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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Cheap Hydrogen

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By Kevin Bullis
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NREL's John Turner says that Nanoptek's process is "very, very promising." And Harriet Kung, the acting director of the DOE's office of basic energy sciences, which has funded Nanoptek's work, says that the strained-titania approach is "one of the major exciting advances" since titania was first discovered to be a photocatalyst in the 1970s.

If it works as expected, the technology could help address one of the fundamental problems with using hydrogen as fuel. Hydrogen is attractive because it is light, and burning it only produces water. But today most hydrogen is made from natural gas, a process that releases considerable amounts of carbon dioxide. The other main option is electrolysis. But even if it's powered by clean energy, such as electricity from photovoltaics, electrolysis is inefficient and expensive. Guerra says using strained titania, and Nanoptek's inexpensive manufacturing process, makes the process cheap and efficient enough to compete with processes that create hydrogen from natural gas. What's more, Guerra says, the Nanoptek technology can be located closer to customers than large-scale natural-gas processes, which could significantly reduce transportation costs, thereby helping make the technology attractive. And if in the future carbon emissions are taxed or regulated, Nanoptek's carbon-free approach is another advantage.

Turner says that in addition to making hydrogen for fuel-cell vehicles, Nanoptek's process--if it is indeed efficient and inexpensive, as the company claims--could also be important for large-scale solar electricity. If solar is ever to be a dominant source of power, finding ways of storing the energy for night use will be essential. And hydrogen, he says, could be a good way to store it.

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Comments

  • How nice...
    tsaidak on 01/31/2008 at 2:15 AM
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    This sounds great except....

    How much does this hydrogen COST!??

    I can't judge the technology unless they state a price per unit.  Is this $20.00/gal of gasoline equivalent or $2.00/gal of gasoline equivalent?  Until someone can state a price, this is no different then the pie in the sky claims for nuclear reactors in the 1950's.
    Rate this comment: 12345
    • Re: How nice...
      mkogrady on 01/31/2008 at 1:54 PM
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      Actually, this is a nice development. The rutile material is a type of sand. We probably have more of this stuff on the Hawaiian Islands and Pacific North Beaches than we know what to do with. Possibly much less expensive than the materials used to make solar cells, and if I read the article properly, the purity levels to be useful are much lower making mass production easier.
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  • cheap hydrogen
    djs on 01/31/2008 at 3:56 AM
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    Splitting water at a small particle creates not only hydrogen but also oxygen, at that particle. The result is not a fuel but an explosive. Water needs to be split in separate compartments, as in (in fact highly efficient) electrolysis, so that the two gases are collected separately.
    Rate this comment: 12345
    • Re: cheap hydrogen
      dnweiss on 01/31/2008 at 3:35 PM
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      several options for hydrogen-permeable membranes exist that are impermeable for oxygen.
      Rate this comment: 12345
      • Re: cheap hydrogen
        djs on 02/04/2008 at 3:34 AM
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        the selectivity + flux requirements seem impossible to meet with membranes - the safety issues with compressed stoichiometric mixtures of oxygen and hydrogen make this scheme totally impractical
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  • home heat
    rttedrow on 01/31/2008 at 8:08 AM
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    I wonder, will a gas furnace adapt to hydrogen?  I notice the first two comments are negative; sigh....  1.  Of course there's a price consideration and 2. I'm sure none of the scientist-developers have thought of the oxygen production that occurs each and every time one separates water.
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  • what is the yield?
    killian on 01/31/2008 at 11:55 AM
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    The most important question is what is the yield per m^2 (or hectare, acre, mi^2, whatever) per year?  Concentrated Solar Power in the desert (e.g. sunlight at 2700 kWh/m^2/year) and 30% efficiency (i.e. 800 kWh/m^2/year) and hydrolysis at 60kWh/kg (maybe 50kWh/kg someday) gives 16 kg/m^2/year.  What is the kg/m^2/year for Nanoptek?

