Self-sustaining hydrogen production coming soon?
A University of Delaware engineer’s solar-powered, hydrogen-producing reactor may solve the energy crisis.
We live in an era that has seen more technological progress than all the centuries before it combined but we are still at the mercy of batteries and hydrocarbons (fossil fuels such as gasoline). (There are already vehicles running on hydrogen such as the Honda FCX Clarity, available in California, and the Mercedes-Benz F-Cell, supported by a network of hydrogen-fueling stations.) While green energy sources are slowly replacing more carbon intensive sources such as coal, nuclear, and natural gas, (one of) the ultimate goal is to use a fuel source such as hydrogen, the universe’s most abundant element (though not on Earth itself).
On Earth, the issue is that hydrogen isn’t found in abundance in its natural form. The easiest method of obtaining hydrogen is by performing electrolysis on water, which is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (hence H2O) to produce H2 (hydrogen) and O2 (oxygen). Thus, to make use of hydrogen, it must be separated or broken down from more complex elements and this typically requires a larger net amount of energy than would be obtained from the hydrogen itself when used as a fuel, thereby defeating the purpose.
Now, a mechanical engineer Erik Koepf at the University of Delaware may have found the first sustainable reactor capable of producing pure hydrogen for fuel. The reactor uses solar energy along with zinc oxide (ZnO) and water (H2O) to create a reaction that produces hydrogen. The entire reaction process is carbon-free, making it clean for the environment.
The reactor works by using a common concept: the solar oven. Using solar energy, which is abundant in many areas on Earth, the reactor is heated to 3,000° F/1,649° C, which causes gravity-fed zinc oxide to vaporize into a zinc vapor. The vapor is then separated and reacted with water to produce hydrogen.
The reaction is as follows:
Reaction #1: 2(ZnO) [zinc oxide] + heat [3,000° F] → 2(Zn) [zinc] + (O2) [oxygen]
Reaction #2: 2(Zn) [zinc] + 2(H2O) [water] → 2(ZnO) [zinc oxide] + 2(H2) [hydrogen]
The zinc oxide produced by Reaction #2 is then reused again and the process starts over, sustaining itself.
2012-04-18 UPDATE: The hydrogen is then burned to release energy with the byproduct of pure water.
2(H2) [hydrogen] + O2 [oxygen, required to "burn" anything] → energy + 2(H2O) [pure water]
The reactor prototype, which is only 2×3 feet, but weighs a gargantuan 1,750 lbs. will be undergoing testing in Zurich in the coming weeks where it will be subjected to the equivalent of light from 10,000 suns. This testing will determine how efficient it is at producing hydrogen as well as its durability. If testing proves successful, the design will be scaled up for industrial use.
While this won’t immediately solve the energy crisis (infrastructure and other things will need to be changed over decades), it will certainly speed the transition away from a fossil fuel-based economy. (Cue X-Files/big oil conspiracy theorists…)
With advances such as this solar reactor, hopefully we’ll see a clean fuel source in widespread use in our lifetimes.
[Source: Geek.com]
And which corporate giant is going to lay claim to this new “miracle”? No doubt it will be premium cost energy, once again pushing costs skyward.
There was a person that invented a unit the size of a dishwasher that produced hydrogen. It could have been used in every home. it did not use solar power. That technology was not there at the time, but did make Hydrogen.
Embridge inc. has the patten. this was about 15 years ago.
Never hear of it again. Mmmm…
Residential fuel cells have been in use for over 3 years in Japan, South Korea. An added bonus is the pure, distilled water they produce which comes in handy during emergency situations.
They’ll eventually make their way to North America, regardless of any “big oil” interventions.
http://panasonic.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/en110209-2/en110209-2.html
Jeremy thank you for sharing these websites, what an eye opener, several years ago after a year of language studies, we (family) spent six weeks in Japan. I saw one of these units as depicted on the website you provided. I did not know what I had seen other than it was some kind of electrical unit. It resides in a friend’s (Ichirou) house in Hyogo Prefecture.
Talk about a no-brainer business plan to import working self contained hydrogen electrical units. Google “Panasonic hydrogen fuel cell for the home” there are some YouTube videos available.
There is a way and smart people are diligently working to its perfection. Imagine neighbourhoods without poles of hanging wires and cables. It has the potential to save billions of dollars in costs. That is if we have self contained hydrogen systems for each house.
By the time I am ready to buy a house, it would be great to have a roof make of solar panels running hydrogen based electrical system. That runs all electrical needs including the heating and cooling system.
hey Phil. ya wouldn’t need the hydrogen part for the house. just to run the car. the house would be all electric.
in this case, the h2 is the storage media for the electricity produced by the phil’s solar panels. that way phil can still use electricity at night / cloudy days etc.
