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Artificial leaf creates electricity

Started by DouginUtah, March 28, 2011, 09:56:43 PM

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DouginUtah

-Doug
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There is no need to say 'unleaded regular gas'. It's all unleaded. Just say 'regular gas'. It's not the 70s anymore. (At least that's what my wife tells me.)

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SPIKER

too bad they are selling the tech to TATA motors, (Indian "the country not native peoples" motor car maker).   seems like it might be a great thing to get into...

mark
I'm looking for help all the shrinks have given up on me :o

fishpharmer

Great concept and interesting stuff.  Not sure how the leaf produces electricity from the hydrogen and oxygen.  The article is vague about the details.   
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SwampDonkey

This has been released about 3 years ago now and a group is working on scaling it up. I believe it's just a photoelectric cell rigged up to water that liberates the hydrogen. "Nova Science Now" had a show on it and other innovations this winter.

Joint Centre for Artificial Photosynthesis

http://solarfuelshub.org
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Brucer

Quote from: fishpharmer on March 28, 2011, 10:58:31 PM
... Not sure how the leaf produces electricity from the hydrogen and oxygen. ...

The leaf breaks water down into hydrogen and oxygen. Those gases are then fed into a conventional fuel cell to make electricity. It's a bit misleading to say that it produces electricity directly.

The first "artificial leaf" was invented a decade ago. It wasn't very practical because it was made from expensive materials and only lasted one day.

The new design uses common metals and as of yesterday had been working for 45 hours. That, apparently, makes it practical.
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

Ironwood

I saw that a few years back, they talked about covering the outsides of buildings and how it would look "natural" and provide all the electricity needs for the structure in time.

Ironwood
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Bill

I'm not very well versed in all this but it does sound interesting. What I'd heard up till now was that it took more energy to separate hydrogen and oxygen than you could get back when you generated power ( electricity from recombining the H and O ) . The important piece seemed to be to find a way for Mother Nature to do the work of splitting hydrogen and oxygen and then just reap the electricity on the other side. Neat if they can get that to happen.


Ianab

QuoteWhat I'd heard up till now was that it took more energy to separate hydrogen and oxygen than you could get back when you generated power

That's till true, but if you are collecting "free" energy in the form of sunlight and using that to create your H2 on O2, then it's not an issue if it's not 100% efficient.

Ian
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Brucer

Quote from: Bill on April 11, 2011, 10:23:45 PM
... What I'd heard up till now was that it took more energy to separate hydrogen and oxygen than you could get back when you generated power ( electricity from recombining the H and O ) .

Yeah, it's called the second law of thermodynamics ;D.

In practical terms, every time you convert energy from one form to another, you lose a little energy (or sometimes a lot) in the form of heat. That's OK if you're trying to heat something.
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

anne929

Very interesting and certainly has a lot of potential. I hope this technology can be developed much further and be of more benefit to mankind. From what I've read, it uses the natural process of photosynthesis to turn sunlight and water into a clean fuel source. It splits water into hydrogen and oxygen which is very difficult to do because water molecules are very stable.
Scientists are still developing artificial analogies of the enzyme, called photosystem 2, which will be used to split water. I hope they perfect it soon. :)

SwampDonkey

Would come in handy to make a settlement on the moon if they find enough water. Won't need to worry about watering plants, but will get fuel and oxygen. Not that I will be going up there, I'm fine down here. But, makes for interesting times ahead.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

maple flats

I have an uncle (93 yrs old), a Dr of geology and retired head of the US sizemelogical (spelling) service or whatever they call it and I have always considered him very intelligent. He told me a few weeks ago, that he envisions huge wind farms on the ocean, using the elec. to produce hydrogen and oxygen from the sea water. He said this will then be piped onshore to fire generators to produce our energy needs. He also thinks extra hydrogen will be produced and compressed for use to power our cars.
I will not say this leaf works or doesn't yet, but things LIKE this will boggle our mind and eventually solve our energy needs, things we consider Star Treky, but that is where inventions are developed.
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shelbycharger400

QuoteFor now, Nocera is setting his sights on developing countries. "Our goal is to make each home its own power station," he said. "One can envision villages in India and Africa not long from now purchasing an affordable basic power system based on this technology."

soon as the gov gets wind of this being practical... they will BAN it, making it illegal here in us....  cause they cant collect taxes on it.

few years ago, an individual from overseas made a self generating station .. all self contained,  it had a flywheel, rare earth magnets, some sort of rotational mass,  their was a show on it on cable...ect,  buddy told me bout it...   and they said that the pattent was baned from good old usa.
I dont remember what it was called anymore, but it was removed from viewable ect..   

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