#74 on Discover's Top 100 Science Stories of 2009 is hydrogen power.
The only "waste" created by hydrogen fuel cells are water and heat. This makes them tremendously attractive as energy producers. Two of the main problems are that they currently require expensive platinum catalysts and the source is often fossil fuels.
Jean-Pol Dodelet of the National Institute of Scientific Research in Quebec has looked to the human body for inspiration. Within our organic construct, iron-based molecules extract energy from food. Dodelet and his team are looking at enhanced iron-based catalysts to use in fuels cells. It works just as well as platinum but is obviously less expensive.
MIT's Daniel Nocero is also using nature for his work, this time looking at plants. When his catalyst is combined with photovoltaic cells like the ones used in solar panels, it splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, mimicking photosynthesis. He wants to use this technology to provide power to those living off the grid.
With Nocera's system, only dependency is on the sun.
The only "waste" created by hydrogen fuel cells are water and heat. This makes them tremendously attractive as energy producers. Two of the main problems are that they currently require expensive platinum catalysts and the source is often fossil fuels.
Jean-Pol Dodelet of the National Institute of Scientific Research in Quebec has looked to the human body for inspiration. Within our organic construct, iron-based molecules extract energy from food. Dodelet and his team are looking at enhanced iron-based catalysts to use in fuels cells. It works just as well as platinum but is obviously less expensive.
MIT's Daniel Nocero is also using nature for his work, this time looking at plants. When his catalyst is combined with photovoltaic cells like the ones used in solar panels, it splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, mimicking photosynthesis. He wants to use this technology to provide power to those living off the grid.
With Nocera's system, only dependency is on the sun.
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