Okay, so this all sounds good and all that but it does beg the obvious question: How involved is the water usage? I mean, does the zinc element create hydrogen along with the water as a catalyst or is this just another fancy way of breaking down H2O? To me this is a critical question in that if using the zinc actually creates the hydrogen, then yes, we are looking at a potentially unlimited (well, at least as long as we have available zinc) energy supply, but if instead this is just a more efficient way to break down water then we’ve just shifted our usage from fossil fuels to water. Okay, granted, a much cleaner solution to be sure BUT how long will it be before we begin to find our enormous energy demands straining our water supplies? I know that it’s sometimes very hard to conceptualise it but the planet’s water is also, abeit far larger, a finite resource. Running out of fossil fuels will cause us all to get more exercise and make us change how and where we live. Running out of water will simply kill us.
The zinc simply helps split the water into hydrogen and oxygen. So yes, one would need to gather and consume large quantities of relatively pure water.
On the other hand, when you “burn” the hydrogen, you get the water back (and bind the oxygen that was previously liberated). So there’s no issue in using up all the world’s water.
but maybe use up all the hydrogen…do we know what problems burning hydrogen would create, just as burning carbon causes global warming. A lot fewer humans using solar generated electric power might work. Nothing but the sun’s energy, which it happily gives away for free. Of course some greedy genius will have to find a way to enrich themselves.
gman what are you smoking??? That was barely coherent.
Are you advocating killing of most of the human population to reduce the effects on the environment or what??
The great thing about this process is that the water is also full recovered. When the hydrogen is burned the by-product (exhaust) consists of water vapor. This vapor then re-enters the water cycle to fall as rain. The question is if this will be more energy efficient than electrolysis (splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen) with electrical current.
The major drawback to hydrogen is that it isn’t an energy dense fuel and it is difficult to store and transport. Some advances in the creation of synthetic gas show promise but are not far enough advances to build a marketing stratigy around. The use of this fuel depends on the ability to generate and use it locally.
Post updated with a 3rd reaction:
Burning hydrogen… which produces… pure water.
At present, they are closing zinc mines in the Canadian North because the global price for zinc has been declining.
Okay, so a co-worker who is somewhat of an expert in Hydrogeology has just pointed out to me something rather important. Burning hydrogen produces a by-product. That by-product is… water!
Now I’m simply astounded (and a lot less concerned.)
Amazing discovery! Let’s water it down now to real life use :)
Don’t get too excited about this. Exxon or another big oil company will buy the patent and you’ll never see it if it actually is useful
Bingo
Why not just use the solar oven, “The reactor works by using a common concept: the solar oven. Using solar energy, which is abundant in many areas on Earth, the reactor is heated to 3,000° F/1,649° C” to boil water to drive a steam turbine to make electricity and feed it through the existing grid?
Too bad the hydrogen economy is a pipe dream. There is no practical method of storage and if the entire world energy storage system were based on Hydrogen the amount of hydrogen leakage would destroy he ozone layer.
http://www.nature.com/news/1998/030609/full/news030609-14.html
You should read an article that isn’t 14 years old.
There are already a handful of practical, safe storage solutions such as the hydrogen “slush” used in the Honda FCX vehicle.
http://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/storage.html
I’m not up on chemistry, but perhaps a chemical reaction requiring energy is more efficient than change of state requiring energy. How efficient this process is, who knows? That’s why it is off to Zurich for further and larger scale testing.
Phil, you are such a [pretentious] D-bag.
Many times I have read stuff like this and even came across some plausable ideas to separating hydrogen atoms from water without using vast amounts of energy (alot less energy use to what you get back in return). I remember a man had a invention and President G. Bush <–(stupid man) invited him to the Whitehouse only never to here from this idea again….hmmmmm. I think wealth and greed will never allow such ideas materialize when the worlds economy is wrapped around fossil fuels. Money is not everything and this world would be so much further advanced without wealthy people hoarding it and wanting more. I'm sorry to say this but as long as money rules in fossil fuels the wealthy will trash any alternatives by using buyouts to threating lives. Don't kid yourselves, it has happened many times already. Did you know that it takes vast amounts of oil to make your electric car batteries?……it's really not as "green" as they like you to believe. Your car will drive cleaner but the plant where your battery was made is now pumping out all the green house gases there.
A number of years ago a company in the US called Plug Power, I think, had a Hydrogen machine that would fit into each and every home to replace power from the grid. This unit was about the size of a small freezer and could be run on Hydrogen from water or natural gas, which has more hydrogen than water. They were about 6 months away from putting this out to market. At the time Edison Power in the US was a backer and intended to put these units into new houses for free but charge for the power they made. We haven’t seen any production since Edison got involved, or should I say buy them out.
