Boffins claim solar energy breakthrough
Storage solution
MIT CLAIMED a “major discovery” in the field of solar energy last Friday. Heralded as a revolutionary leap forward that could “transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source,” the advancement deals with the problem of storing solar power when the sun is not shining.
Storing solar energy is inefficient and expensive. But MIT researchers say they have found a simple and inexpensive method for storing collected solar energy, inspired by photosynthesis.
MIT’s Daniel Nocera, Professor of Energy at MIT and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera’s lab, have developed a process by which the sun’s energy is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Then the oxygen and hydrogen can be recombined inside a fuel cell which generates carbon-free electricity that could be used to power a car or even your house – day or night.
Basically, the process uses two different catalysts to produce the hydrogen and oxygen gases. While the hydrogen gas catalyst is nothing new, until now, there has never been an efficient catalyst for generating oxygen from water. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate, and an electrode which is all placed in water. When electricity is run through the electrode - and here’s the key: it can come from any source, such as solar panels - the cobalt and phosphate form a film around the electrode and generate oxygen gas.
Combined with platinum to generate hydrogen, the process can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis. The new catalyst works at room temperature and is easy to set up. “That’s why I know this is going to work. It’s so easy to implement,” Nocera was quoted as saying.
So, what does this mean for energy generation? Quite simply, solar energy can now be generated on a massive scale as well as rather cheaply. And for those environmentalists out there, it’s carbon-free… µ
Comments
H 2 O
I find it amazing that they ever had a process for extracting hydrogen from water WITHOUT also getting oxygen. lolErr isn't this just Electrolysis?
Any IT bod who's done basic Chemistry in school will tell you that passing a electrical current across two electrodes in water will produce hydrogen on one and oxygen on the other.Trivial to then collect either gas.
H2 is emitted on the cathode, O2 at the anode when platinum rods are used.
Hardly a breakthrough, or is Inq. just not telling us something?
:-)
Yippiee
I will get excited when it is brought to market at a decent price, functions without a lot of Maintenance and won't blow up.Welcome to 10 years ago
When this set up was introduced at an Australian antarctic base ages ago as a reliable means to produce power.Cheaply?
I doubt if any system that requires platinum as a catalyst could be done cheaply or on a large scale. Nice idea though.Wot
So there's an inexhaustible supply of cobalt and platinum is there?The important piece
From the text:"there has never been an efficient catalyst for generating oxygen from water" <- perhaps this is the breakthrough...
Let's ask INQ to highlight the important pieces, so you guys won't miss it anymore.
Solar Thermal Millennium has eventually been unleashed!!!
It will not be on rooftops, but in the deserts ... there is enough space and plenty of sun ... which is great for utility scale projects.<a href="http://www.desertec.org/concept.html">See also DESERTEC</a> and
<a href="http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN727363.html">NEAL, is planning to build a 3,000 km-long (1,875 mile) power cable to Germany</a>.
If you ask me, the <a href="http://cleantechnica.com/2008/05/28/big-money-bets-solar-cheaper-than-coal-by-2020/"> Solar Thermal Millennium has eventually been unleashed!!!</a>
Imagine the potential of water splitting and desalination combined with solar thermal power plants, as such build in Spain <a
href="http://tinyurl.com/Andasol-III-constructio">aka. Andasol I-III by Solar Millennium</a>.
Solar thermal power plants are the most efficient way today to convert sunlight to electricity in large scale and utility scale.
Remaining process heat can be used for sea water desalination.
The desalinated water can then be used for hydrogen production.
The water desalination is essential, otherwise we'd have the biofuel against food fight again, but this time it's about water.
(n.b. High efficient PV for roof tops, needs metals like Indium, hardly available and the energy and costs required to produce such cells is horrible, same for fuel cells)
sounds great
Stuart: The electrolysis we learned in HS chemistry is hugely inefficient and requires much more energy to break the ionic bonds than could be recovered in a fuel cell.Catalytic converters in cars use platinum coated beads so I doubt the cost/availability would be an issue. Only a trace amount is required for to act as a catalyst.
Sounds to me like MIT has done it again
Catalyst
I think the breakthrough here is that they found a catalyst. This means you can produce H2 and O2 at a faster rate. Which in this case it takes less energy to produce the same amount of H2 and 02.Not allowed
If the thing can really be used to power a house then we just won't be allowed to have it.We can't go putting power companies out of business can we?
They don't
Catalysts make the electrolysis action more efficient. They make it so that the process has less of a hurdle to get started. The process shouldn't need as much energy.And the way I read it, the cobalt catalyst was just a better catalyst than the platinum one. I don't think you CAN have a separate catalyst for hydrogen vs. oxygen. It just doesn't make sense.
