Hydrogen fuel cells begin to show off in the world of competitive racing

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. And how (exactly) is this relevant?

Petroleum is an energy storage medium. Generally, it is thought to store solar energy, in the form of chemical energy, thanks to photosynthesis which took place millions of years ago. Today, we release that energy, by combining petroleum products with oxygen, to produce heat. We convert that heat to mechanical energy in rather inefficient heat engines.

Today, we can store solar energy in the form of chemical energy by producing hydrogen, and later release that energy, by combining the hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to produce heat and electricity. We can use that electricity to drive a rather efficient electric motor.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/artificial-leaf-0930.html

[font face=Serif][font size=5]‘Artificial leaf’ makes fuel from sunlight[/font]
[font size=4]Solar cell bonded to recently developed catalyst can harness the sun, splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.[/font]

David L. Chandler, MIT News Office
September 30, 2011

[font size=3]Researchers led by MIT professor Daniel Nocera have produced something they’re calling an “artificial leaf”: Like living leaves, the device can turn the energy of sunlight directly into a chemical fuel that can be stored and used later as an energy source.

[font size=1]The 'artificial leaf,' a device that can harness sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen without needing any external connections, is seen with some real leaves, which also convert the energy of sunlight directly into storable chemical form.
Photo: Dominick Reuter[/font]

The artificial leaf — a silicon solar cell with different catalytic materials bonded onto its two sides — needs no external wires or control circuits to operate. Simply placed in a container of water and exposed to sunlight, it quickly begins to generate streams of bubbles: oxygen bubbles from one side and hydrogen bubbles from the other. If placed in a container that has a barrier to separate the two sides, the two streams of bubbles can be collected and stored, and used later to deliver power: for example, by feeding them into a fuel cell that combines them once again into water while delivering an electric current.

The creation of the device is described in a paper published Sept. 30 in the journal Science. Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and professor of chemistry at MIT, is the senior author; the paper was co-authored by his former student Steven Reece PhD ’07 (who now works at Sun Catalytix, a company started by Nocera to commercialize his solar-energy inventions), along with five other researchers from Sun Catalytix and MIT.

The device, Nocera explains, is made entirely of earth-abundant, inexpensive materials — mostly silicon, cobalt and nickel — and works in ordinary water. Other attempts to produce devices that could use sunlight to split water have relied on corrosive solutions or on relatively rare and expensive materials such as platinum.

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http://hypersolar.com/news_detail.php?id=41

[font face=Serif][font size=5]HyperSolar Completes Proof of Concept Prototype that Successfully Produces Renewable Hydrogen[/font]
[font size=4]Company combines its unique, low-cost polymer coating with a small-scale solar device to form a self-contained particle that separates hydrogen from water using only the power of the Sun[/font]
[font size=3]SANTA BARBARA, CA – May 22, 2012 - HyperSolar, Inc. (OTCBB: HYSR), the developer of a breakthrough technology to produce renewable hydrogen using sunlight and any source of water, today announced that its first proof of concept prototype is successfully producing renewable hydrogen. By integrating its unique, low-cost polymer coating with a small-scale solar device to form a self-contained particle, the company has proven the scientific validity of its breakthrough technology.

“Using our self-contained particle in a low cost plastic bag, we have successfully demonstrated our ability to mimic photosynthesis to produce renewable hydrogen from virtually any source of water using the power of the Sun,” commented Tim Young, CEO of HyperSolar. “Unlike approaches taken by others in the past, our small scale solar devices actually float in the water. Our next step is to complete the development of our nanoparticles, extremely small solar devices, optimized to significantly reduce the cost of separating hydrogen from water.”

A video showing the proof of concept prototype is available at the company’s website, www.hypersolar.com. It features the self-contained particle floating in a common baggy filled with wastewater from a pulp and paper mill. The video clearly shows hydrogen bubbles being generated in the small baggy. The company’s next prototype will feature nanoparticles, which can be mass-produced at a low cost and can float freely in large scale bag systems to generate large quantities of renewable hydrogen, the cleanest and greenest of all fuels, using only sunlight and water.

Young concluded, “We believe we are on the right track to produce the lowest cost renewable hydrogen. Most hydrogen used today is not renewable and not very clean because it is produced from finite hydrocarbon sources, such as oil, coal and natural gas. Renewable hydrogen produced from nearly infinite sources of water and sunlight, is clean and carbon free. The worldwide impact of using renewable hydrogen to generate electricity and power fuel cell vehicles would be extraordinary.”

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