[anymouse]

Interesting technology to watch.

[Mikey_1962]

On the other hand using coal fired furnaces to to generate electricity to hydrolyze water to create Hydrogen and Oxygen is probably what is going to be done for quite some time and makes no sense.

[Meldrim]

I think this will be OBE, specifically thermal depolymerization.

[investigateworld]

later read bump

[stinkerpot65]

Pah!

The flux capacitor in my DeLorean has been doing this for twenty years.

[Squawk 8888]

I still think hydrogen is a non-starter. No matter how efficient you get at producing it, the low energy density and near-impossibily of storing it for any significant length of time (it seeps through damn near everything) makes it no match for other fuels.

[coloradan]

Of course, it still suffers from the same problem that all solar sources do, namely, the low power density of sunlight. At 1 kW per square meter, it would take 1 square kilometer of a 100% conversion efficiency process, at the equator (when the sun is directly overhead) to generate 1 GW - at noon. Away from the equator, away from noon, and if your process isn't 100% efficient, it would take more land area than that to make 1 GW. That's a lot of land for only a modestly powerful power plant.

[rightsmart]

If we destroy the ozone layer we could cause more ultraviolet light to strike the surface of the Earth. This would enable this technology to be more efficient so we don't have to release so many greenhouse gasses!

[William Tell]

From the article: "The 97 percent efficiency is the highest reported, according to the researchers. There is one catch -- only five percent of the sun's energy is ultraviolet light. "

In less-biased engineering terms, we would say that this process for converting sunlight to an alternate form of energy is 5% efficient. But why let realistic calculations get in the way of a good story.

[Grut]

Depending on how big, how cheap and how resistant to contamination these gadgets are in practice, burning the hydrogen to make water might be a useful method of desalinization.

[js1138]

You'd get more ultravilot if you widened the ozone hole.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT