The kind of breakthrough we need Scientists: Alloy will Revolutionize Energy by Generating Hydrogen on the Cheap - International Business Times Currently a large amount of electricity is needed to generate hydrogen by water splitting and the process entails a large amount of carbon dioxide emissions. The new research by professors at the University of Kentucky Center for Computational Sciences and the University of Louisville Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research could change all that. The finding shows that an alloy formed by a 2 percent substitution of antimony (Sb) in gallium nitride (GaN) has the right electrical properties to enable solar energy to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. "When the alloy is immersed in water and exposed to sunlight, the chemical bond between the hydrogen and oxygen molecules in water is broken. The hydrogen can then be collected," reported the Science Daily.
for transportation uses there is still issue with on-board storage, energy density and fuel cell costs
It will be interesting to see some data about efficiency and durability. Hydrogen is an important gas economically, even without discussing automobiles. Tom
My big question would be at what rate? While lower cost solution is wonderful, you also need to produce it fairly quickly. This may be more beneficial for residential power supply.
Interesting lab study but I would be a skeptic until further details. Keep in mind lots of plant energy and costs involved with compressors etc. The main thing they seem to be claiming is CO2-free H2 generation, whereas nat gas is the normal feed. Nat gas is very cheap right now which implies making H2 is cheap right now. So they have a hard job to beat that, but if so, great!
+1 After watching 4 decades of hyped hydrogen promises come and go, one necessarily gets jaded. After all ... the researchers who blew through the 100's of millions of research dollars since the 1960's have never come up with an economical system ... only NASA budget type systems. Researchers over promise for a very simple reason ... they know what side of the bread that the research butter is on. Can you imagine how far battery technology would be right now if all that money would have been invested into battery technology ? At least battery technology is proven to work at a price that's affordable. .
there was enough money blown on battery research, don't worry. R&D is wasteful by definition, as you are trying to come up with new ways of doing things or new things. Most of ideas one may have do not work out, only a few lead to measurable result and even then most of the result are impractical from production point of view. The reason we do not have better battery technology is b/c oil companies like Chevron were buying patents and sitting on them to ensure oil demand, not b/c there is lack of R&D funding.
Please read "Patent encumbrance of large automotive NiMH batteries" in Wikipedia and get back to me. The inventor blamed the AUTO companies for trying to scuttle, it says. In any case, Li probably better for EV due to rare earth metals needed in huge NiMH batteries, in hindsight it may be good thing the way it went. Also encumbrances happen all the time, because corporations are always trying to protect their competitive position, even say Apple.
I could find no mention of how efficient this process is. All they claim is that the material is cheaper than other materials that do the same thing. Which is kind of like saying this is cheaper than gold. True and interesting but not much real-world impact. To be a breakthrough at all, this has to be substantially more efficient than hooking a solar panel up to a couple of electrodes, in terms of converting sunlight to hydrogen. Otherwise, instead of covering a football field with flat semiconductor panels, moving electrons around, and making hydrogen and oxygen in one convenient location, you cover a football field with flat semiconductor panels and a few miles of pipe, for moving water and gasses around, somehow protect it from freezing (if you are in that kind of climate), then make hydrogen and oxygen in small amounts over the entire surface of the football field.
