Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
A team of researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder say they have developed a system that would use sunlight as an energy source to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The method would use a vast array of mirrors that would concentrate sunlight onto a single point atop a central tower. The temperatures there could rise to as high as 1,350 Celsius. That energy would then be sent to a reactor vessel containing metal oxides, which, when heated, release oxygen atoms, according to the report in the journal Science.
That, in turn, would cause the material to seek out new oxygen atoms. When steam produced from the boiling water in the reactor vessel is added, the oxygen molecules would adhere to the metal oxide, freeing hydrogen molecules to be collected as gas, the report said. We have designed something here that is very different from other methods and frankly something that nobody thought was possible before, said professor Alan Weimer in a statement. He is a member of the team that worked on the project. Splitting water with sunlight is the Holy Grail of a sustainable hydrogen economy.
While there are other methods to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, Colorado Boulder scientists say their method is unique because the two chemical reactions can be done at the same temperature. The more conventional approaches require the control of both the switching of the temperature in the reactor from a hot to a cool state, and the introduction of steam into the system, said associate professor Charles Musgrave. One of the big innovations in our system is that there is no swing in the temperature. The whole process is driven by either turning a steam valve on or off.
Despite the findings, the commercialization of such a solar-thermal reactor is likely years away. With the new method, the amount of hydrogen produced for fuel cells or for storage is entirely dependent on the amount of metal oxide -- which is made up of a combination of iron, cobalt, aluminum and oxygen -- and how much steam is introduced into the system. The research results were published in Fridays issue of Science.
Hydrogen Fuel Closer to Reality
a vast array of mirrors that would concentrate sunlight onto a single point atop a central tower.
OldRocks mocks "another level of complexity" then advocates "another level of complexity".At the present time, hydrogen fuel is just another level of complexity not needed, as the EV's are off to an excellent start, and much longer range batteries are already being produced in the lab.
I think that the idea of using solar to produce hydrogen, then generating electricity with that during off hours, and peak demand, is an excellent idea, and very doable.
Save your money. They don't work.Why don't you just buy a hydrogen kit for your car and do it yourself?
HHO Kits, HHO Gas Systems, Fuel Savers, Car Kit, Hydrogen Generator
What do mean "Where are the Hydrogen Charging Stations"? You got tap water at yer house? Do you know where to get Distilled water? Do you know how to distill it yerself?
Oh I see, you wanna' wait, like a typical lazy American, for the Gov't to provide it for you!
I have plans to install one of these systems in my 1995 Ford Escort and gauge the results.
