encouraging news

[Guest guest]

Sunlight to Fuel Hydrogen Future

 

 

By John Gartner |

02:00 AM Dec. 07, 2004 PT

 

The photovoltaic cell is old news. The latest way to exploit the sun is through

tiny materials that can directly convert sunlight into large amounts of

hydrogen.

 

Hydrogen Solar of Guilford, England, and Altair Nanotechnologies are building a

hydrogen-generation system that captures sunlight and uses the energy to break

water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The company's current project is a

fuel station in Las Vegas that will soon be dispensing hydrogen fuel.

 

 

 

Today's the Day. Hydrogen Solar CEO David Auty said his company's Tandem Cell

technology uses two solar cells that together capture sunlight from every part

of the ultraviolet spectrum. The interaction of photons with a semiconductor

material causes a photo electrochemical reaction that excites electrons and

causes water molecules to break up into hydrogen and oxygen, according to Auty.

 

Auty said Tandem Cells are coated with a layer containing metal oxide particles

that are less than 30 nanometers thick and can convert sunlight energy into

hydrogen with 8 percent efficiency. Auty said that while other researchers view

10 percent efficiency as cost-competitive with fossil fuels, his technology can

compete today.

 

Auty hopes to have a working demonstration system in early 20051. He said they

are currently able to produce a few kilograms of hydrogen per day at the

Hydrogen Solar laboratory using cells that are approximately 10 square inches.

 

Hydrogen Solar is creating consumer and industrial applications that extend

research performed by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the

University of Geneva, according to Auty. He said a system on a home's garage

roof that is 10 percent efficient could provide enough hydrogen for a fuel-cell

car to drive 11,000 miles per year. " The market will have a niche in the home,

as people will be able to install their own systems and run their vehicles using

the hydrogen produced during daylight hours, " he said.

 

Auty is not assuming that the United States will shift from fossil fuels to the

hydrogen economy by 2020, as touted by the Bush administration, California Gov.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and many scientists. " You can't put all of your eggs in

one basket, " Auty said, so his company is developing products that will compete

in the current industrial hydrogen market.

 

Hydrogen Solar is one of several organizations pursuing photo electrochemical

hydrogen production. In October, the Department of Energy awarded (.pdf) $10

million in research grants to four groups also working on producing hydrogen

from sunlight -- GE Global Research, the University of California at Santa

Barbara, MVSystems and Midwest Optoelectronics.

 

Caltech University professor of chemistry Nathan Lewis, who is working with GE

on hydrogen research, said integrated systems that convert solar energy photo

electrochemically are more efficient than splitting water through the more

extensively researched electrolysis technique. Lewis said electrolysis requires

two stages. Photovoltaic, nuclear, wind or coal energy systems generate

electricity, and then a metal-based catalyst uses the electricity to split the

water into hydrogen and oxygen.

 

Electrolysis requires using " very expensive materials such as platinum and

palladium that won't scale at current costs, " according to Lewis. Nanotech-based

photo electrochemical materials could lower the cost of hydrogen production

" somewhere between a factor of 4 and 10, " Lewis said.

 

Lewis is researching metal oxide materials that can be applied to tarps or roofs

in very thin coatings. He said covering an area 57,600 square miles2 in the

sunny southwest United States with such thin materials that convert sunlight

with 10 percent efficiency could provide all of the domestic energy needs for

buildings and transportation. While that number may not sound large (just 1.7

percent of the U.S. surface area), it is 10 times the size of all the rooftops

in the country, he said.

 

" Visible light has enough energy to split water, " said John Turner, a principal

scientist at the National Renewable Energy Lab who is working on identifying and

developing nanomaterials for photo electrochemically creating hydrogen. Turner's

group is using computer modelling to identify materials with the necessary

properties for efficiently capturing light across the entire spectrum while

remaining stable.

 

Photo electrochemical reactions require the materials to be continually immersed

in water, so they are susceptible to corrosion, Turner said. Some of the early

materials Turner's team tested were effective for less than one day because of

corrosion. " It's a question of stability " in selecting the optimal materials, he

said. The researchers are testing metal oxides as well as organic compounds,

according to Turner.

 

Turner said it's important to turn up the heat on hydrogen research now. " In

2030 we're not going to have enough oil, natural gas and coal to meet our energy

needs ... and hydrogen is the best carrier " for an alternative fuel.

 

 

Plans to build a Hydrogen Generator

Run your Car on Water!

www.futurehorizons.net/hyd2a.htm Hydrogen Fuel Cell

Article in PC Magazine

Read it online. Free Trial!

www.KeepMedia.com