'Major discovery' from MIT primed to unleash solar revolution

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

OMG imagine the global cooling that will occur!

Let me get my protective brown paper touque.

[Itse]

"Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis."

Isn't platinum actually kind of expensive and rare? As in, the opposite of "inexpensive" and "unlimited"?

But what do I know.

[Azure]

Good.

Anything that allows the US to waste less money on Middle East oil is good.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Azure

Good.

Anything that allows the US to waste less money on Middle East oil is good.

I'm admittedly no expert, but why wouldn't that trend affect Canada as much as the middle east? Canada is the single largest source of American oil--and therefore our economic fortunes are to some degree tied to America's so-called "dependence on foreign oil."

The middle east is a huge source of petroleum for the U.S.--but Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait combined make up a little less than 25% of daily oil imports to the U.S., while Canada alone accounts for almost 20%, unless my math is totally off (which is possible--I'm an English guy!)
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/p...nt/import.html

I don't know what I'm suggesting--I think alternative fuels are a good idea. I'm just saying that Canadians who feel the U.S. needs to be "less dependent on foreign oil" ought perhaps to be a little careful what they're wishing for.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

I don't know what I'm suggesting--I think alternative fuels are a good idea. I'm just saying that Canadians who feel the U.S. needs to be "less dependent on foreign oil" ought perhaps to be a little careful what they're wishing for.

There will always be buyers for oil, right until the wells dry up. Finding buyers wouldn't be a problem at all.

[photon]

Plus energy isn't the only use for oil, it's just the biggest one, and the energy density of hydrocarbons are so much better than with hydrogen (per weight or volume) that it's difficult to do a wholesale swap of all vehicles with hydrogen. But replacing commuter cars with hydrogen cars would be a huge help.

I look forward to seeing more detail, the article is pretty light on specifics.

[Kybosh]

Originally Posted by photon

Plus energy isn't the only use for oil, it's just the biggest one, and the energy density of hydrocarbons are so much better than with hydrogen (per weight or volume) that it's difficult to do a wholesale swap of all vehicles with hydrogen. But replacing commuter cars with hydrogen cars would be a huge help.

I look forward to seeing more detail, the article is pretty light on specifics.

Nocera's actual Science article has more details but it is pretty heavy on the chemistry and you need a subscription to read it. That being said, Nocera himself is quite tight lipped about this stuff and doesn't give out much detail even in his publications.

[Kybosh]

Originally Posted by Itse

"Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis."

Isn't platinum actually kind of expensive and rare? As in, the opposite of "inexpensive" and "unlimited"?

But what do I know.

The thing about catalysts is that they are used to lower the amount of energy needed to do a reaction (activation energy) but are not used up in that reaction. That means that you should ideally be using a small amount of catalyst that has high turnover rates (ie. something that still works for a long time). If you think about materials in these terms, then the use of "expensive" metals really isn't that bad.

[Titan]

Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale

Let me get my protective brown paper touque.

hahahaha

[Svartsengi]

Originally Posted by Itse

"Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis."

Isn't platinum actually kind of expensive and rare? As in, the opposite of "inexpensive" and "unlimited"?

But what do I know.

Yes it is expensive and rare. In the article it mentioned they are looking for substitutes for platinum as using it would be impossible on an industrial scale. It is an interesting idea with more research needed to scale it up from the lab to the real world.

[WindomURL]

Platinum is indeed expensive, but not so rare as to preclude its use.
Read the Wikipedia article on Catalytic_converter in the Technical Details section.

[SebC]

Electrolysis of water is nothing new (although MIT has certainly improved it)... the bigger issues for solar are producing the solar cells and distributing the hydrogen.