[pabianice]

This is big news.

[gridlock]

Cool, dude.

[txzman]

Yep. Another wonder of science that emerged out of the slime. The intense and infinitely complex nature of the simplest parts of nature continue to strengthen my in intelligent creation by the God I know.

Love the Jewish concept of how to understand whether God exits or not - get up in the morning and go outside.

[TBall]

Nice!!! The doubters will be all over this thread telling us how laws of physics show that it will never be possible to get cheap hydrogen and therefore it is a waste of time to even look for a solution.

[templar]

This could make hydrogen powered vehicles pracitcal. Now to overcome the Hindenberg effect.

[Paradox]

Wow, I hadn't even thought of doing it this way, or of checking into how plants do it. Guess thats why I am not a real scientist, LOL.

[balrog666]

Too bad it's not scalable to commercial levels.

[nightdriver]

Great! Now if they can only find a way to drain a bit of that hydrogen off before the plant uses it to make its cellulose, we will have some real progress.

[Johnny_Cipher]

Producing hydrogen from water is the stuff of science fiction

It is? Since when?

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[demnomo]

Wasn't there a fiction book called "The Water Engine" that dealt with this subject? A bunch of evil oil executives put the kabosh on it cause it would put them out of business. I recall reading a review about it a few years ago.

Eco-nutcase conspiracies aside, I might be willing to pay 3X the amount for my energy needs if it meant bankrupting one of the main sources of income to terrorists and the exportation of Whabbism. I would think that eventually the method would be refined and the price would come down in time.

Hey, the Europeans and Japanese pay way more than the US does for gasoline. We're spoiled. It would be cool to see h2o being used in this manner. And no, I'm not an SUV-hating enviromentalist whacko because I desire an alternate energy source to oil.

[#3Fan]

Invest in manganese.

[Sergio]

I think this is great news, however I don't know enough about the subject to say anything else. I do have some questions however, and I'm not being a wet blanket, I want something like this work.

1. Would the system only use distilled (pure water)? If not, how would additonal contaminats, minerals, particals in the water be dealt with?

2. How would we deal with areas of the country like the South West that has very high mineral content in the water to begin with and where, due to population influx, will in 20 to 30 years have a critical water shortage? Do we drink the stuff of put it in our transportation?

Best Regareds

Sergio

[Ff--150]

btttrl

[Still Thinking]

As I have said before on similar threads; hydrogen separation is not a "source" of energy, just a transport vehicle. It is because the H2O atom is the lower energy state of the hydrogen and oxygen atoms involved that burning hycrogen releases heat energy. This is what happens when hydrogen is burned: it combines with atmospheric or other oxygen to form water vapor and release energy. So if we start with water and end up with hydrogen and oxygen, we have to provide the same amount of energy to separate the h2 and o2 as is released when they combine.

When plants perform this transformation, they must in some way be using solar power (in addition to the catalyst mentioned) to effect the change. If this is the case, and we could copy and scale the process, it COULD appear to be almost free because there is so much solar energy available and because present solar systems are so innefficient, that this method would appear to be free by comparison.

Another poster was correct in noting that nuclear separation could appear to be very cheap. You would just have to account for the cost of the electricity which would otherwise be sold. The energy involved is not coming from the hydrogen but from the nuclear fuel, which was an original "source", because the potential energy was already in it when we dug it out of the ground.

[Carry_Okie]

I wonder how much water and acreage they would need?

[LibWhacker]

Holy cow, I sure look forward to the day I can fill up my tank with a garden hose.

[LiteKeeper]

bump

[RockyMtnMan]

So we should expect a car from Kia in the future called the Kia Chia, powered by a Chia pet?

[JoeGar]

Producing hydrogen from water is the stuff of science fiction - and some comments by US President George Bush.

Er, doesn't just sticking two electrodes in water do the trick? Oxygen collects at one electrode and hydrogen at the other?