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New Way to Make Hydrogen

Posted by samzenpus on from the alternative-alternative-energy dept.

zymano writes "Hydrogen is expensive to make and difficult to store. The most common way in making hydrogen is electrolyzing pure water. A new startup is trying a new way to make hydrogen. The process uses sodium which industry shuns because it generates sparks and heat when mixed with water. Signa has devised a way to mix sodium with silica gel or crystalline silicon to create a powder that essentially strips electrons from the sodium molecules in advance and stores them. When water is introduced, the chemical reaction proceeds calmly. The powder generates hydrogen efficiently. More than 9 percent of a kilogram of the powder gets converted to hydrogen and little energy is lost through heat."

4 of 591 comments (clear)

  1. Converted to hydrogen? by The_Wilschon · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I haven't RTFA, but surely the submitter didn't mean that the sodium powder is converted to hydrogen... After all, that would involve transmuting (or is it transmutating?) the actual element (Na)...

    As I understand it, the reaction in fact involves the water molecule breaking in two. The oxygen (or maybe a hydroxide ion, IANAchemist) binds with the sodium, and the hydrogen escapes as a gas. The sodium powder is converted into sodium oxide or sodium hydroxide (I think, once again IANAC), not into hydrogen. Sorry, a bit of pedantism there.

    --
    SIGSEGV caught, terminating

    wait... not that kind of sig.
  2. great... by DanThe1Man · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Great, now my car can explode in a giant fireball more efficiently

  3. This is the dumbest shit I've ever heard. by elbarono · · Score: 0, Redundant

    The article is so riddled with technical inaccuracies that it's not even worth reading. Please, can we have a little more discrimination on the part of the editors?

  4. Re:Hmmm by VikingBerserker · · Score: 0, Redundant

    There is probably a reason because I'm no chemist or physicist. But I wonder why they don't use Hydrochloric acid (HCl) and Magnesium (Mg). You add them to gether and you get Magnesium Chloride and all the hydrogen gets released. I'm pretty certain that neither of these items are rare. Considering many foods contain Magnesium and every person contains HCl.

    Soylent Hydrogen is made of people!