Hydrogen from Water
Creating hydrogen from water is no big deal. For at least the past
200 years man has been doing this and running it through internal
combustion engine to power vehicles. Francois Isaac de Rivaz from
Switzerland did this first in 1807.
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Hydrogen from Water
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Hydrogen from water usually involves either electrolysis or the
use of a chemical reaction. Let's start with electrolysis. As many
people learn in their high school chemistry classes hydrogen can
be created by running an electric current through water. The H20
is split into its components of hydrogen and oxygen.
The hydrogen can then be separated out and used for fuel or for
other means such as hydrogenating food products. As electrolysis
of distilled water usually takes a large amount of energy, most
manufacturers of hydrogen from water products usually use either
a catalyst or an electrolyte or both.
A catalyst such as platinum or some other metal is often used to
make hydrogen from water as it helps loosen the bonds between the
hydrogen and oxygen atoms so less electricity will then be used
in the process driving down costs.
Some manufacturers prefer to use an electrolyte in the water such
as baking soda, potassium hydroxide (KOH) or sodium hydroxide (NaOH
or lye) in order to loosen the atomic bonds in water. Be using an
electrolyte such as this when making hydrogen from water, occasional
cleanup will be needed along with monitoring the strength of the
solution.
Hydrogen from water using electrolysis can be very cost effective
if renewable resources are used. For instance, if solar, wind, geothermal
or hydroelectric resources are used to generate the electricity
to split the H2O, this will be very economical indeed.
Some people think of hydrogen from water as a clean battery storage
solution. For instance, hydrogen can be created when there is an
over abundance of solar or wind energy and then stored for night
or times of low wind. Hydrogen can then be run through a fuel cell
to create electricity for just these times.
With T. Boone Pickens calling for thousands of wind turbines to
be put up in the U. S. wind corridor in the Midwest, a hydrogen
storage solution will also be part of this equation. As you can
see, created hydrogen from water has been around for at least a
couple of centuries and going forward one can expect to see much
more of this technology.
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