



Is Professor Nocera's solar brew a savior or a wishful thinking?














Comments     Threshold


RE: So...
By Suntan on 11/25/2008 1:39:00 PM , Rating: 2
Normal hydrogen stations have to have their tanks made out of the same metals as the electrodes and have to use expensive catalysts. Not very cheap.

Odd, that's not how we did it in college. We just dipped an electrode and an anode into a pirex glass of water (laced with acid to make it more conductive.) Your talking fud if you think you need a tank made of platnum for electrolysis.


RE: So...
By Solandri on 11/25/2008 8:39:07 PM , Rating: 2
The rate at which you're driving the electrolysis depends partly on the surface area of the exposed metals. So either you dip big platinum sheets into the solution (sheet = lots of surface area), or you use the same amount of platinum to line the inside of the tank. The latter setup is generally cleaner and less prone to short circuiting. So no you don't have to use tanks made out of the metal, but it's usually the most cost- and time-efficient if you do.

RE: So...
By FishTankX on 11/26/2008 7:50:02 AM , Rating: 2
The thing is, when you use other catalysts for the electrolysis, they degrade. Some more rapidly than others. As far as I know, platinum does not degrade in electrolysis.

And I'm sorry, I mis spoke

When I said that I was misinterpreting what I read.

Infact, a big part of the capital costs that make the electrolyzers expensive is the need to build alot of the machines out of metal that is resistant to the strongly alkaline sollutios used in the electrolyzing process.

The new GM system, refrenced in the article in which I misinterpreted the information, uses a plastic that fits the bill just as well.

However, i'm not sure if this breakthrough negates the need to use platinum as a catalyst. However, the GM breakthrough certainley brings down the capital costs to build comercial electroloyzers.

