Hydrogen Made Cheaply
Hydrogen as a fuel could be a godsend to the economy, if someone could just figure out a way to make it cheaply and in a way that doesn't use up more energy than it creates.
Researchers at Penn State think they've found a solution. It relies on water, solar energy and nanotubes.
The process -- developed by Craig Grimes, professor of electrical engineering, and his his team -- starts with a diode that has two sides, each made from one of twoa commonly found elements: titanium and copper. Both are used to make nanotube arrays (see illustration).
It doesn't look like it, but the device works similar to a leaf. Whereas leaves take in sunlight and CO2 and convert it into usable energy, this so-called photoelectrochemical diode takes in sunlight and water to produce usable energy in the form of hydrogen gas.
It occurs through a chemical reaction between water and the sun, which is ignited by the nanotube arrays. On the one side, titanium and sunlight work to break oxygen free of water, the remaining hydrogen ion diffuses to the copper side where it is matched with an electron, forming gaseous hydrogen.
What's cool is that the process doesn't require electricity, which is typically made by coal-fired plants, defeating the purpose.
This sounds great ... any ideas on whether it has potential to scale to commercial/industrial use? Or is this more a solution for creating enough hydrogen to warm your cup of tea?
Posted by: mysterymeat | July 25, 2008 at 09:38 AM