UCLA Researchers Use Solar To Create and Store Hydrogen (phys.org)

UCLA researchers have designed a device that can use solar energy to inexpensively and efficiently create and store energy, which could be used to power electronic devices, and to create hydrogen fuel for eco-friendly cars. Phys.Org reports: The device could make hydrogen cars affordable for many more consumers because it produces hydrogen using nickel, iron and cobalt -- elements that are much more abundant and less expensive than the platinum and other precious metals that are currently used to produce hydrogen fuel. Traditional hydrogen fuel cells and supercapacitors have two electrodes: one positive and one negative. The device developed at UCLA has a third electrode that acts as both a supercapacitor, which stores energy, and as a device for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, a process called water electrolysis. All three electrodes connect to a single solar cell that serves as the device's power source, and the electrical energy harvested by the solar cell can be stored in one of two ways: electrochemically in the supercapacitor or chemically as hydrogen. The device also is a step forward because it produces hydrogen fuel in an environmentally friendly way. Currently, about 95 percent of hydrogen production worldwide comes from converting fossil fuels such as natural gas into hydrogen -- a process that releases large quantities of carbon dioxide into the air, said Maher El-Kady, a UCLA postdoctoral researcher and a co-author of the research. The technology is described in the journal Energy Storage Materials.

Comments

so...

[Anonymous Coward]

So it's a standard electrolysis but with a solar panel, and a switch to charge a super capacitor instead of performing electrolysis?

Re:so...

[Baron_Yam]

Not quite standard, in that they've made it with fairly common materials to reduce the cost... but they say nothing (in the pop science article) about the solar panel efficiency or the electrolysis efficiency, so I'm guessing it's average or worse. And they admit they have no solution to the problem of how to economically and efficiently store whatever hydrogen it produces.

So overall, 'meh'. While building that device happens to be beyond my current personal abilities, it remains unimpressive.

Re:so...

[DCFusor]

They know how to bullshit for grant money, that's what they know. Doesn't matter the scheme is impractical and has been superseded long since.

Turn CO2 back into coal

[jfdavis668]

How about inventing one that takes CO2 out of the air, and turns it back into coal? Then we can employ all the out of work coal miners to put it back where it came from.

Cobalt

[afidel]

Cobalt is the limiting agent for mass production of current chemistry lithium batteries so starting research on a new energy storage system and relying on Cobalt is stupid. Cobalt is currently only produced as a byproduct if Aluminum smelting and without a massive uptick in Aluminum usage there isn't going to be enough to electrify more than ~10 of world-wide vehicle fleets yet we have politicians deciding we're going to ban ICE vehicles in 20 years or less. Trying to divert that limiting resource from a competing tech that has a 20 year head start on economic development is a sure way to fail.