Hydrogen fuel breakthrough: Clean power generated WITHOUT relying on fossil fuels

It's not convincing to me, they say that currently H2 is too hard to make due to much energy required? Not really true of the standard way to make H2 from nat gas, which is more dependent on the cost of nat gas. As far as H2 from electrolysis, there could be room for improvement...I think often platinum is used on the electrodes to keep them from corroding away in the saline solution, but whatever substitute is suggested is going to have to be robust over time.

 

A catalyst speeds up a reaction, it does not change the energy requirements.

 

...great fundamental answer...I wish I would have said that!

 

Without any specific efficiency increase given by the researchers, or a link to any publication on their work, the claims are suspect.

For time to time, some group comes out with a claim making X enzyme for ethanol production A% more efficient. What they leave out is that X is one of the poorer enzymes to begin with, and Y enzyme is already available and more efficient than improved X.

If the catalyst reduces the energy threshold of a reaction to begin, like requiring less heat or current, then it could improve the economic efficiency.

 

I do not know how big name universities get involved with selling "snake oil" sometimes, but I've seen it happen. Part of the problem is the venture capital system requires some hype to get the funding.

Catalysis is a tricky subject. Many catalysts can do magic, the problem is, the winner catalyst can do the magic 24/7 for 1 to 2 years before it poops out and needs to be replaced. Many times people will show the catalyst works for a day or two, and claim amazing break-thru, but it becomes a flop because in the real world we need a 2-yr life not a 2 day catalyst life.

For example, the 3-way catalytic converter in our cars is amazing miracle, I cannot recall if they got the Nobel prize but if not they should. But catalyst life is 5-10 years ...robust....what we need.