An Italian Laser Finds how to Produce Hydrogen from Water
An Italian research team has developed a technique that could be used to make clean fuel from water. The method discovered by researcher Roberto Bini and his team from the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy - University of Florence, uses lasers to produce hydrogen from water under high pressure.
”There is no other chemical agent involved in the process - not solvents, catalysts or radial initiators,” said Roberto Bini. “This is extremely important because it means that at the end of the process there are no substances left to separate, treat or dispose of. In effect, the costs are reduced and there is zero-impact on the environment”.
The starting point for the technique is irradiating the water with a laser: ”The light excites the water molecules, which produce hydroxyl radicals and hydrogen atoms,” Roberto Bini explained. This separation usually lasts only a few quadrillionths of a second before the parts recombine but the Florence team found a way around this problem. They realized that by applying the laser in high-pressure conditions - around 1,000 atmospheres - the separation lasts far longer. This means that large-volume pressurized irradiation reactors could be used for a number of chemical processes, including the generation of hydrogen for use as fuel.
According to Bini, because the laser uses near-ultraviolet radiation, sunlight could in theory eventually be used to obtain the same result. ”Currently, about 96% of hydrogen comes from non-renewable sources, such as carbon and hydrocarbon, and just 4% from water,” said Bini. He admitted the process still needed work but said he was optimistic about future developments.
”A great many more studies will be needed to verify the system but there is the real prospect that one day we will be able to produce clean fuel, hydrogen, using nothing more than sunlight and damp air as raw materials,” he said.
Image courtesy of Elijah85’s photostream on Flickr under Creative Commons
Wait, so using the world’s most critical dwindling resource (fresh WATER) is not an environmental impact? “the generation of hydrogen for use as fuel.”
Unless you’re using sea water, this is a horrible use for water. We need water for a million higher purposes before we should use it for FUEL.
yeah. save the water. they gonna consume all the water like they dit with fossil fuels.
H2,O2 Fuel of the future!recombines to form H2O so fear not! It is merely a means of storing Solar, Wind, Wave, Tidal, Hydro, nuclear fission, fusion - electric energy for mobile and “Peak” use. A practical means of storing the two gasses until used in a combustion engine, or more likely a fuel cell and electric motor, are still being explored, and there are many new ideas, none dominant for all purposes is available, The economical separation of water is the first step in a series of evolutionary steps towards an economy less primitive than the current oil based one. We have no more trees to cut, coal to mine, oil to pump, Uranium is relatively rare on earth and very dangerous to use, and little else but Solar, Wind, Wave, Hydro, Tidal,and geo-thermal remain! We are transitioning from the “Cheap Oil Era” and the age of high personal mobility as it is! Soon Factory Dorms will replace parking lots and suburbs, Cafeterias, in-house and on the factory floors, will be the new normal, 8 to 5 jobs will vanish, folks will work on two or three month in house contracts, and society as we know it, McMansions, SUV’s and all will morph in an unprecedented paradigm shift, and the “American Dream” will be no more! This is the current living reality for many Chinese and Asians as we speak. The success of this model is astounding, and here to fore unrivaled in manufacturing history! Expect it to become the answer to our economic dilemma! Expect H2O2 to replace carbon fuels soon. Watch the deserts for solar furnaces, the skylines for Wind turbines, any new oil discovered must be devoted to building these! The truth about human cancers - benzine rings from petroleum products is out! Look to cement highways, not asfault, and a whole range of changes chemically as we move away from the dwindling and increasingly expensive oil, and on to the perpetual power of the sun, and the earths rotation, and tap into these for a more peaceful world.
Seriously? Save the water? That is officially the most idiotic comment on the internet. Congratulations!