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Cheaper, Cleaner Hydrogen Without Platinum
keithww writes "Looks like the hydrogen economy may have gotten a whole lot cheaper. Wisconsin team engineers gas from biomass
using common metals of tin, nickel, and aluminum instead of platinum. This looks like a good way to get rid of biowaste also." Of course, there's still a long way to go before the automotive industry is using it, but it is good news nonetheless.
And does anyone actually believe that the fossil fuels industry will lie down and let this happen without a fight?
Work is being done on using carbon nanorods to store hydrogen (amongst others by the Renewable Energies Research Lab in Golden, CO). These would be cheap and safely disposable and probably represent the future of hydrogen fuel tech.
We should just cycle everywere. Cheap, environemntally friendly and relaxing
rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
Like methanol.
Pure hydrogen fuel cells sound like a great idea, no pollution but water.
Except then you come to the problem of storage and transportation and have to spend a truly massive fortune on research and development like this, and, once that's done you also have the job of upgrading the entire energy distribution infrastructure which oddly enough will also be rather expensive.
But hey, go ahead, it's a free market, someone else will come along with much cheaper solution.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/06/12/hyd rogen.ozone.ap/
Where I went wrong was that sheep farts cause global warming, not destruction of ozone.
Raney-NiSn can perform for at least 48 hours... before what? Before it has to be replaced? Before it has to rested? What happens after 48 hours?
The materials required are just one expense, the catalyst typically is expected to be reusable (consumed at a very low rate due to inefficiencies). However, the amount of raw material required to extract the energy, the size of the apparatus and the amount of energy required to get a unit of energy are probably the real issues. If it takes more than a Joule to extract the hydrogen required to generate a Joule of energy, the system is only viable for special applications, not as an energy source.
You're killing the planet! Recycling is bad! Landfills are good!
No, I'm not kidding.
Global warming may be due to humanity's CO2 emissions, or solar radiation, or something we haven't even discovered yet, but it's something detrimental to our society and it'd be nice to do something about it. Well, the best way is to stop burning stuff, obviously. On the other hand, our society runs on our burning stuff. That's not good.
Well, the least we can do is stop burning stuff that gives us the least benefit. That, my friends, is garbage. Waste incinerators, even if they provide cogeneration, would run at a loss if they weren't paid extra by people who don't want the stuff they burn. So it's not such a big deal to NOT burn the garbage and burn something more efficient instead.
Further, while there are some materials it may make sense to recycle, when it comes to plastics, you're better off burying it. Every bit of plastic you DON'T recycle is another quantity of oil that will never be burned, but will instead go back to sequestering carbon under the ground.
Like this one:
http://www.cyber-media.com/aircar/
Even less polluting than a hydrogen powered vehicle, the only exhaust is clean air. Ironically, the air is cleaner going out than going in because it has to be filtered before reaching the engine.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
Recently it's been determined that Standard Oil before its breakup was actually selling its products for fair prices, amazingly enough. It's not clear whether MS prices for Windows and Office are fair, but it's pretty clear that their price for IE (i.e., free) was unfair at the time.
Microsoft has been convicted of violating antitrust law, yet the court was unwilling to do anything about it. If you or I did something that hurt fewer people to a lesser extent, we'd be in jail. Sigh.
...sponsor some type of racing powered by fuel cells.
Like Off-Shore Power Boat Racing, or anything really.
That might kick in some more research dollars.
The largest source of hydrogen today is the very same companies that sell you gas. You will still be filling your hydrogen car at a Shell station.
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From what I remember, you pass an electric current through water. Stick your two electrodes in water, on positive, the other negative. Voila, Oxygen (o2) on one end, Hydrogen (h2)on the other end. Water's the easiest source from which to get hydrogen, it's abundant and there's not all this other stuff mixed in with it (just plain old H2 and O2). I suppose you can get it from methane (CH4), or any other organic compound. I remember reading an article a while ago saying how they would use gasoline to power hydrogen cars, they'd seperate the hydrogen from other molecules in the gasoline.
------ Will of Iron, Knees of Jello.
A friend of mine, Eli Greenbaum, has been getting Hydrogen from algae for three years now, with no metals involved. He just starves them of O2 and they activate a dormant gene that produces a protein that synthesizes H2. See here for the details.
This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.