MIT makes energy breakthrough
Scientists at MIT have figured out a way to mimic a plant’s energy storage using ordinary materials in ordinary conditions. While the article suffers from the usual this-discovery-will-save-the-world hyperbole, it is nevertheless an important breakthrough. The ability to cheaply electrolyse water into hydrogen and oxygen means we can store solar power more readily without the losses current storage technologies suffer from.
The key component in Nocera and Kanan’s new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity — whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source — runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.
Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.
The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it’s easy to set up, Nocera said. “That’s why I know this is going to work. It’s so easy to implement,” he said.
What they fail to point out is that we still need more efficient ways of capturing that sunlight and turning it into electricity. However, with the storage problem disappearing, solar PV research may see a renaissance beyond recent breakthroughs like Nanosolar’s.
Peak fossil fuels this century mean that humanity is in dire need of an energy source upgrade if our highly complex societies are not to give way to the laws of entropy. The sun is the one thing we can count on to supply our needs. This is just the sort of breakthrough we need to keep the lights on for our children.
August 1st, 2008 at 8:35 pm
I agree about the hyperbole. “Mimic a plant’s enregy storage” is a bit misleading, given that plants don’t use electricity.
Current electrolysis systems are achieving 70-80% efficiency, so this may not be as big a breakthrough as they suggest. The bigger problems are in converting hydrogen to useful energy, which this does not address.
Trevor.
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:18 am
As I see it the solution to converting hydrogen to useful energy is to blend it with piped natural gas and simply burn it in uncomplicated appliances like cookers, in-line water heaters and co-generation central heating furnaces.
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:51 am
It doesn’t really sound like an energy breakthrough, unless the process is more efficient than what electrolysis can currently achieve (the article didn’t mention if this was the case or not).
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:14 pm
I have to agree with Samiuela. All it is is another way to convert energy in the single most easily-used form (electricity) into another form which has advantages in some situations but is generally a less useful form.
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:17 pm
and if we need energy in the form of burnable gas rather than electricity, by far the most efficient way to achieve this in the short term would be to stop burning natural gas to generate electricity.
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:28 pm
or just flaring it off into nothing.
August 2nd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
samiuela - this is a far more energy efficient method of electrolysis that what we currently have, using widely available materials. It is a breakthrough of sorts, just not the silver bullet that these things always claim that they will be. It would still require a massive square metre area of solar PV to provide enough electricity to be converted for a home environment. That is not practical or economic as yet.
August 2nd, 2008 at 5:37 pm
still don’t reckon it could get you 3 joules of gas for every one joule of electricity, which is what you could get by closing down the whirinaki power station. (-;
August 2nd, 2008 at 10:59 pm
kahikatea - just to be contrary, you would get 3 joules of diesel for each joule of electricity if you shut down Whirinaki. In fact, you’d get more than 3 joules.
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:28 am
I don’t see this as a breakthrough since they are talking about using platinum as catalyst.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:35 am
It’s hard to read much into this. The details appear to be purposefully obscured or it was written by someone just starting as a journalist. It is clearly describing use of a catalyst that is NOT platinum to make Oxygen from water. What it is not doing is describing the reaction that is making that happen. I am incapable of understanding a method that makes ONLY O2 from H2O… and that is what is described here and then another reaction produces the H2????. I suspect that the article itself is at fault.
The simplest method of understanding this as a breakthrough is to recognize that the existing catalyst and reactions using Platinum are long and well known. That could not be the breakthrough. The reaction described as taking part in two stages is impossible in terms of physical chemistry. Making O2 HAS to make H2 at the same time.
respectfully
BJ
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Look to the source - the paper which will, or has been published, not the amateurish (US) report.
August 3rd, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Treehugger has a podcast interview with Nocera.
August 5th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
# frog Says:
August 2nd, 2008 at 10:59 pm
> kahikatea - just to be contrary, you would get 3 joules of diesel for each joule of electricity if you shut down Whirinaki. In fact, you’d get more than 3 joules.
Oops
And Whirinaki was also a bad example for me to use because it’s only a peaking generator.
August 6th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
“Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.”
One day we will have to face the issue of property rights to sunlight.
August 6th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I read about the problem of replicating photosynthesis in New Scientist> was a mystery how it occured at room temperature.