Invention May Make Hydrogen a Real Green Contender

[nationalize the fed]

Don Pitts | CBC News | Jun 25, 2015

When Canadian fuel cell pioneer Geoffrey Ballard had the idea of "replacing the internal combustion engine — just getting that off the streets," the difficulties seemed overwhelming.


The six roof mounted hydrogen fuel tanks of First London bus WSH62991, a 2010 single-deck fuel cell bus, part of the Transport for London / HyFLEET:CUTE project. Credit: Spsmiler

But 30 years after Vancouver-based Ballard Power Systems created its first commercial hydrogen fuel cell, a breakthrough at Stanford University may suddenly make the hydrogen-powered car a serious green contender.

Elon Musk, whose company Tesla Motors has been a leader in battery-powered cars, has scoffed at his hydrogen-fuelled competitors, calling them silly and implying it was a dead-end technology.

But this latest invention out of California may allow hydrogen to give Musk a run for his money...SNIP
MORE: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/invention-may-make-hydrogen-a-real-green-contender-don-pittis-1.3125826

Stanford water splitter produces clean hydrogen 24/7

Published on Jun 23, 2015

Stanford University engineer Yi Cui, graduate student Haotian Wang and colleagues have invented a low-cost water splitter that uses a single catalyst to produce both hydrogen and oxygen gas from liquid water, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The novel low-voltage device could provide a renewable source of clean-burning hydrogen fuel for transportation and industry.

Video credit: Haotian Wang, Stanford University

Single-Nanocatalyst Water Splitter Produces Clean-Burning Hydrogen 24/7
http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news/newsid=40533.php

Related: Why Elon Musk, Steven Chu and John Doerr hate hydrogen more than anything on Earth!

...The Cartel has spent more than a billion dollars on “doubt” and disinformation campaigns like those shown in the feature film: “Merchants of Doubt”. Whenever the word “hydrogen” or “Fuel Cell” shows up on any blog comment in the world, Companies like Palantir, Axciom, and other web scanning services, relay those mentions to the Cartel bloggers, who immediately descend on that blog to flood it with “hydrogen Sucks” and “Elon Musk is the greatest thing since sliced bread” comments.

Back in the day, John Doerr and his cohorts at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey Consulting flooded Washington, finance newspapers and tip-sheets with whitepapers, articles and buzz-sheets saying: “Afghanistan is the Saudi Arabia of Lithium”, “Over a trillion dollars of lithium found in Afghanistan” ad other related hype. This was based on documents acquired from the Russians who had previously tried, and failed, to take over Afghanistan. That was during the Afghan period in which the U.S. was paying Bin Laden to help screw up the Russians, before Bin Laden turned bad. Little did they suspect that the names: Frank Guistra, Ener1, Severstal and Solyndra would be their downfall...
http://www.crimebusters77.com/xyz-case-investigation-22-documentation/why-elon-musk-steven-chu-and-john-doerr-hate-hydrogen-more-than-anything-on-earth/

[cantbeserious]

1. Before The Celebrations Begin - Let's See If This Ever Leaves The Lab

eom

[DCBob]

2. The "problem" with fuel cells is that water still needs to be converted to hydrogen first..

which requires energy but if it can done efficiently with solar cells tapping free energy from the sun then it could be a game changer. According to the article this new process provides 82% efficiency which sounds remarkably high.

[Fumesucker]

3. Hydrogen isn't particularly efficent on the other end either though

Fuel cells are not that efficient, you multiply efficiencies so if you have 80% on either end your electric in to electric out is 0.8^2 = 0.64 so you are at 64% before you even start doing anything with the electricity, if your controller is 95% and your motor is 90% then it's .64*.95*.9 = ~.55 so your overall efficiency is only 55%.

[hunter]

5. Don't forget the energy to compress it.

I still don't "get" hydrogen as anything but a clumsy and unlikely means of preserving existing business models. It's just another pump at the gas station.

Maybe it's time for the automobile age itself to end -- just pay people to stay home and read a book or something.

[DCBob]

7. It's cleaner.

[DCBob]

6. Yeah, that makes sense but if the goal is to reduce burning hydrocarbons..

then its still significant.. even at 55%.

[Fumesucker]

8. If you are putting electricity in one end and out the other batteries are more efficient

Since you multiply efficiencies then any low number really hurts you, take my previous example where the overall electric in to motor shaft out was 55% and if you use a 97% efficient lithium battery then the overall efficiency is .9*.95*.97 = .83 or 83% so 17% loss versus 45% loss.

A bus is a decent example though of where hydrogen may make sense, it's a vehicle that runs all day and it's hard to make a battery that will drive that kind of load in that sort of duty, a commuting vehicle for a single person is different operating regime and batteries make a lot more sense.

[hunter]

4. Direct Stanford Source and link to Nature Communications:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/june/water-splitter-catalyst-062315.html

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150623/ncomms8261/full/ncomms8261.html

[longship]

9. Only if the energy hydrolyzing the water is green.

And let's make sure that everybody understands that there are no sources of hydrogen on Earth, except that like in water, H2O.

And let's make sure that everybody understands that it takes more energy to free the hydrogen from water than burning the hydrogen generates. It's that nasty physics poking it's ugly head again.

S = k Log W

Thermodynamics is a bitch.

Hydrogen is not an energy source and anybody who says it is, is lying.

But it might be a good energy storage mechanism, if it can be done efficiently. This OP may be a way to lead to that goal.

R&K

[OKIsItJustMe]

10. More information here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/112787338