Posted by
BLOGASSAULT on Thursday, September 18, 2008 6:47:38 PM
About a
month back I posted a story on a new process that can split the oxygen molecule and the hydrogen molecule from water with common inexpensive materials. Now chemist
Dan Nocera from MIT is claiming within five years he can make this thing a household product.
Nocera's innovation, reported in July this year, is a simple catalyst that can produce oxygen from water under benign conditions1. Nocera is one of scores of chemists worldwide racing to find ways to split water into hydrogen and oxygen using cheap materials, in a process ultimately powered by sunlight2. Such a system could boost solar power's contribution to the future mix of energy technologies, as the gases are produced using light during daytime and combined using a fuel cell to produce clean energy after dark.
By adding solar power to the mix, and we have a green revolution on our hands.
At the moment, the electricity powering the system comes from a battery, but that could easily be replaced by a sun-powered photovoltaic cell, of which many cheap versions are in development. "This catalyst doesn't care where it's getting its electrons from," says Nocera. Another part of the system that needs work is the hydrogen-evolving catalyst that will ultimately be so important — at the moment, Nocera uses platinum.
I guess we will see in five years, huh?