    The other question is what pressure hydrogen is produced?  (Is a separate compression step required?)
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  • What about water consumption
    KGC on 01/31/2008 at 12:57 PM
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    Forgive my ignorance as I have no knowledge of this technology. I am curious if splitting water to make hydrogen will essentially be competing with human consumption as ethanol does? I realize that the emissions revert back to water, but to what degree? We already have shortages and this type of process seems to contribute to them.
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    • Re: What about water consumption
      brunascle on 01/31/2008 at 1:11 PM      		 Technology Review TR Staff
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      maybe it works with salt water? if so, it shouldnt be an issue.
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      • Re: What about water consumption
        mkogrady on 01/31/2008 at 1:40 PM
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        If it works with salt water, then perhaps large fields can be deployed to generate some hydrogen, but to some extent it can be used as a desalinization tool too. Pipe salt water into some useless desert areas, and make some gas with the sunlight Ingnite it and make some water. Leave the sodium behind!
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    • Re: What about water consumption
      who_knows on 01/31/2008 at 7:41 PM
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      Water consumption is *not* an issue:
      1) Just to grow corn for ethanol production you need 100s of times the amount of water per unit of ethanol. This process needs just 10 units of water for 1 unit of hydrogen.
      2) Water can be desalinated cheaply in energy terms. 1kg of hydrogen (which needs 10kg of water to be made) contains enough energy to desalinate 4000l of water.
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      • Re: What about water consumption
        who_knows on 01/31/2008 at 7:51 PM
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        Or, to put it in more easily understood terms: the same amount of water you use for a single shower (100l+) can be used to drive your SUV over 200km (120 miles) once converted to hydrogen. Seriously, water consumption is not an issue. Cost of this technology might be.
        Rate this comment: 12345
    • Re: What about water consumption
      michro on 02/01/2008 at 8:29 AM
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      When the fuel is used - water is recreated
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  • Several Concerns
    MakeSense on 01/31/2008 at 2:09 PM
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    The article hints at the cost, saying it nearly matches SMR, which is well above reasonable targets for the "hydrogen economy."

    The amount of water - salt water does not work - would be enormous. Recall that 89% of the weight of water is Oxygen, so it takes 10 pounds of water to get a pound of Hydrogen, assuming perfect efficiency.

    Virtually every technique employed to improve renewable hydrogen does a much better job improving PV cell efficiency, which is already well above any hydrogen technology. Anyone putting up the cash would likely spend it on PV cells or better, which need no water.

    Also, the oxygen produced with hydrogen is caustic, so many of these ideas literally fall apart.

    Beyond that, what do you do next? As one post mentioned, there would be compressors and pipes and storage tanks, followed by more pipes and electric generators (in the case of storage) or a hypothetical fuel cell.
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  • Hydrogen
    prodevman on 01/31/2008 at 3:31 PM
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    Unless I can put one of these things on my roof and safely fill my vehicle, I'm going to be a slave to the Oil Companies. Please, we need to be able to fill our energy powerd vehicle at the end of an extention cord.
    Hydrogen is what powers the Electric Grid. If the Oil Companies want to be part of this let them buy the Electric Companies.
    Rate this comment: 12345
    • Re: Hydrogen
      boz_hobbs on 07/27/2008 at 9:04 PM
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      Let George do it? We been dare, dun dat, no hope. Now, with a Bell Mason jar, some electronics, the good sence not to blow your (self) off the planet, and a weekend's work, you just may have a means to free us all from that slavery you are so quick to embrace. 
      Rate this comment: 12345
  • Good for synthetic fuels...
    GreenPlease on 01/31/2008 at 9:40 PM
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    An obvious near term application is to use this technology to create liquid fuels. A hydrogen intense liquid fuel, such as butanol (C4-H10-O) could be created using a modified syngas FT approach or possibly even be carried out in-situ.

    Sourcing the carbon would never be much of an issue (one could always resort to biomass). Methane could also be easily created.

    Another option would be creating a synthetic high performance aviation fuel.

    While I'm ranting, I'll go ahead and make the obvious statement that the oxygen is also a valuable by product. Stored/transported seperately it (O2) will be of extreme value in organic rankine cycle turbines in the near future. 
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    • Re: Good for synthetic fuels...
      Siphon on 02/04/2008 at 12:19 PM
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      Alkanes may make more sense than alcohols. Considering FT isn't very efficient, how about drawing CO2 from the air (zeolite?) and combining the hydrogen with it to make methane (CH4). Much higher process efficiency, and the methane infrastructure is common (natural gas). Methane is a pretty good fuel and transports and handles easier than hydrogen. Could be burned in CCGTs or in CNG vehicles or for heating purposes or even as a metallurgical reducing agent. If necessary, the methane can be upgraded to propane/butane fairly efficiently. Much better perspective than hydrogen IMHO.

