SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
A cheap, emissions-free device that uses a 1.5-volt AAA battery to split water into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis has been developed by scientists at Stanford University ( http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/august/splitter-clean-fuel-082014.html ).
Unlike other water splitters that use precious-metal catalysts, the electrodes in the Stanford device are made of inexpensive, abundant nickel and iron.
“This is the first time anyone has used non-precious metal catalysts to split water at a voltage that low,” said Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford. “It’s quite remarkable, because normally you need expensive metals, like platinum or iridium, to achieve that voltage.”
http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-low-cost-water-splitter-that-runs-on-an-ordinary-aaa-battery
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140822/ncomms5695/full/ncomms5695.html
(Score: 1, Interesting) by tftp on Monday August 25 2014, @02:58AM
It also has very high energy density by weight - 142 MJ/kg. In comparison, diesel is only 45 MJ/kg. So the problems may be worth while trying to overcome.
Perhaps. I don't want to sound too negative on Hydrogen energy storage. However anyone can easily imagine a small can with a bit more than a liter of diesel fuel, and anyone can hold it in one hand. What will it take to capture and store a kilogram of Hydrogen, the lightest chemical element? At pressure of 1 atmosphere it would be a balloon that contains 12 thousand liters, or 3200 gallons. This is why one has to carry Hydrogen in liquid form, or as slush (still experimental,) or as a bomb (a high pressure tank.) Filling with such fuel is also more complex than merely sticking a hose into a hole. I cannot even imagine what kind of a connector will repeatedly survive 10,000 psi while being operated by an untrained car owner, and what kind of reinforced hose will it require. Any crack in any of that will blow up pretty good; a cloud of Hydrogen will be released. If fueling is done in a confined space, the operator may suffocate. If any spark is found, the thing will explode like thermobaric ordnance.