Posted on 09/29/2004 10:15:12 AM PDT by ckilmer
Couldn't this be done with a solar panel powering a cathode/anode?
OK, this stuff is officially cool. I've always thought that the promise of a hydrogen fuel infrastructure relies on the ability to use pollution-free, renewable sources of energy to create the hydrogen. So this is exactly the kind of development I've been hoping to see.
This is probably more efficient. Photovoltaics are pretty inefficient as it is.
Am I correct in assuming that the value in this method is the speed at which hydrogen is produced?
Mix 'em together (with a match, and you get:
Water! (plus a neat little POP!)
The danger of dealing with dihydrogenmonoxide is just to great. the substance should be banned.
What about during the daily sun situations called night?
This describes how the process is done.
http://www.shec-labs.com/process.htm
I don't understand the processes well enough to know how it could be done better.
Perhaps you do. If so. Have at it.
An easier way would be to use photovoltaics to create the hydrogen at room temperature. Separating the hydrogen is a snap.
Plus, you get pure O2 as an added benefit.
Second, the hydrogen and oxygen are prevented from rejoining the liquid via their “water-gas-shift reactor,” which sequesters the oxygen in an oxide compound.
I didn't see details on this, but this seems to presume that you have a "un-oxidized" substance (reduced? elemental?) which the oxygen combines with. How do you get that substance and how much energy does it take to produce/purify it? Take, for example, iron. Almost all easily obtainable iron is iron oxide and it takes energy to strip the oxygen from the iron. If this elemental iron is then oxidized as to separate the hydrogen from oxygen are you really positive on the total energy side?
This process is further along.
I've seen photovoltics groups working in Virginia and Australia and England. There about 7 years away from commercialization according to PR's I've read.
I havn't seen any dollar amounts put on these. Which likely means they're still more expensive than current energy sources.
You could believe that if they could produce energy for below current available sources--the news would be trumpeted pretty loudly.
The holy graile is efficiency.
There are lots of critics of hydrogen, but the fact is that most of the toys we love could run on hydrogen with a few years of technological development. And of course the United States would benefit from any demand for high tech engineering.
You are not the first to point out the danger of dhmo.
http://www.snopes.com/toxins/dhmo.htm
I remember how the O2 tech introduced the 'new guys' to the O2 generator aboard the submarine.
He would point them to the H2 internal bleed line (from the sampling system) and strike his lighter! Of course, the bulk of the H2 was discharged overboard.
I've been thinking about trying to build a solar-powered barbeque to work the same way as their array...
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