New technology converts seawater into hydrogen fuel
Fuel from hydrogen is often considered the fuel of the future, especially since its emissions, which are of water vapor, are much less problematic for the environment than fossil fuel emissions.
But there is a problem with this fuel, especially related to the costs of production and the methods to create it. Faced with this problem, a new alternative has been proposed.
Hydrogen fuel is created from sea water
The new proposal comes from a researcher at the University of Central Florida named Yang Yang who claims to have developed a hybrid nanomaterial that uses solar energy to convert seawater into hydrogen fuel.
Yang has been working for approximately 10 years on the development of this new mechanism, along with several other researchers who also take years of effort looking for an alternative to the expensive methods that are used today.
The new way of using solar energy to make the division between hydrogen and oxygen is really new, especially because it works with seawater. For Yang, "a new window has been opened to divide the real water and not just purified laboratory water."
In order to do this, Yang would need a more powerful photocatalyst than the ones commonly used because sea water is much more complex and imperfect than water used in laboratories. For that photocatalyst, the new hybrid nanomaterial arrived. The division between hydrogen and oxygen is responsible for the energy of this fuel.
This novel nanomaterial is a kind of thin sheet of titanium dioxide that has nanocavity coated with molybdenum disulfide. This material is much more effective than others because it can convert wavelengths of light that other materials can not.
In the event that this nanomaterial could be used on a large scale, it could generate a large amount of renewable energy by replacing fossil fuels, making these less harmful fuels a response to the dangers of climate change. Being able to finally reach the development of hydrogen fuel would be important for our planet, after so many years of searching.
What do you think about the development of this new nanomaterial, capable of boosting the development of hydrogen fuel?
Hi thanks for the post, very interesting development. I think its success is certainly going to be driven by the costs that imply the production of such fuel. Its said but economics will play a bigger role in decisiom making, for politicians and even more for the corporations. Lets follow this story closely.