[Little Pig]

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

[mcg1969]

This is probably more efficient. Photovoltaics are pretty inefficient as it is.

[Izzy Dunne]

I remember a zinc / copper anode / cathode experiment from 1960 or so - put two test tubes upside down in water - one over the anode, one over the cathode. Connect the battery, and you get oxygen in one test tube, and hydrogen in the other.

Mix 'em together (with a match, and you get:
Water! (plus a neat little POP!)

[ckilmer]

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.

[js1138]

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

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.

[EUPHORIC]

Bleh. Thats nothing. I personally produce NATURAL GAS in great volumes from all kinds of commonly obtainable things.

[Chemist_Geek]

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

Yes, a photovoltaic array could drive an electrolysis unit. But this one looks like it's being done thermally, no electricity involved and the only thing the "solar" part is for, is heating.