You guys are missing the point
The breakthrough is this: if you can use colbalt and phosphate (both cheap) to generate the Oxygen, you don't need to use platnum (not cheap) to generate the Hydrogen. It lowers the cost/electricity needed to seperate the atoms too.Still need to figure out a way to get platnum out of the equation for the recombining to generate electric power, but this takes care of one of the problems.
It's a catalyst
" So there's an inexhaustible supply of cobalt and platinum is there? "A catalyst is not consumed in the reaction. Catalytic converters in cars use platinum, and last for years.
Having a catalyst for both electrodes gives you more H2/O2 and less heat.
It's not just solar, it can also be used with wind / tide etc.
wtf?
"the advancement deals with the problem of storing solar power when the sun is not shining."uhhh, storing solar power isn't really that hard, it's called a battery. Next time, try doubling the energy collecting ability... that would be news.
As others have noted...
Unless they're trying to con themselves a patent (where previous examples have existed for a century or so), then there must be more to it!You, me or even my cat could make oxygen and hydrogen from a beaker of water, a couple of bits of metal (nothing as expensive as they need) and a bit of electric juice.
(Please kids, don't try this at home. 2:1 Hydrogen:Oxygen is a perfect explosive mixture, do not try in confined space, or anywhere near a naked flame or possible electrical spark. Remember your home is at risk if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or other loan secured on it. May contain nuts).
It's a question of cost
It's not a matter of it suddenly becoming possible, it's a matter of cost.Platinum is one of the rarest metals on the planet, about 30 times rarer then gold, so not exactly applicable on a massive scale. Even on an individual home scale it wouldn't be cheap. Cobalt on the other hand, keep in mind these are just rough numbers based on the leading producing countries for both metals and the percentage of the total supply those countries produce, dwarfs platinum in annual production by around but 262 to 1, atleast it did as of 2005.
In otherwords it's now possible to setup the process for dramatically less. Combine this with the advances recently made in photovoltaic cells and it's becoming a truely viable alternative energy source.
Energy savings... it's true
The reason it is a breakthrough is the overall drop in activation energy required to kick off the reaction, the cobalt anode has a lower activation then a platinum anode, reducing the amount of energy lost as heat at that end of the reaction.The anode and Cathode have different activation energies... Reduction is a lot more energy friendly, hence the reason the hydrogen side of the reaction is considered more efficient.
~Friendly researchers in the Chem department @ University of Minnesota
...with 90% less energy required
The missing part is that the new method requires only 10% of the energy used in any of the current methods.http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/31/2118234
It's the efficiency, st*p*d
The catalyst increases the efficiency by a HUGE factor. The O2 side was the limiting factor - there are always proportional amounts of O2 and H2 produced. If you've actually seem electrolysis in the lab, it's slow compared to the input current. Also, there's research in progress right now to ditch the platinum on the H2 side. geddit?hey
HOW ABOUT A LINK TO THE ARTICLE, NEWBIE?Stan Meyer already did something similar...
...and I rather liked his preferred application too:You Tube search - 'stan meyer water car'.
But also note who was interested in the invention and what happened to Stan shortly after he announced it. Equinox interviewed him too.
So how this invention will work out (if it ever will), I don't know.
Don't hold your breath.
H2O to H+ and OH-
Normally H2O does not break into H2 and O2. It normally breaks into H+(aq) (that's why getting Hydrogen is easy) and OH-(aq) ions. The OH then reacts with the metal in the anode eating it. The new catalyst seems to brake the OH-. to produce the gases. As a side effect there is nothing to react with the anode so it is not damages by the process.pv
*quote*" So there's an inexhaustible supply of cobalt and platinum is there? "
A catalyst is not consumed in the reaction. Catalytic converters in cars use platinum, and last for years.
*end quote*
I think what the previous comment was reffering to was the amout of these metals just sat there in all these cars, At some point we wont beable to make anymore cause all the metal is tied up in existing ones. Not to mention how many will get scrapped.
Carbon free..Hmmm perhaps people are overlooking how many toxic chemicals and 'stuff' it takes to purify silicon to make the PV cells in the 1st place.
the cheapest way to get solor energy is to simply use reflectors to concentrate the energy an use the heat from that. I doubt PV will get anywhere near as 'green' as that.
