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| Posted Oct 16, 2005 PT |
International team of scientists finds method of producing hydrogen through solar energy
According to Fuel Cell Today, scientists from Israel, Sweden, Switzerland and France may have overcome the main problem of using hydrogen as a clean fuel source (it usually takes a dirty fuel source like fossil fuels to create it) by using solar furnaces to heat zinc oxide and small amounts of coal until it breaks down to a fine powder, which is then mixed with water and heated to produce hydrogen safely, and experts predict that they will be able to replace the coal with biomass in the future. Related articles on this topic are also available on NewEnergyReport.org, including: The Top Ten Technologies: #2 Hydrogen Economy Enablers.
See more articles like this one at www.HydrogenHeadlines.com
Original news summary: (http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/FuelCellToday/IndustryInformation/IndustryInformationExternal/NewsDisplayArticle/0,1602,6486,00.html)
- Using concentrated solar energy, an international team of scientists from Israel, Sweden, Switzerland and France have discovered a clean, safe and inexpensive way to produce hydrogen.
- The key is using solar energy as the energy source in the production of zinc from zinc oxide.
- Previously, producing hydrogen on a large scale was costly due to the temperatures exceeding 2,500 degrees C in order to separate water molecules.
- But releasing hydrogen by extracting oxygen from water can also be accomplished using pure zinc, which calls for lower temperatures of 350 degrees C, thereby lowering costs.
- But heat and electricity, which are required to extract zinc, considered both an abundant and a natural choice for producing hydrogen, from zinc oxide, have traditionally been powered by fossil fuels.
- The solar solution to achieve the high temperatures (around 1750 degrees C) required for the production of zinc from zinc oxide came in 2004, when the European Union and the Swiss Federal Office of Science and Education funded research to explore using a 45 kW solar furnace in Villigen, Switzerland, a 75kW solar simulator in Zurich and a vary large solar research facility with 1 MW output at the Weitzman Institute in Israel.
- At more than 1200 degrees C the zinc oxide breaks down into zinc and oxygen, which in turn recombines with the carbon to create CO as a minor byproduct.
- It is a simpler process to produce hydrogen from the zinc powder: the zinc is mixed with water at 350 degrees C.
- This entire process is said to have advantages over existing ways of producing hydrogen, not the least of which is that it is clean and, when biomass replaces coal as an additive to the zinc oxide mix, the entire process is potentially nonpolluting.
- Could the future call for filling up our hydrogen-running cars with zinc powder?
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biomass
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