Earth Sciences Forum

Baywax · Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 113 Location: Pacific West Coast

What's the hold up with fuel cell technology?

As far as I know there are several types of fuels to use in passing hydrogen through the membrane.... thus creating a charge and working energy.

The argument that hydrogen is too costly to produce is bogus. There are chemical processes that give off free hydrogen without using any electricity... today that hydrogen is burnt off.

In extracting hydrogen from, say, water, electricity is required which leads me to my next question...

Whats the hold up with solar energy?

_________________
Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory. Leonardo Da Vinci

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.
W.C. Fields

scpg02 · Joined: 22 Jul 2007 Posts: 221 Location: Sacramento

http://www.comcast.net/news/scien...CE&fn=/2006/11/27/529719.html

Professor Devises New Form of Solar Cell

LEWISTON, Idaho - A University of Idaho professor is devising a new form of solar cell she says could lead to a breakthrough that would make solar energy commercially feasible.

Chemist Pam Shapiro, her graduate students and her colleagues at the university are working on creating better materials and combining them in new ways that could more than double the efficiency of present solar cells. If successful, she said the new technology could help the U.S. break its oil dependency.

"People are trying to make solar cells that are more efficient," Shapiro told The Lewiston Tribune. "But it's so much cheaper to use fossil fuels, despite all the obvious advantages of solar cell technology."

So far, Shapiro's team has created a compound called a "quantum dot" that is made of elements that include copper, indium and selenium. Shapiro said that the quantum dots would be embedded between layers of a solar cell and would absorb energy that is otherwise wasted due to overheating.

"These solar cells based on quantum dots aim to make better use of that excess energy," Shapiro said.

She said her team has created the quantum dots, but that a working prototype is years away and completion will likely require the combined skills and knowledge of her colleagues at the school.

"Collaboration is a big thing," she said. "Funding agencies are encouraging it. You have to be a jack of all trades, and a master of none."

Some of the research money for the program comes from a federal and state partnership called Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. Federal money must be matched by state money.

Don Evans is the outreach specialist for the program and has asked state lawmakers to visit the university so that matching funds from the state can be approved and research on the solar cells can continue.

Sen. Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston, and Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, have both visited the school. Ringo, a member of the joint House-Senate appropriations committee, recently visited UI materials scientist Eric Aston.

"It was enormously interesting for me," Ringo said. "I think it underscored for me the importance of keeping those research dollars coming."

Latecommer · Joined: 26 Jul 2007 Posts: 45 Location: Central California

More efficient solar cells could make global warming more attractive...to bad it seems to be cooling.
_________________
If you don't know where you are going, any road will lead you there

Andre · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 7:00 pm Post subject:

John L · Joined: 03 Nov 2007 Posts: 21

I'd say that the basic development of the fuel cell is there already, but it could be made more efficient.

However, in order to plug in the process from start to finish, any choke point in the chain will slow down the entire process. What I am talking about is the production of hydrogen, through the breakdown of H2O. Accomplishing this is energy intensive, and obtaining hydrogen requires more energy than it uses up. Therefore, the cost of producing hydrogen in large quantities is not economical feasable. Remember, it is economics, not science, that is the main mover in this world.

However, there is one viable alternative, but it has fallen into disrepute until lately. And by that I am talking about nuclear fission. Nuclear fission generates tremendous heat, on a consistant basis, and is the most economical means of seperating hydrogen from H2O. The initial investment is huge, but once the unit is complete, the costs are minimal to other energy generators. If more countries are to do something about hydrogen fuel, then it is imperative that they get in the nuclear energy bandwagon. Either that, or forget about it as a fuel of the future.

Andre · Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 2:50 pm Post subject:

Agreeing on most but economics ruling the world. What really rules the world is groupthink. Groupthink also causes the global aversion against nuclear fission.

See the thread about Sandy.
_________________
Moderator of http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/climatesceptics/

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia."

Charley Brown

Baywax · Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 113 Location: Pacific West Coast

And exploration, extraction and refinement of fossil fuels does not come into account when figuring the cost of a fuel or source of mobility? Not to mention the environmental costs which, at the moment, are being passed on to tiny little children who are not born yet.

_________________
Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory. Leonardo Da Vinci

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.
W.C. Fields