They are in the market and used by many commercial/industrial sites: http://www.plugpower.com/Customers/WhosUsingGenDrive.aspx just not residential ones yet.
In Pacific Asia, fuel cells are used in the home and will continue to decrease in price: http://panasonic.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/en110209-2/en110209-2.html
3000 degrees is the problem….
Let’s just remember that the water it produces is vapor.
Another less-observed fact about climate change is that water vapor also contributes to increased global warming. Hotter temperatures mean an increase in evaporated water. By burning hydrogen as a fuel, you thereby increase the water in the atmosphere.
Of course, this all rains/condenses down eventually. But could contributing to the already natural water evaporation process in another, more “efficient” way (remember all combustion reactions produce water vapor) actually create other issues?
Also, since this requires an abundant amount of fresh, pure water–either our water bills are going to skyrocket as the demand increases. We’ll be draining/displacing our fresh water from the Great Lakes (rain doesn’t always fall exactly where it is evaporated from–most falls over the oceans) and therefore need to extract–or desalinate–sea water. That–as an FYI–is an extremely energy-intensive process.
While I support the use of hydrogen-fuel over most fossil fuels any day, all I ask is that we consider the source of the problem; CONSUMPTION.
Why not consume less energy? If we consumed less energy, there would be less demand, less production, and less impact on the environment (regardless of the method of production). The energy we do produce can come from clean sources, such as this, however we ultimately should be reducing the amount of energy we need to do our day-to-day tasks.
I would like to see power authorities look to reduce the demand on their systems, not increase supply. The amount of money they charge doesn’t need to solely be based on the end-usage, but could also be based on the “efficiency services” they provide to the user.
Anyway, I’ve digressed. Good to hear that steps are being taken toward achieving greener energy production. Hopefully we consider the impact it has on Society and the Environment, and not just the corporate gains/efficiencies it may provide.
This system doesn’t produce water vapour; it uses it to react with zinc vapour. It also doesn’t expel the water vapour — hence the carbon neutral aspect.
there was a company called Fuel Cell Tech. which was building fuel cells for remote locations for power and hot water as the by product ,they planned to mass produce a unit the size of a fridge to produce enough power and hot water to run a home off the grid for 20 yrs ,guess what the government shut it down no R&d money or just the through of large utilities losing customers by the thousands ,someone owns the rights to this and it will never be developed as long as big oil and the utilities power companys have governments in their back pockets
l
Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies is alive and well.
Last year, at CES, they released a $100 personal fuel cell: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/16/horizon-minipak-personal-fuel-cell-charger-hits-shelves-for-100/
Other companies such as Panasonic and NEC have been producing fuel cells for the home for over 3 years: http://panasonic.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/en110209-2/en110209-2.html
Fuel cell technology is alive and well and while it hasn’t penetrated the North American residential market in a noticeable way, it will eventually get here, regardless of any interference from the power companies.
I’m still waiting for someone to figure out that by putting a windmill farm in a giant body of water, you can produce clean energy without using zinc, to convert the water to hydrogen, to produce free fuel… much more efficient than the solar one which is also a good idea…
Likely it has been invented a hundred times and the oil barons bought it out a hundred times.
If you’re referring to underwater windmills (and not air), then yes, it’s already being developed and tested with various pilot projects.
http://ivn.us/2012/01/23/california-could-generate-massive-wave-and-tidal-power/
http://www.energy.ca.gov/oceanenergy/index.html
Scotland is deploying a 10 MW station off the coast and has committed to being fully-powered by renewable energy by 2020. (Iceland is already there.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/17/10megawatt-tidal-power-station-approved-hebrides
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Regardless of the potential for abuse by buyout or monopoly or silencing, we need to develop new technology. We know fossil fuels are a dead end. This seems to be a significant step. Hydrogen storage methods have evolved; the heat produced by this process and subsequent greenhouse effects would need to be researched. My gut tells me it might be better than burning fossil fuels AND it is carbon free But the system is self-sufficient and contained, re-using the water and the catalyst zinc oxide in the end. The heat could easily be reditributed for useful things like heating the nearby buildings (for instance), and the subsequent pure water collected for any purpose. Innovation must go on. Our ethics always lag behind any technolgy, but does not stop it. Kudos to the people trying to find solutions, not not simply criticizing attempts and failures! Only failure (I hope not) will bring about success.
We did this stuff 60 years ago in cem lab .Making it is eazy, storing hydrogen is still the problem . The the facts haven,t changed . Burn the stuff you get water vapor. Cleanest energy you can use.!!!!
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