      Of course, it mostly depends on what the economics are like.
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  • Hydrogen for Power
    TimG on 02/01/2008 at 11:08 AM
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    I liked two of the points at the end of the article.  Siting the equipment near it's users and using hydrogen to store solar power overnight make a great deal of sense.  In this way, small communities could take charge of their own electric generation the way they are trying now to take charge of their communications.  These plants could be placed near the community as a solar power farm.  Some of the received light would be used and the rest stored.  Water use would not be an issue as the hydrogen would be recycled back into water at night.
    Rate this comment: 12345
    • Re: Hydrogen for Power
      boz_hobbs on 07/27/2008 at 9:08 PM
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      Best of all, TimG, the oil cmpanies will REACT to any MASS ASSERTION of a COMMITMENT to this technology on a GRASSROOTS level. I am in full process of finding how to heat water and cook with this HHO (generated) fuel. You ought to do the same.
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  • Hydrogen from Aluminum
    Biotele on 02/03/2008 at 3:04 PM
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    Aluminum can generate hydrogen on demand. Aluminum solves both the storage and generation problem. You can make hydrogen from Aluminum safely and instantly at home, without the use of caustic soda.

    http://www.instructables.com/id/SODA-CAN-HYDROGEN-GENERATOR/
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  • Useful Oxygen.
    DJTal on 02/05/2008 at 9:38 AM
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    The oxygen is useful in the gasification of biomass for producing pure syngas(Hydrogen and carbon monoxide).
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  • [no subject]
    skipcjr on 03/15/2008 at 12:15 AM
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    hydrogen is a by product of pebble bed technology for new nuclear reactors...10,000 tons a day...
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  • Nanoptek
    vc on 05/14/2008 at 7:54 PM
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    Here's an idea.
    Let's form a company to develop hydrogen production using direct solar.
    Let's get the public to fund the initial research by investing in a lobyist.
    Then let's get venture capitalists to fund the production R&D.
    We can patent it (using the US legal system of course) then license the manufacture offshore (avoiding the high labor costs and legal exposure to that same legal system we wanted to protect our patent and intellectual property) and then sell it to the US consumer and never pay the public a penny.

    Then we can buy a G5, avoid the airport security, screw our hookers enroute, and generally live a well deserved priviledged life, while the rest of the rodents squirm to put a meal on the table.
    Sounds good to me.

    Little known fact; 0.9% of the US population holds 94.6% of the US equity.



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    • Re: Nanoptek
      vonofdallas on 05/17/2008 at 1:41 PM
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      Minus the sarcasm in the previous statement, I think the idea is a great one; to start a company now and take advantage of the tremendous opportunities in store for this emerging technology.  I personally would love to be a part of a start-up company that produces inexpensive and clean energy.  This has been a dream of mine - to be a part of the hydrogen revolution - for the past 35 some years, since I was very young.  Realistically speaking - how would one go about switching careers into this industry?  I am ready!
      Rate this comment: 12345
    • Re: Nanoptek
      madsci on 08/05/2008 at 9:15 AM
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      People badmouth this guy for knowing how the REAL world works. Sarcasm?  The naysayers are the same people who naively voted the people into office who perpetuate the "system" because it's the only way to survive as a  politician. That nice couple next door who harp about family values & the like sscare the hell out of me. Chances are, they are referring to THIER values.
      Here on planet Earth, you CAN screw your way to the top! And you should! Just emulate the ones who have gone before us-Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, etc. Me? I'll take the G-5, The hookers and champagne.
      Seriously dude, point well made, and humorously so. You can't possibly be an engineer!
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  • cheap H2
    randy00789 on 06/10/2008 at 11:31 AM
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    this is Randy Lewis is Fla,  I have a vision of creating a selfsustaining system from home using solar to create hydrogen to fuel personal vehicles.  You new system sounds like it might be appropriate to use at home as long as one has good sunlight.

    Are you selling these units yet?  If so what kind of costs are involved?  I am working up a grant proposal for funding so hopefully in a few months I will have the funding and can purchase a system.

    Thanks and God bless,

    Randy
    941-240-1060
    Rate this comment: 12345
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