Hydrogen. Interesting.

[nath]

Well I think it is anyway

 

[Ormorof]

that looks pretty neat

 

[haarewin]

will be cool when cars are powered on that stuff. those guys will be rich

 

[Chilly]

~farts out 50p's worth of bio-hydro~

 

[Tom]

I thought that there were only finite sources of Hydrogen on the planet though?

 

[Chilly]

You are indeed correct tom. But it's finite in the same way the sun's lifetime is finite - humanity will be long dead and gone as will several other intelligent races before it starts to run out. Water is 2 blobs hydrogen and 1 blob oxygen, and look how much water there is?

I cant remember the exact statistic, but if you extracted all the energy from fusing a pints worth of hydrogen you could boil the earths oceans with it - it may not be a pint, it might be a tea spoon or a swimming pool but you get the picture.

 

[Tom]

Ah right, perhaps I was thinking about Helium instead, which I believe is made in the US? I seem to remember some documentary on the radio about medical scanners and gasses.

 

[tris-]

i thought H2 was the most abundent thingy in the universe?

 

[RandomBastard]

Hydrogen baaed energy is very attractive because its abundant and cheap.
This is why fusion is so attractive a fusing provides maximum energy from turning hydrogen into helium

 

[DaGaffer]

Definitely worth keeping an eye on; I wonder if these guys are going into business or are going to flog the IP to the energy companies? As haarewin said, these guys could end up being very rich.

Of course the one thing that's glossed over in the article is the 'catalyst' to release the ammonia; from what I remember from other hydrogen fuel cell experiments, it was the catalyst that was the really expensive bit because it used exotic metals like platinum. Of course this could be a completely different kind of catalyst, but as with all these things, the devil is in the detail.

 

[Mazling]

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/microbe_produces_h2_from_water_carbon_monoxide_9417

It's getting closer...

 

[leggy]

Definitely worth keeping an eye on; I wonder if these guys are going into business or are going to flog the IP to the energy companies? As haarewin said, these guys could end up being very rich.

Of course the one thing that's glossed over in the article is the 'catalyst' to release the ammonia; from what I remember from other hydrogen fuel cell experiments, it was the catalyst that was the really expensive bit because it used exotic metals like platinum. Of course this could be a completely different kind of catalyst, but as with all these things, the devil is in the detail.

Generally the electrodes in a typical fuel cell are precious metals like platinum and palladium. I suspect though that the 'catalyst' is indeed something like rhodium/platinum. We did some research on fuel cells in my last job and I would really be interested in how this hydrogen tablet is made.

It's not hard to look up the patent though, if it is pending, which I assume it would be to publish like that.

 

[Scouse]

As with all new technologies there's a hitch...

When the tablet is empty, you merely give it a “shot” of ammonia and it is ready for use again.

Now. I'm not sure but have any of you guys left some ammonia lying around?

As long as they can find a cheap, clean way to produce ammonia they're on to a winner.

Have a look at this:

OK. This is the Haber process, invented during WW1 by the Germans. I presume there are better ways to make it now? Anyway - it's not without it's energy cost. Add to that the energy costs involved in harvesting the basic ingredients.

That's what makes finding clean energy sources so difficult - scientists have often thought they've craked it until they find out that something else fucks 'em over.

Having said that, as long as the energy sums all add up, I'm all for it - and chances are creating ammonia is a damn sight less energy intensive than catalytic cracking



Edit: Aargh. Beaten to my point by 5 mins!

 

[old.Tohtori]

Wow! Germans invented tripod allready in WW1?!

 

[Ormorof]

ammonia is produced at a huge scale already anyway as its used in fertilisers (a quick google search gave me the figure of 106 megatons produced in 1998, this with china booming is likely to have increased and could probably easily be increased).

the haber process (or a tweaked version of it) is still used in industry as far as im aware, they just fiddle the pressure and temperature to get a higher yield

 

[Whipped]

Couldn't you just pee on it?