Batteries are still better
Batteries are 95% efficient in returning energy put into them. Hydrogen is about 50% efficient. How is this any kind of a breakthrough? Why not just take the electricity produced by the solar panel (or whatever energy source) and store it in batteries? If you extract Hydrogen from water, you still have to store it somehow, and that means compressing it, which takes even more energy. And then to get electricity from a fuel cell is also inefficient so all in all, it's a huge waste of solar power. But hey, solar power is unlimited, right? Who cares how much is wasted, it's free. Sorry, I would rather drive 4 times as far in a BEV for the same solar array as you would get from Hydrogen.Pfft!
Please, tell me that this a tongue-in-cheek article!The problem with solar energy that will always keep it as the stuff of enviro-wackos is that mere 1kW/m2 reaches the surface of the earth... at noon... in the summer... in the tropics.
With the best technology available, it's necessary 275m2 to generate the equivalent energy of a gallon of gas anywhere in the developed world on a bright, sunny day.
neeever gonna happen
I can't see how this one will be pushed through energy company lobbyists. Oil is already more expensive than the previous method of accuiring hydrogen but we still can't buy a hydrogen car, can we?Never gonna happen.
old stuff
Well you can actually just burn the HHO gas as it is and it recombines to water.btw. MIT is a corrupt organization. You dont need platnium or cobalt for electrolysis. Regular stainless steel will work.
Chain Reaction
Eddie Kasalivich will have to tinker with the frequencies to make it work, though.We are getting close!
We need to make the transition away from Oil. This could be a great step. If we can begin powering our homes by solar power that does free up natural gas for cars. Now if the cars can go all Electric, then we can be focused on a real solid future.RTFA, slowly this time
Electrolysis with platinum is old hat. Efficiency is low. New substance catalyses reaction at positive electrode releasing oxygen with a lower energy cost. Platinum still at negative electrode. Wonder if paladium would do better ?can anyone say BOMB?
US Nuclear submarines have been creating O2 and H2 from water via electricity for years - with a catalyst.....The piece of equipment in a submarine is actually nicknamed the "bomb" because of the extreme volatility of oxygen and hydrogen. Can you imagine storing Oxygen and/or Hydrogen in your basement? There are many, many other chemical reactions that can store energy that are much safer than this.
MIT has a way of issuing hyperbolic press releases on ill-though out technology "breakthroughs" the last few years. Almost the desperate ghasp of a once great institution that finds itself being an innovation follower.
Just do a google search on "MIT" and "breakthrough" and prepare to laugh at the myriad of breakthroughs that have never amounted to anything. They've made a mockery of their institution and the work "breakthrough"
Storage
Storage has been an issue with portable solar power systems, such as cars, with batteries being very poor energy containers for their weight. Not so much with houses. It'd be great to have your own energy tank in say, a log cabin miles from the nearest power line, but storage has never been a problem for the modern solar powered home. The surplus power generated by solar energy that isn't being used simply goes back into the grid, and the electric company has to pay you for it. At night, the power comes from the grid, but it still works out where the homeowner comes out ahead, unless maybe you run a dryer all night. Or a PS3.It competes with batteries
This does not create electricity from sunlight. It uses electricity that might be generated from sunlight or wind power and uses it to split water into H2 & O2 for storage.The problem is the best fuel cells are only 50% efficient and the best hydrogen internal combustion engines are only 25% efficient.
Off the shelf lead car batteries are 90% efficient, production lithium 95% and production capacitors over 99% - so hydrogen sucks again but that's where the grant money is these days.
Sun & Solar vs. Using Earth's Blood, Oil!
I frankly am tired of my hopes an aspirations on new technologies being played with. I am not a toy!Red tape? More like oil companies using red paint representing blood in painting great minds in corners! As in eliminating any good invention that would bring oil down! I say blood because their determination it to keep things as is. People are dying, breathing used gas and oil combined with overproduced pollen by the plants to keep up with the pollution.
Whatever fat bank accounts there is will amount to nothing when your quality of life diminishes dramatically.
Solar is nice, however, will the pattens that oil companies seized over the years, will they turn up in front of lawyers and judges?
As they did before and WILL again put a devil in the details, they are playing Satan rather than playing God.
Still Expensive
One fact that is blatantly apparent to me but isn't mentioned in the fact that fuel cells themselves are still EXTREMELY expensive, hence we still don't use them. So great, you eat the high initial startup cost of setting up a solar panel array on your roof, something that may take 5-10 years to actually break even with. Then on top of that you add the fuel cell element? This will never be economically feasible in the next 15 years.Just use a couple of dirt cheap lead acid batteries like everyone else.
Quality of comments
One thing that amazes me here when reading some of the comments on this article is how a fair proportion of the posters even managed to get past the captcha to post such ill informed nonsense.