as you go.
ONLY 20 YEARS AWAY
And Sun Hydrogen energy is ONLY 20 years away.
After claiming that for the last 80 years,
you’ve just got to believe them.
If this wasn’t pie in the sky it could furthermore be used as a water source, assuming the exhaust water wasn’t contaminated. It’d be great for an RV. Make your own potable water as you go.
H2 is never stored outside unless “outside” is at about minus 260 degrees F. For car fuel use, H2 will be stored in liquid form. Look up what the storage temperature and pressure are at 80 degrees F and ask yourself what its effect will be in a car crash with H2 seepage.
If it works should we send all the muzzies back to the middle east?
No, he was fooling around and threw some gasoline on some hot coals from some brush we had burned “To get it going again.”......luckily it just scared the crap outta him, and he just rolled all over the ground to kill the flames...................
Device is “a step forward”.
So is cow dung energy.
Govt grants, get your grants here.
Nano electrodes corrode. Will they be cleaned with a tooth pick?
Get your grant money here.
the reason I ask is because I had a buddy in Washington St who had the most wonderful shop. He restored cars.
40 x 40 with 12 ft ceiling and rafters above that. All steel.
Of course he had to heat it.
He brought in a Honda car with a leaky gas tank which dropped at least 3-4 gallons of unleaded regular on the painted concrete.
Then the electric heater kicked on later that night.
He was not in the the shop.
He made the news that night. Neighbors said they could see the fireball from nearly 3 miles away.
Hope he had insurance!..................
The flash point of hydrogen is extremely wide. This makes it very unstable. It’s small molecular size means it is also very hard to store without leaks, and it’s high ionic charge makes it spreads rapidly. In addition it’s range of air fuel ratios that support combustion is unusually large. All in all a veery dangerous gas.
Hydrogen tanks are an accident waiting to happen.
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