Alternative FUEL? - Turn Sunlight, Water Into Fuel
 

A new catalyst makes it feasible to split water with solar power.

MIT chemists say the catalyst, used in conjunction with cheap photovoltaic solar panels, could lead to inexpensive, simple systems that use water to store the energy from sunlight.



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It's important to note that Nocera's breakthrough is in making it cheaper and simpler to split water by electrolysis. Expensive machines have long been able to do the same thing, but only by using iridium alloys or exotic nanoparticles.

The new catalyst is remarkable because its made of common materials and can operate at room temperature and normal pressure. Without the need to heat and pressurize the water, the energy needs and cost of running the process overall are much lower. And that could make a standard solar array on a home a viable source of electricity for creating all the hydrogen a household would need.

The joke in clean tech circles about hydrogen is that "hydrogen is the fuel of the future and always will be." But that's in large part because producing hydrogen has been so expensive and energy-intensive to produce. Most of the power in the world comes from fossil fuel, too, so making hydrogen generated tons of greenhouse gases.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2...e-fuel-ce.html
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Could this be the answer to all the Fuel problems?

:upsidedow

there is no fuel problems....

trust me.

alleged fuel problems :1orglaugh

Great article, Krosh. And i agree, we should be leaning towards solar/hydrogen.

I cant agree with that cus when im paying 4.89 at the pump... thats a fuckin problem!

FRESH---

Everyone talks about Hydrogen fuel. But as the article says, to create Hydrogen Fuel, the process causes extreme amounts of greenhouse gases. With this new Catalyst if you can create Hydrogen fuel and not damage the ozone while doing it, then it can be a significant breakthrough.

:2 cents:

bio fuel is where its at for 09.

why cant we just skip bio fuel altogether? That thing up there isnt going anywhere any time soon ** points @ sun **

Most of the world is in a water deficit, and American scientists, after corn ethanol, are going after water hydrogen.

Please.

America is a laughing stock.

The cheap alternatives exist but we will use oil and gas for another 100 years. ExxonMobil and its peers run the biggest business in the world, formed a cartel with foreign governments, and have literally bought out every Western politician.

got a friend working on first 500 gallons next week for boats first then the sky is the limit:thumbsup

The Flintstones already solved this problem thousands of years ago.

absolutely. I know UCLA has a huge hydrogen program and they are doing a LOT to get hydrogen fueling systems in place around LA. They are working hand in hand with BMW on a lot of their hydrogen development. While the majority of car manufacturers have gone the hybrid route, BMW has not strayed course from going hydrogen. I gotta admit i was very skeptical about it initially, but it looks very promising so far.


BT, not sure if you're being sarcastic here, but Bio-fuel is an awful idea. Why would anyone intentionally tie our fuel sources to our food sources??!?? It dosnt make any sense and is possibly the most inefficient form of power to be considered and produced.

Im no expert but think of it like this, you have to grow the source.. lets say its corn. So you need X amount of land and X amount of water to grow the corn. Then you need X amount of power and resources to actually get bio-fuel. The end result is a very small amount fuel for a large chunk of money and resources. And thats not even taking into consideration that we'll be totally tying our food sources directly with the source for fuel.

Again, im no expert on this, but I do really believe bio-fuel will fail.