[Little Pig]

Couldn't this be done with a solar panel powering a cathode/anode?

[mcg1969]

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.

[ckilmer]

[cripplecreek]

Am I correct in assuming that the value in this method is the speed at which hydrogen is produced?

[SwinneySwitch]

".....the patent pending solar collector collector that can hold the heat during brief intermittent sun situations often encountered by solar arrays."

What about during the daily sun situations called night?

[KarlInOhio]

Interesting idea, but this kind of stuck out:

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?

[atomicpossum]

I've been thinking about trying to build a solar-powered barbeque to work the same way as their array...

[trebb]

I used to use lye and aluminum foil - it produced hydrogen and a lot of heat...

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

The only way we could effectively make hydrogen a major fuel source is to develop fusion reactors, then put the reactors out at sea and generate hydrogen. Just no practical cheap solution to make hydrogen, except from hydrocarbons, in which case we might as well burn them.

[RAY]

The catalyst aided lower temperature generation of hydrogen is significant. However, don't hold your breath until this impacts the price of oil!

[RightWhale]

raising funds for SHEC labs for the past ten months to the tune of $4.5 million Canadian There are hundreds of such competing projects. Good luck picking the winner.

[adam_az]

Great, there goes the rest of our freaking water.

[Richard-SIA]

Another of several new technologies that are relegated to the back pages of the news, or given only passing notice.
Few if any are taken seriously, and most seem to wither from lack of support.

Some survive for several years as obscure projects kept alive by a few dedicated researchers.

This one shows some real promise, if it can be scaled up sufficiently.

Together with some of the other arcane developments of the last few years it might be able to make a real dent in our infrastructure's dependance on oil.

I like oil, I enjoy fast cars that use Hundred Octane fuel, I like overnight delivery of my packages too.
But I despise our being squeezed by foreign governments and oil companies, so I look forward to new tech that can make us more independent.

Any conversion to a hydrogen based infrastructure will take decades to implement, even if the hydrogen were suddenly available in unlimited quantities for virtually free!

I want to see ANWAR drilled ASAP, giving us some breathing room regarding tight oil supplies.
I want that time used to initiate a truly serious effort to develop the most promising of the new technologies.
I would be willing for congress to make it a condition of drilling ANWAR that the oil companies become ENERGY companies, putting a dedicated percentage of the ANWAR revenue into energy research.

[GottaLuvAkitas1]

Canadian Group Produces Hydrogen from Water Using Solar Energy"

This sounds like a movie I saw Chain Reaction (1996) with Keanu Reeves