Technology Review has a really interesting post about some solar research being funded with grants from NASA and the Department of Energy (DOE).
Nanoptek, based in Maynard, MA has a found a possible solution to how to store solar energy for our use during those times when the sun doesn't shine, like nighttime.
Their solar process actually uses a cheap and abundant material called titania to split water into hydrogen and oxygen when exposed to light. Once split, hydrogen can be burned to heat our home or stored in storage tanks for later use.
Sounds to good to be true doesn't it, but if we are to believe the Department of Energy (DOE) they are making progress since the DOE recently renewed their grant for further development of the process.
If the Carbon Tax is passed by the current congress or a future congress, going to pure hydrogen sounds like a really good idea, and hydrogen can also be used to generate electricity via fuel cells, and power cars. Even if the collector looks like we trying to track Sputnik or find E.T.
From Technology Review - Cheap Hydrogen:
Nanoptek's approach uses insights from the semiconductor industry to make titania absorb more sunlight. Guerra says that chip makers have long known that straining a material so that its atoms are slightly pressed together or pulled apart alters the material's electronic properties. He found that depositing a coating of titania on dome-like nanostructures caused the atoms to be pulled apart. "When you pull the atoms apart, less energy is required to knock the electrons out of orbit," he says. "That means you can use light with lower energy--which means visible light" rather than just ultraviolet light.I wish Nanoptek Godspeed in their efforts, the faster we find the anwser to fossil fuel addiction the better for all of us. I really would love to tell the Middle East to keep their oil where it belongs, buried deep in the ground. Sphere: Related ContentThe strain on the atoms also affects the way that electrons move through the material. Too much strain, and the electrons tend to be reabsorbed by the material before they split water. Guerra says that the company has had to find a balance between absorbing more sunlight and allowing the electrons to move freely out of the material. Nanoptek has also developed cheaper ways to manufacture the nanostructured materials. Initially, the company used DVD manufacturing processes, but it has since moved on to a still-cheaper proprietary process.
NREL's John Turner says that Nanoptek's process is "very, very promising." And Harriet Kung, the acting director of the DOE's office of basic energy sciences, which has funded Nanoptek's work, says that the strained-titania approach is "one of the major exciting advances" since titania was first discovered to be a photocatalyst in the 1970s.
If it works as expected, the technology could help address one of the fundamental problems with using hydrogen as fuel. Hydrogen is attractive because it is light, and burning it only produces water. But today most hydrogen is made from natural gas, a process that releases considerable amounts of carbon dioxide. The other main option is electrolysis. But even if it's powered by clean energy, such as electricity from photovoltaics, electrolysis is inefficient and expensive. Guerra says using strained titania, and Nanoptek's inexpensive manufacturing process, makes the process cheap and efficient enough to compete with processes that create hydrogen from natural gas. What's more, Guerra says, the Nanoptek technology can be located closer to customers than large-scale natural-gas processes, which could significantly reduce transportation costs, thereby helping make the technology attractive. And if in the future carbon emissions are taxed or regulated, Nanoptek's carbon-free approach is another advantage.
Turner says that in addition to making hydrogen for fuel-cell vehicles, Nanoptek's process--if it is indeed efficient and inexpensive, as the company claims--could also be important for large-scale solar electricity. If solar is ever to be a dominant source of power, finding ways of storing the energy for night use will be essential. And hydrogen, he says, could be a good way to store it.
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